Outlook and IMAP - Outlook doesn't allow the Drafts and Trash folders to sync with the respective IMAP folders

Solution 1:

Slight correction, you can change the Trash/Deleted folder as well, indicated by the screenshot below. The only folders you can't remap is the Drafts and Junk Mail folders.

As for the rest of the question:

No

There is no workaround. I have found this frustrating myself and the same behavior exists in Office 2011 for the Mac. There was a workaround for 2003 but it fails in 2007 and higher.

As for why, any reasons except an official response from Microsoft would be purely speculative. I am guessing it is due to the way office rules are linked to the folder locations.

Solution 2:

A possible work around would be to impliment a rule or macro to copy the contents of your outlook data file draft folder to the imap draft folder.

Having said this, I cannot find a rule that acts on messages within a folder. Does anyone know how to do this?

(PS I would really prefer to have enterred this as a comment, not an answer, but I don't have enough points for this. It would be great to get bumped up a little. Thanks.)