How can I configure Mail to not receive older emails?

Mail>Preferences>Accounts>Advanced. Check the box, "Remove copy from server..."

To get a me.com email address, open System Preferences and open the iCloud icon. Sign into it with your Apple ID and it should guide you to set up an email account.

Once the account is set up, check the preferences in iCloud to use Mail. It will automatically be configured for you in the Mail application.

And, as Sig said, set the Mailbox behaviors for the hotmail account to delete the messages from the server once downloaded.

You can't specifi that by date. If you can log into a website, delete the old ones.

Or create a rule to specifi an action for downloading messages a certain number of day old from when it was sent.

Either way, it will have to download all of them since the computer doesn't have a database saying they were already downloaded.

Another option is to let them download, create a smart mailbox to identify messages older than a specified amount of time, and then delete them withing the Smart Mailbox.

I thing you understand what server means. I assume you have a POP account. Anytime you add a POP account to a different computer, it will download every message from the server. There is no way around that unless you call the provider and ask them if there is something they can do. Storing messages on a server in a POP account is not a good idea in my opinion. Others may differ on this. Unless you have a paid account, there is probably a limit on how much you can store. Maybe hotmail doesn't have a limit. But you will still have to download all the messages anytime you connect the account to a different computer.

Downloaded messages are stored in a file as they come into the account so they don't get redownloaded each time. Since that file doesn't exist on a different computer, it will treat each as a new message that hasn't been downloaded.

So, if you want to leave them on the server, let them download. Use the smart mailbox to locate the older messages and delete them. A better option is to create a local mailbox on the computer and move them to it. If you have a backup plan, then they will be backed up. That way you have an additional copy.

As for the other question, I don't understand why it didn't give you the option to create the email. Are you sure you don't have one? Try signing into iCloud.com website and open Mail there. See if it gives you the option to create an account. If you already have a me.com address, mail will open there and you can see what it is.

Yes it will stop them from redownloading. Read the post above. Once a message is downloaded to that computer, it will log it into a file that it has been downloaded.

For rules, choose date sent is greater than XX, then choose the action. You can delete or move them to a local folder.

Smart mailbox, some procedure. Probably easiest to do. You can't put an action to a smart mailbox as it is just a search device. Messages remain in the mailbox that they are located in. But, you can select all within the smart mailbox at one time, show them as read, move or delete them.

Yes you are correct. My eyes were playing tricks.

I have the oposite problem, I have readded a hotmail email account and the old messages did NOT load. How can I load them onto my mac mail?

ChelsShack wrote:

I have the oposite problem, I have readded a hotmail email account and the old messages did NOT load. How can I load them onto my mac mail?

If you had previously read them in a mail client they are marked as read on the server and will not download again (limitations of POP are a pain). Go to your mail on the website and mark them all as unread. If you have previously deleted them from the server they are no longer accessible.

Glenn Leblanc wrote:

I thing you understand what server means. I assume you have a POP account.

Maybe hotmail doesn't have a limit.

Hi Glenn

FYI Hotmail storage limit is (was) 7G, POP only (except for smartthings).

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