Email mailboxes in the macOS Mail app can quickly become cluttered and disorganized. Thatâs exactly why Apple added in an Archive tool that can help you keep your messages tidy.
A better way to archive email in Apple Mail. Welcome to Mac Mondays! You have three options with the Mail app in OS X to keep a lid on the number of emails flooding your inbox. OS X: 7 handy Mail tips for Mac users; An essential OS X Mavericks problem-solving guide; How to fix Apple Mail by rebuilding and reindexing the Mailbox; Tips to help you become an iOS 7 Mail.
The Archive tool is also a handy way to store durable copies of your messages that are immune to any server actions (like server crashes or accidental deletion). Hereâs how to use Archive and where to find your emails after.
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Contents
How to archive a message
Archiving an email message in macOS is pretty simple. In fact, itâs just a two-step process.
At this point, Mail will automatically create a new Mailbox called Archive. Messages that you Archive will be placed within this Mailbox (but they will also be pulled from your email providerâs server).
If youâre using a third-party mail service with the Mail app, this may be confusing. Thatâs because all of your inbox will be stored in the Archive folder for that particular account.
Just note that these are local copies. If you archive a message in a third-party Mailbox, that message will indeed be pulled from the email providerâs servers.
You can also edit where archived emails are stored by going to Mail â> Preferences â> Accounts and selecting the Mailbox Behaviors tab.
From here, you can actually set the Archive to a new mailbox, which you can choose to store locally on your computer.
Where are archived messages stored?
As we mentioned earlier, copies of your email messages are stored locally on your Mac when you use the Archive feature.
Unfortunately, theyâre just not that easy to get to. Theyâre buried in a folder in the macOS Library and the archive itself uses a .mbox file extension.
You can access with the following steps.
There may be formatting or image issues, particularly if the content is web-based. But these are locally stored copies of your email messages. That, of course, means that they are immune to any server-based activities.
Some things to note
While that covers the gist of using Archive and finding your archived messages, here are a couple more tips to ensure your emails remain organized and secure.
Create additional archive mailboxes
Because of the way that macOS Mail treats third-party mailboxes, it can be confusing to use the built-in Archive tool.
If all of your emails are stored in Archive from the get-go and Archive only pulls them from the server, it can lead to some organizational issues.
Because of that, we recommend creating new local mailboxes on your system. Just click on Mailbox in the top menu bar and select New Mailbox.
Select On My Mac as the Location and name the mailbox something meaningful â such as âimportant Gmail messagesâ or âarchived emails August 2019.â
Now, youâll want to go back to Mail â> Preferences â> Accounts â> Mailbox Behaviors. Set the Archive mailbox to your newly created folder.
Export mailbox
If youâd like a copy of your precious emails for more durable storage, we just recommend using Export Mailbox. This also helps keep your archived messages in a more readily accessible location on your hard drive.
Best accounting software for home on mac. That way, you can pop email messages onto an external media device or a USB flash drive for permanent storage.
This is especially important because locally stored emails are prone to data loss. https://fluidheavy764.weebly.com/free-mac-photo-stacking-software.html. If something happens to the Mac that youâre using, there may not be any easy way to recover those emails.
Now, you can save that mailbox â with copies of all your messages â to a safe and easily accessible location.
We hope that you found the article helpful. Getting an handle on your archives in always a good thing and is bound to save you heartache during a crisis.
Mike is a freelance journalist from San Diego, California.
While he primarily covers Apple and consumer technology, he has past experience writing about public safety, local government, and education for a variety of publications.
Heâs worn quite a few hats in the journalism field, including writer, editor, and news designer.
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Many Mac users never give deleted emails a second thought. You delete it, and itâs gone⦠or is it? In this Tech Tip, weâll discuss what Apple Mail does with those trashed emails, whether or not you can get them back, and more.
Deleting Emails in Apple Mail
Deleting emails in Apple Mail is easy to do: just swipe (on a Magic Mouse or Trackpad) a mail message to the left and a bright red Delete button appears. You can either click that button or swipe it even further to the left and itâs deleted automatically (see screenshot below). Spyder pro 4 software mac.
You can also right-click a message and select Delete from the pop-up menu, or highlight a message by clicking on it, then press the Delete key on the Mac keyboard. Last, but not least, you can click on an email and select Edit > Delete from the menu bar.
Where Does A Deleted Email Go? Deleted emails end up in the Trash or Archive mailboxes
Youâve deleted that email. Where the heck did it go? Believe it or not, itâs not actually gone from your email system. The deleted mail ends up in either a Trash or Archive mailbox (see image below):
Thereâs a difference between trashed and archived email. Trashed mail will eventually be deleted for good, while archived email remains in an archive folder forever where it can be searched and retrieved if necessary. With iCloud Mail, you have a choice of trashing or archiving email. Personally, I use archive for those emails that I donât want cluttering my inbox but also donât want to delete for good. With a right-click on an email in an inbox, select Archive or Delete to dispose of the email.
What Happens To Deleted Emails?
Once you delete an email, it sits in the Trash mailbox for a while. How long itâs in there depends on you. You can have those deleted emails removed forever each time you quit Mail, or you can even set the Trash mailbox to never empty. My preference is set to erase deleted emails permanently once theyâve been sitting in there for a month. The preference can be changed in Mail by selecting Preferences from the Mail menu, the clicking on the Accounts tab. Highlight the email account you wish to change settings for, then click on the Mailbox Behaviors button (see screenshot below): Mac Os Mail Undo Archive Mail ApplicationThe outlined area shows the folders where deleted or archived emails are stored and the time until erasureMacos Mail App
Your choices for deletion are never, after one day, after one week, after one month, when quitting mail. Until that appointed time, you can go into the Trash mailbox and take out emails that have been deleted by mistake.
Can I Change The Name Of My Archive Mailbox?
You may not necessarily want to have your archived emails in a folder called archive. Maybe youâd like to call it âImportant Emailsâ, âLetters From My Lawyerâ, or âOutta My Inboxâ. Here Iâll show you how to create a new email mailbox for an account and then set your archive mailbox to that new mailbox. Itâs important for you to set your archive mailbox to the place where those emails will be stored, or they wonât be visible to searches on your Mac.
1) Create a new mailbox
Weâre going to create a new mailbox for our iCloud account. To do that in the Apple Mail app on your Mac, view the Mailboxes if theyâre not visible by toggling the mailbox list: Mac Os Mail Undo Archive Mail App IphoneToggling the Mailbox List so it is viewable
Now youâll see something like this: Music playback software for mac.
The list of mailboxes
To create the new mailbox for your iCloud account, click the iCloud Inbox (in the image above, itâs the mailbox that says âiCloudâ and has the â1â next to it) to select it, and then select New Mailbox⦠from the Mailbox menu. Type in a name for the new mailbox, then click the OK button (see screenshot below):
Creating a new iCloud email mailbox named âImportant Emailsâ
To verify that the new mailbox has been created, scroll down in the mailbox list on the left sidebar until you find âiCloudâ and you should see the new Mailbox (see image below):
Thereâs our new Mailbox at the top of the iCloud list
2) Set the âImportant Emailsâ mailbox to be our Archive mailbox
Now weâre going to set this new mailbox to be our Archive mailbox, and all of our âimportant emailsâ can be archived in a specific place. Once again, go to Mail > Preferences and select Accounts, then click on the email account weâre interested in â in this case, iCloud. Click on the pop-up list next to Archive Mailbox and select the newly-created âImportant Emailsâ folder (see screenshot below): Mac Os Mail Undo Archive Mail App FreeChanging the Archive Mailbox to âImportant Emailsâ
Now any email that is âarchivedâ rather than deleted will be moved to the Important Emails mailbox. Of course, you wonât see it as such because it just shows up under Archive in the list of mailboxes now! Important lesson here: if you want to archive emails, theyâll always have to be in an âArchiveâ mailbox. If you want to store items in a special mailbox (either on the mail server or on your Mac), youâll have to move the emails to that mailbox instead of archiving them.
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How Do I Move Emails To A Mailbox?
Now that our âImportant Emailsâ mailbox has essentially disappeared and become the âArchiveâ mailbox again, letâs create a new mailbox and store our important emails on our Mac (actually not a good idea unless youâre a fanatic about backupsâ¦).
1) Create A New Mailbox On The Mac
As before, select Mailboxes > New Mailbox from the menu bar to create a new mailboxâ¦but this time, scroll all the way down to the bottom and select âOn My Macâ as the location (see screenshot below): Mac Os Mail Undo Archive Mail App Windows 10Creating a new mailbox on my MacMac Os Mail
2) Moving Emails To The New Mailbox Way down at the bottom of this list of mailboxes is our Important Emails mailboxâ¦on our Mac
As before, I named this new mailbox âImportant Emailsâ, but itâs now located on my Mac instead of on the iCloud server. To move an email I wish to keep into this special folder, I right-click the email and select the Important Emails mailbox way down at the bottom of this list of mailboxes â itâs under a section marked âOn My Macâ (see screenshot below):
Can I Have Mail Automatically Put Certain Emails Into That Mailbox?
Yes, you can. But thatâs a post for next week when weâll talk about Smart Mailboxes. Be Sociable, Share This!
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