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Email storage

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Email storage

At the moment I use Plusnet webmail and delete most of the messages although there are a few stored there. I still recall the security breach although perhaps I should forget it now but am a bit uneasy with storing important stuff on Squirrelmail as we lost everything when this occurred.
I download those that I want to save to Windows Mail and move them out to separate folders so that I can create backups on my external hard drive. It's a bit long-winded though because I use the 'save as....' option to preserve the subject heading. I've done it the other way that i.e. backing up the whole of the deleted items folder as Microsoft recommend but the headings are just code numbers so it's not really helpful if you want to locate a particular one.
Now that I am using Windows and Ubuntu this is getting a bit messy because of the different file extensions. I therefore want to store everything online but with the security of knowing that the facility has backups of its own.
I have a gmail account but don't know if they have satisfactory backups.
There must be some way of making it easy for myself.
Any thoughts?
11 REPLIES 11
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Email storage

you could use Thunderbird that works in Linux and Windows.  And it works via POP3 and IMAP. 
IMAP keeps the mail on the PN server, POP3 downloads it to your local machine.  And it preserves the headers and titles
I am lazy and still use Outlook Express but have a large number of sub files where I segregate my mail into sub folders, and it is possible to save the mail as a .eml file and then to zip them up
dvorak
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Re: Email storage

You could investigate using gmail, you can set it up to grab mail from the PN account using POP3.
I use it to grab mail from 4 different accounts and you can set up labels to indicate which mailbox it's from.
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Not applicable

Re: Email storage

Didn't think of the Thunderbird option. When you save yours in sub-folders (which is what I do by year/month but don't zip them up), how do they save in respect of subject headings? Last time I saved them they all came out with code numbers so you hadn't a clue as to what they were about unless you opened them.
Gmail was my first thought as I have an account but do they provide adequate backups? I thought that a paid for provider would do this.
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Email storage

Sounds to me like you'd be best off giving IMAP a whirl. Your messages will be stored on the server, there's no need to save anything (but you can if you please) and your mail and folder hierarchy can be synchronised across multiple locations. All without having to use Webmail.
Give it a blast using Thunderbird. Set up your Plusnet mail account as you normally would but use imap.plus.net as the server address. Setup some folders and move a bit of your email around. If you then log into Webmail it should be apparent what some of the differences between POP3 and IMAP are.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
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Re: Email storage

Thank you Bob - installed TB on Vista and Ubuntu. IMAP up and running so will give it a whirl.
Looks good so far.
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Email storage

this is my OE setup, or part of it.  not done it recently but an easy way to save an e-mail is to drag it to the desk top, where it appears as a .eml file the put that into a normal file folder
An objection to leaving it on the PN server is that if you file load gets to big, they have been known to delete them
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Email storage

on Thunderbird, IMAP you can drag files from the PN server area to the Local file area
Not applicable

Re: Email storage

Similar to my set up but when I save them in a folder, if they have the same name i.e. as with a conversation, I have to change their names or add a number e.g. 1, 2 so that they will not be saved over another one.
Can't see any way round that one.
mentalist3d
Grafter
Posts: 371
Registered: ‎20-08-2009

Re: Email storage

I use an e-mail forwarder address to 2 Gmail accounts which I've been using for years, and I've never had a problem. One of the Gmail accounts is used for everyday correspondence, whilst the other is a back-up account, so if I have any problem with 1 account, I can switch to the other, without losing any e-mails, however, in all my years of using Gmail, I've never had to do this. Gmail store thousands of e-mails for me (and you can create labels to group your e-mails) and searching for old e-mails is never a problem.
Not applicable

Re: Email storage

Just trying out the free version of MailStore (download from download.com).
Works like a charm and can export the lot to external hard drive or CD in seconds.
Can also be sent to gmail or other online storage.
Doesn't preserve the subject/title but these can be seen if you hover over them with the mouse.
xpcomputers
Grafter
Posts: 461
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Registered: ‎13-04-2007

Re: Email storage

I was about to ask a similar question of how people handle emails on multiple machines, and backups.
IMAP should handle all the synchronising very well. The concern I have is with it being the live store of emails, that if anything goes wrong, you lose the lot! (And Plusnet had that happen once in the distant past!).
Previously I've just used POP3 with "leave messages on server for 40 days" as my options set, so that my online store never gets TOO big, and also so each machine gets a full copy of the email log. However, this doesn't handle sent mails, which could now become a problem for me, since I am using my netbook & phone more and more, it means there are 4 places where an sent email could be found (laptop, netbook, phone or webmail).
So how do others handle this....
IMAP, with syncing of sent items. What about sorting emails into sub-folders, and synchronising them. It very quickly gets into a mess, unless you think through all the implications before starting to change things.
I was then thinking of using thunderbird to download a pop3 copy of the same emails, so I have a store of them all safe elsewhere.
I am currently using a mix of clients from Outlook XP, Outlook 2007, Windows Mobile 6 Messaging & thunderbird. My emails accounts run on various different platforms from different providers.
I guess it heads towards the territory of having your own email server at home!! But I'd need convincing of that....
So what would you recommend? How do you manage your emails?