Mac Mail Archive folder

Archiving mail messages instead of deleting them will take up more space in your email service (iCloud, Gmail, etc.), and will take up more space on your Mac. Your Mac should automatically remove emails from its hard drive if storage space runs low, but email messages will stay in your email provider's Archive mailbox.

Additionally, you shouldn't have to back up your email if your emails are stored with your cloud provider. If you use iCloud Mail, you can restore your Mac and your emails will come back after signing back into iCloud.

If you are signed into the same account, actions on your email on your Mac should be reflected on your iPhone, iPad, and other devices.

The archive folder does not "double" emails if they are moved to the folder. If they are copied to the folder, the messages will be duplicated.

Hey Rolf!

Good question. Was the reason for backing up to reset your Mac because of storage issues?

Besides using Time Machine to backup, you can also select each Mailbox you want to save a copy of, and select Mailbox > Export Mailbox, to save a copy of the data:

Import or export mailboxes in Mail on Mac:

https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/import-or-export-mailboxes-mlhlp1030/mac

Of course if you’re worried about storage, this would take some, but typically not too much.

Likewise, if you have an IMAP account, (Which most email providers offer nowadays), the data should remain on the email provider’s server regardless, unless deleted by you, (Or you used your storage quota).

And also as indicated earlier,I do believe moving a message to the “Archive” folder for most devices and providers, is meant to save a hard copy of the emails, as a backup.

Likewise, can you say how you determined that the attachments are not stored in your backup?

Cheers, happy to help out if I can.

Hey again!

Can you, in Apple Mail, right click the Inbox, or other Mailbox, select Get Account Info, (I believe).

From there, you can choose an email address and it will show the quota for each, how much free space you have for each account, and what mailboxes are using the most.

I find it useful at times, but maybe it’s an account quota issue, if not, let me know!