Archive IMAP email

Csound1 wrote:

Make a new local (on my mac) folder and drag the imap account mailboxes you wish to keep into it.

When I do this it seems to happen instantly which makes me wonder if it's actually copying anything. Also, if I right click on the folder and select "Get Account Info" it shows info for the IMAP server. This leads me to wonder if it's a copy or just a mirror/alias/link to the folder on the IMAP server as opposed to a local copy.

Edit: after some experimenting, it doesn't appear the local "On My Mac" folders are updated when I change the IMAP folders. Also, it appeears that if you "Get Account Info" for any "On My Mac" folder, it simply shows you the info for the default account. I changed the default from the account I'm backing up to a gmail account, and now all the local folders show gmail account info. A bit confusing, but I'm starting to beleive these really are local copies.

Message was edited by: Markarian421

Hmm, hit a bit of a roadblock. One folder had a little over 1300 messages, when I drag the folder the copy has about 1200, it's missing over 100 messages. I tried a few times, same thing, it wouldn't copy all the messages.

Then I used the web interface to check the account directly, and found that there were actually 1400 messages in that folder, so even the 1300+ number was missing messages. I started checking other folders and found the same thing -- Apple Mail isn't downloading all the emails on the server. Which is annoying both because it's not downloading all the email that's there and because it means I can't use it to back up that email account.

Curiously if I check "Get Account Info" and look at the Quotas section, it lists the correct number of email messages for each folder. Also, if I have it rebuild a folder, the "Incoming messages" progress bar at the bottom left shows the correct number. But once it's done, several emails that I can view on the web interface simply don't appear in Apple Mail.

It looks like I need to research fixes for Apple Mail (and/or other email clients) before trying to back up my email. Something's not working right in Apple Mail.