Patent ID: 7024457

Claim:
A method for synchronizing e-mail messages for a user, comprising: (A) receiving, at an e-mail control at a local server, a plurality of e-mail messages addressed to the user, from an external e-mail server; (B) storing, by the e-mail control, each e-mail message of the plurality of e-mail messages, in a consolidated e-mail storage at the local server that reflects a last updated combined e-mail for the user; (C) storing, by the e-mail control, a message identifier for each e-mail message, in a message identifier storage at the local server; (D) determining whether an e-mail message in the consolidated e-mail storage has been deleted from the external e-mail server by comparing message identifiers in the message identifier storage to message identifiers in e-mail received from the external e-mail server, and if so, then deleting the e-mail message from the consolidated e-mail storage of the local server; performing (A), (B), (C), and (D) for at least one next external e-mail server; and responsive to a user command, providing e-mail messages from the consolidated e-mail storage, to the user.