How to get old emails onto a CD?

[JANET SIRMON]

I am trying to put all my emails from 2005-2006 onto a CD and off my
computer, to clean up the Thunderbird 2.0 inbox. In all my searches, I can't
find a guideline on how to do this. Can someone help? ~ A

[Andrew DeFaria]

JANET SIRMON wrote:

I am trying to put all my emails from 2005-2006 onto a CD and off my computer, to clean up the Thunderbird 2.0 inbox. In all my searches, I can't find a guideline on how to do this. Can someone help?

• Create a folder say named 2005
  
• Select your Inbox and click on the the Date header to sort by date
• Locate your earliest 2005 email and click on it
• Locate your latest 2005 email and hold shift and click on it. This should select all of your messages in 2005.
• Right click on any of the selected messages and select Move to, then locate your newly created 2005 folder. This should move all of your messages to this 2005 folder
• Locate your profile folder
• In your profile folder there should be a Mail folder and in there a folder named Local Folders. Locate the file named 2005 (Mail folders are actually files)
  
• Drag and drop that to your CD device then burn it to the CD.
  

--
Andrew DeFaria
What is a "free" gift ? Aren't all gifts free?

[Jens Franik]

Guten Tag Andrew DeFaria,

am Donnerstag, 2. Oktober 2008 um 18:04 schrieben Sie:

[---%<---gekürzt---%<---]
> * In your profile folder there should be a Mail folder and in there
> a folder named Local Folders. Locate the *file *named 2005 (Mail
> folders are actually files)
> * Drag and drop that to your CD device then burn it to the CD.

Isn't it possible to export the Mails to a UNIX Mailbox File, which has
been, _is_ and will be readable by a lot of Applications?

--
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Jens Franik
mailto:je...@gmx.de

The Bat! - the other "TB" in Town...

[Ron K.]

JANET SIRMON on 10/2/2008 11:51 AM, keyboarded a reply:

> I am trying to put all my emails from 2005-2006 onto a CD and off my
> computer, to clean up the Thunderbird 2.0 inbox. In all my searches, I can't
> find a guideline on how to do this. Can someone help? ~ A
>
>

I suggest looking at an mbox import/export extension available at:
http://nic-nac-project.de/~kaosmos/index-en.html
One of the uses of this is to archive Mbox mail files.

--
Ron K.
Who is General Failure, and why is he searching my HDD?
Kernel Restore reported Major Error used BSOD to msg the enemy!

[Andrew DeFaria]

Jens Franik wrote:

Guten Tag Andrew DeFaria,

am Donnerstag, 2. Oktober 2008 um 18:04 schrieben Sie:

[---%<---gekürzt---%<---]

* In your profile folder there should be a Mail folder and in there a folder named Local Folders. Locate the *file *named 2005 (Mail folders are actually files)
* Drag and drop that to your CD device then burn it to the CD.

Isn't it possible to export the Mails to a UNIX Mailbox File, which has been, _is_ and will be readable by a lot of Applications?

Psst! Don't tell anybody. These files are Unix mbox formatted mail files. Have been since the early days of Netscape. No need to export anything. Just use 'em!

--
Andrew DeFaria
Dain bramaged.

[Jens Franik]

Guten Tag Andrew DeFaria,

am Freitag, 3. Oktober 2008 um 05:16 schrieben Sie:

>>> * In your profile folder there should be a Mail folder and in there a
>>> folder named Local Folders. Locate the *file *named 2005 (Mail
>>> folders are actually files)
>>> * Drag and drop that to your CD device then burn it to the CD.

>> Isn't it possible to export the Mails to a UNIX Mailbox File, which
>> has been, _is_ and will be readable by a lot of Applications?

> Psst! Don't tell anybody. These files *are* Unix mbox formatted mail

> files. Have been since the early days of Netscape. No need to export
> anything. Just use 'em!

Thank you for this clarification, i am glad to hear that :-)

[GaryT]

> Psst! Don't tell anybody. These files *are* Unix mbox formatted mail

> files. Have been since the early days of Netscape. No need to export
> anything. Just use 'em!
> --

> Andrew DeFaria <http://defaria.com>

I've got much the same problem: several thousand old emails, many of
which I want off my hard disk and onto CDs or whatever. I also want
to be able read them and search them for specific words, phrases,
etc., with the ability to cut and paste selected text. Which prompt
several questions, probably dumb, but ...

1) Are these readable by Notepad or WordPad or other programs that
might be even better suited to the job?
Any suggestions?

2) Is each message a separate file? ... or is each folder a
separate file? or What?

3) Would it be possible to use my current Thunderbird to read, search
and otherwise make available the content of these messages, while
they remain on the CD?

4) Does the archive, or part of it, become corrupted if I make any
changes in the content?

5) What happens to the attachments ... particularly if any of the
attachments are media files (jpg, wav, mp3, bmp, doc, etc.)?

-- GaryT

[Andrew DeFaria]

GaryT wrote:

Psst! Don't tell anybody. These files *are* Unix mbox formatted mail files. Have been since the early days of Netscape. No need to export anything. Just use 'em!

I've got much the same problem: several thousand old emails, many of which I want off my hard disk and onto CDs or whatever. I also want to be able read them and search them for specific words, phrases, etc., with the ability to cut and paste selected text. Which prompt several questions, probably dumb, but ...

1) Are these readable by Notepad or WordPad or other programs that might be even better suited to the job?

Sure. Mbox format is simply a file with each message concatenated together.

Any suggestions?

My favorite - Xemacs - but any decent editor is up to the task.

2) Is each message a separate file?

No - see above.

... or is each folder a separate file?

Yes - see above

or What?

What! You're making this way harder than you need to!

3) Would it be possible to use my current Thunderbird to read, search and otherwise make available the content of these messages, while they remain on the CD?

Hmmm... You might be able to point TB over to the CD however remember a CD is generally is read only so I think that TB would have a problem with that. Also, I don't think you can say to TB - "Look for some folders here and some folders there".

4) Does the archive, or part of it, become corrupted if I make any changes in the content?

If it falls out of compliance with an mbox format well then yes. Why don't you do a little research as to what exactly and mbox file is? It'd take you but a few minutes. Probably less than it took you to compose this!

5) What happens to the attachments ... particularly if any of the attachments are media files (jpg, wav, mp3, bmp, doc, etc.)?

I suggest you look up what MIME is. Attachments are generally attached or part of the mbox file. As such they should remain intact.

--
Andrew DeFaria
Why do we say something is out of whack? What's a whack?

--
Andrew DeFaria
Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?

[Jay Garcia]

On 07.10.2008 11:07, Andrew DeFaria wrote:

--- Original Message ---

> Hmmm... You might be able to point TB over to the CD however remember a
> CD is generally is read only so I think that TB would have a problem
> with that. Also, I don't think you can say to TB - "Look for some
> folders here and some folders there".

No longer the case in XP and beyond regarding the setting of read-only
when restoring from CD. It used to be the case that restoring carried
the RO flag with it but not any longer. So, yes, archiving to CD works
just fine, if and when restoring is required.

--
Jay Garcia - Netscape/Flock Champion
www.ufaq.org
Netscape - Flock - Firefox - Thunderbird - Seamonkey Support