using thunderbird to archive gmail

[elricks]

I use gmail. My storage is 75% full. I have installed thunderbird, and have set it up as IMAP. Currently my 11gb of mail is being synced to my local PC.

I want to retain access to my historical email, especially the attachments. I also want to clean out my gmail, retaining only about 1 year for immediate access. I am undecided if I want to just keep using the gmail interface or use Thunderbird.

I do NOT need immediate access to the historical stuff. Past experience tells me maybe 4 times a year I need to refer to an attachment or a message.

I understand that my mail is, and will be synced. Meaning that all deletions within gmail will also be removed from local storage.

Once everything is synced I plan to (1) Exit Thunderbird (2) rename my local mail folder, (3) go to Gmail and make the deletions (4) Open Thunderbird.

I have 3 questions.

Will this work - How do I get access to that renamed folder - Is there a better way???

Thanks - shirley

[DanRaisch]

Is there a better way???

Probably. You could copy messages from the IMAP folders to sub-folders of Thunderbird's Local Folders structure. Once in that location, the copies will be disconnected from the server and deleting a messages in Gmail or in the Thunderbird IMAP folders will not delete the copy under Local Folders.

Also see this article -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Archiving_your_e-mail

[tanstaafl]

Don't overlook the possibility of also mirroring those messages on another email providers IMAP account (as an additional copy of the archive). You could use a message filter to automatically copy new messages to the other accounts inbox. My first thought was Outlook.com but I found several official answers in a Microsoft forum that stated that "virtually unlimited storage means that, by continually using your account, the higher reputation it acquires, the greater storage space it gets." means its really limited to a little more than 5GB. Yahoo's unlimited storage was redefined as 1TB back in 2013.