Email, and archiving

[simmo]

I admit I am a digital pack rat, but there have been many times that having years worth of emails have saved me, or at least been convenient.

I use Thunderbird on my desktop, and it is set to delete mail from the server. If I have to be away from my desktop for any amount of time, like when traveling, I copy my email profile to my laptop, then back when I return... It's just over 2gb now, so it is becoming a bit of a pain.

One thing I have thought about doing, is making a backup of my profile, and deleting folders (I have a ver detailed folder system I use for filing emails when I am done with them) I don't think I'll need. That way if I ever do need to go back, I can.

Does anyone else have a better email solution?

I think I'd almost prefer something in "the cloud" so I could access my stored emails from anywhere at any time, with out all the hassle of moving my profile, but 2gb is a lot to have up there I think. I used to have it all on a thumbdrive, using Thunderbird Portable, back when I had separate work & personal computers, but now it seems a little silly to run off a usb drive when I don't move that often, and that wouldn't account for phone access like something online would.

[Jason Reed]

Nope, I use GMail so don't worry about my mail archives. Eventually I'll run out of space (since Google isn't constantly adding space anymore), but I doubt I need to worry about it.

Personally if I were using Thunderbird, I'd be using IMAP instead of POP3, since IMAP allows you direct control of the messages sitting on the server, so if you delete one from Thunderbird it will automatically be deleted from your server. POP3 only allows you to copy them from the server to your local and delete after they are copied.

[simmo]

How does IMAP handle filing of emails, does it create folders server side as well? I imagine I would still have to be mindful of my storage as well.

Doesn't look like my current server has IMAP so I'd have to do some changing there.

[simmo]

I think I have a workable solution, using your IMAP suggestion (I found out my email server is IMAP capable).

In Thunderbird, on my desktop, I have my email set as IMAP. I started over "fresh," mostly because I realized a lot of what is taking space is attachments and there is no easy way to delete them all. I have my "local folders" that still contain the previous [multiple] years worth of email, and I'll probably make a copy to my laptop, but I'll only have to do this one time, since the IMAP will sync folders as needed (I believe). I'm not 100% sure how that works, if it is an on demand type thing or if it checks all folders every time, but it is not often that I am without an internet connection, especially when dealing with email

I'll try to get into the habit of deleting attachments, within reason, like images from clients since those would then go to their FTP sites most likely, and if the IMAP account gets too large, I'll then "archive" it to the "local folders."