Archive mail on an external disk, but always consult

[robimaio]

Hi,

I have archived emails in several years, but obviously they continue to occupy space on the PC.

I'd like to put them somewhere outside, maybe on a network drive, and access them only when I need to do it.

I am looking for a method that works for both PC and Mac that allows me to store mail in a different location from the local disk, therefore saving precious space on notebooks, which I can connect to when needed (to look for old mail and / or archive it), simply without going through different profiles, but simply connecting it (if not already available) and drag and drop or select the emails and press a button ...

Do you have any advice?

Roberto

[tanstaafl]

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Archiving_your_e-mail lists some alternatives. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Mail_Utilities lists some mail related utilities that might help.

You could export the mail folders as mbox files using the ImportExportTools add-on (ImportExportTools NG if you are using version 68.*) , store those files on a USB/flash drive, and use something like the MboxViewer utility to view the mail without having to export them back into Thunderbird. https://www.freeviewer.org/mbox/ is a similar utility that supports both Windows and Macs.

Or use that add-on to export the mail folders, back them up somewhere safe, and then in Thunderbird move the messages to a free Gmail IMAP account that you use just to store archived mail. With a IMAP account moving a message to a remote folder uploads it to the server. Don't confuse that with forwarding. If you uncheck its folders in the accounts synchronization& storage settings the messages aren't stored on your laptop at all, yet you can still access them easily.