Locally Saving Copies of some IMAP Mail Folders in MacOS X Mail App - then remove that content from server

Question

Locally Saving Copies of some IMAP Mail Folders in MacOS X Mail App - then remove that content from server

My IMAP mail server is indicating that the disc quota is almost full and I want to keep some of the mail in those folders in local archives after deleting them from the server. Is there a process for doing this? It appears that the only way IMAP can reduce server storage consuption is by deleting content on the server. Is there a way to move folders from the IMAP server to my local hard drive?

I would like to do one of the following:

Move mail messages from my inbox to a "copy to my local hard drive" folder --> then copy that folder to my local hard drive in an "archives" folder --> then delete the "copy to my local hard drive" folder from the IMAP server
Do all the steps in [1] locally within my MacOS X mail folders and then delete the (now) duplicate content up on the IMAP server
Find some features that I may have missed in the MacOS X mail application that allow me to do either [1] or [2] from menu options

thanks

iPhone 4S, iOS 5, MacOS X

Posted on Jun 21, 2013 7:55 AM

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Answer 1

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Jun 21, 2013 8:07 AM in response to Robert Stephens

Not sure about Mac mail but with outlook you create a local folder, not a IMAP folder, and copy the mail into that. Then once copied to the local folder you can delete it from the IMAP folder/s and it whould be deleted from the server. Although mac mail isn't good at removing emails from the IMAP servers so you might want to check the webmail interface to delete.

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Answer 2

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Jun 21, 2013 8:14 AM in response to Robert Stephens

Moving mail to a local folder will remove it from the Imap server.

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Answer 3

Jun 21, 2013 3:05 PM in response to Csound1

So how do I create a local folder from within the MacOS X Mail app that will not show up on the IMAP server? Will any of the following selections from the MacOS X Mail app "Mailbox" menu accomplish this?

create a "New Smart Mailbox Folder..." from the Mailbox menu
create a "New Mailbox"
create a "New Smart Mailbox"

thanks

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Answer 4

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Jun 21, 2013 3:14 PM in response to Robert Stephens

Option 2, create it in the On My Mac group (account)

Please note that Smart Mailboxes are not Mailboxes, they are a search.

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Answer 5

Jun 21, 2013 3:27 PM in response to Csound1

ok, tried Option-2 and that looks like it worked (after I highlighted all the filtered messages in the inbox and "two finger tapped" on the multi-selection to bring up the menu allowing me to "move to folder").

One final question 0 how do you select "On My Mac group (account)" when using Option-2. When I did this by "two finger tapping" in the folder tree to bring up the pop-up menu with the "New Mailbox..." selection it looks like it was "automagically" created in the "ON MY MAC" group. Perhaps that is where they are always created?

thanks

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Answer 6

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Jun 21, 2013 3:38 PM in response to Robert Stephens

If you look in the sidebar on the left (in Mail) you should be able to see both accounts (On my Mac and your Imap account) can you?

Go to the Mailbox menu, select New Mailbox, you should get this dialog (or similar)

Which allows you to choose a location and a name for it

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Answer 7

Jun 21, 2013 3:41 PM in response to Csound1

Yes, sorry - that question had an obvious answer. If you just "two finger tap" on a folder and select "New Mailbox..." you can use the pop-up menu button at the top of the new folder panel to select Location: "On My Mac".

thanks to everyone for your help - this answered my question and I now have a solution.

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Answer 8

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Jun 21, 2013 3:42 PM in response to Robert Stephens

You're welcome.

And FYI, there is no content inside a smart mailbox, what you see are the emails that meet the mailbox criteria, the actual emails, not copies.

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Answer 9

Jan 21, 2014 5:15 PM in response to Robert Stephens

Well, if it's any help--I had a similar issue recently (and made the mistake of deleting IMAP mail before backing up locally, luckily I have more control over my server, so there was a rollback possible).

Instead of a smart mailbox, I simply created standard mailboxes locally, and created rules that move the mail from the main Inbox and Sent folders (IMAP) to these local folders after a set time. This solves the problem of ballooning file sizes on the mail server, as well as keeping archvial files, automatically.

Here is a screen shot of one of the rules, below the mailboxes:

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