Feature Request - Archive Thunderbird Mail Messages

[Brian Conner]

I migrated from MS Outlook 2003 three or four months ago.

Outlook has a useful Archive feature that I would like to see for Thunderbird. The way it works is that you tell the archiving function to save all messages prior to a specified date. All of those older messages are saved, in their folders, inside an archive file. Later, you can open that archive file, and all the messages, inside their folders, are opened in Outlook inside a separate Archive Folder.

This makes it easy to find old Email messages while keeping the current working Email messages file as small as possible.

Thank you.


Brian Conner

[majze]

Has been requested a million times and it's not yet available/ I don't think there are plans to implement this in near future.

[Brian Conner]

Thank you. I did a Search before posting a new thread. Only one thread popped up and I posted a reply there, and was advised to post a new thread in the Features forum.

I suppose I'll have to resort to doing this manually. The first one will be agony, but after that it won't be too bad (he said bravely, trying desperately to encourage himself.)

[majze]

Forgot to mention that you should also check extension sites often - someone may implement this feature as an extension (maybe it's already out there).

[Old Ausdilecce]

OK, clue me in..

Does this archive feature store those archived messages 'somewhere else' ( meaning in a differnent file ? )
Does the user pick the 'prior to date' every time or is it a set number of days or what ?
You say the folder structure is maintained... What happens if, say, the folder structure changes significantly since the 'last archive' operation ?

Finally, in your wildest dreams, what would be the 'best way' to present this feature and what options should be included?

I might just put together an extension to make this happen. I have heard people clamboring for it enough now...

[highlandsun]

The autoarchiver uses an age in days. I have no idea what it does when the folder structure changes, I've never renamed or moved old folders, but it will of course add new folders as they appear.

Yes, Outlook stores those messages "somewhere else". There is an "outlook.pst" file that contains all of the current folders, address book, etc. and the autoarchiver moves items from there to any other .pst file you specify (typically just "archive.pst").

The trunk builds now have the expanded "data retention settings" which auto-deletes old messages from folders. I think this is a misfeature. They should have instead implemented auto-execute of a filter, and let the user decide what should happen to matching messages. I.e., instead of the current implementation that just lets you say "For all messages older than X, delete them" it should have been an arbitrary user filter that auto-executes, so you could construct a filter that says "For all messages older than X, move them to <archive folder>" or anything else you want done automatically.

I may still try to talk David into reworking it...

[majze]

HighlandSun, your suggestion certainly makes sense, the only problem is that there's only one action right now that would be usefull - deleting messages. So I guess this is the reason why they hardcoded the action. As more actions are implemented (archiving being just one of them), I hope they will let users choose what to when the criteria is met.

[Old Ausdilecce]

HighlandSun, thanks for the heads up..

So... what then would be your wildest dreams 'best way' yada yada.. ?

[wintogreen]

The trunk builds now have the expanded "data retention settings" which auto-deletes old messages from folders. I think this is a misfeature. They should have instead implemented auto-execute of a filter, and let the user decide what should happen to matching messages.

Yes, this would have been MUCH better.

So... what then would be your wildest dreams 'best way' yada yada.. ?

Wildest dreams would include selecting messages to archive using any critera available through an advanced search (age in days, status, sender, etc.) AND have a folder picker so that you can exclude certain folders from being archived if desired. It would also let you archive multiple accounts at once, with a selector so you can choose which accounts get archived and which don't. Archived folders and subfolders would be saved to a user-specified location with the folder structure intact. Archived mail that is restored would go into a user-specified folder in Local Folders, with ability to restore a single mbox, a single folder and its subfolders, a whole account at once, or all accounts at once. Oh, and there'd also be an (optional) separate Local Folders-type folder called Archive, a progress meter, and... well, I'd better stop there.

[Brian Conner]

ausdilecce ,

The Outlook archive function allows the user to choose a date each time s/he archives, and all messages before that date are included in the archive. Then, the archive function preserves the folder structure that is in place at that moment in time.

When the user later wants to look at the archived messages, s/he goes to the Data File Management menu button and chooses Add, then navigates to the archive file s/he needs and chooses it. It opens in Outlook as a separate folder, named Archive Folder, and inside that folder is the folder structure that existed at the moment of that particular archive action.

Right now, in my Thunderbird, inside Local Folders, I have a folder named Personal Folders. Inside that, there are folders that are named for each of my several Email addresses. Inside each of those folders, I have a folder named XXX Save, where XXX is the name of that Email address. If Thunderbird had an archive function similar to Outlook, I would then be able to archive messages within each of those folders older than a certain date, and the archive function would find those older messages in each folder and move each one to an identically named folder inside of a folder named Archived Folders. Archived folders would be the contents of a file that I could choose the name of (I'd name it with a date in the name to indicate when it was archived or which month and year it's messages incuded.)

More about the Data File Management window: This window lists the name and file location of all open Email message files in Outlook. The buttons in the window are Add, Remove, Open Folder, and Settings. Add allows you to open another archived file in Outlook. Remove will close the chosen file from Outlook (it doesn't delete the file, just closes it.) Open Folder opens the folder that the chosen archive file is located in. Settings opens a window that allows you to create/change a password for opening the archived files, or to Compact the chosen file.

Please ask more questions, so I can make this more clear. I'd really like to see this function in Thunderbird. Thank you.

[Old Ausdilecce]

OK, here is how I think I might implement this functionality..

An 'Archive' folder will be created in the account in question's list of folders ( it will be on the same level as inbox, and trash )

a context menu option will be added to the folder context menu, called 'Archive messages'
also a new menu option will be added to the 'messages' menu, called 'Archive'

When either of these menu options are selected, the user will be presented with a dialog box that reads..
(Radio buttons)
....'Archive any messages older than XX days' (defaulted to 30 ? )
....'Archive messages older than <datetime picker>'
with a checkbox 'include subfolders of this folder'

When the user clicks OK on the dialog box, if any messages in that folder ( and, optionally, soubfolders of ) that are older than the XX days ( or the datetime that was picked ), those messages will be moved to the corresponding folder in archive..
so say you have 30 messages in
...Local Folders/Inbox/projects/X111a,
21 of which are older than 30 days, those older messages will get moved to
...Local Folders/Archive/Inbox/projects/X111a

If that folder hierarchy does not exist, it will be created..

Obviously, if the 'include subfolders of this folder' is selected, those subfolders will be scanned for messages older than what was specified and move those to the corresponding folder in the archive folder

I am thinking that people using 'Global Inbox' will have the archive folder arranged like this
Local Folders/Archive/<Account Name>/Inbox/projects/X111a

No need to have an 'Add' menu option to add back archived folders since TB does not use the same storage mechanisms like Outlook ( which uses ONE file for ALL messages and folders )

So, effectively, messages in the archive folder will be available to the user at all times.. The user just has to navigate the archive folder ( or search it ) when needed

Another extension I wrote, DiddlyDo, can handle folder security ( passwords to gain entry to folders )

Did I miss anything ?

[Brian Conner]

I would suggest that you might include the Add and Remove functions for the Archive folders (over time you'll create a number of them, if you archive periodically). I'd like to have those functions so that I can reduce the file-loading overhead when Thunderbird opens.

In other words, I'd like Thunderbird to be able to open without having to load the Archive folders. Then, when I need to one or more Archive folders, I can Add them.

Also, since we'll be creating more than one Archive folder over time, I'd like the option to name the Archive folder ("Archive 06 20 05" would be how I might name one I created today).

[Old Ausdilecce]

Sorry,

You need to think about how TB stores messages as opposed to how outlook stores messages..

Outlook stores ALL messages and folders in ONE file while TB stores all messages in one TB folder as ONE OS file..

This means that when TB loads, it only loads the messages of the folder you open.. All other TB folders remain closed..

Having a TB archive folder (as I propose) of say 8 Gb would have NO IMPACT on how fast TB loads

So therefore, the user would need no add or remove functions and all archived messages would be stored in the same place ( so no Archive 06 20 05 'file' )

[Brian Conner]

But a large, all-encompassing Archive folder <B>would</B> impact searching the folder for specific messages.

With your proposed solution, would the Archive folder always be loaded when Thunderbird opens? If so, I don't see the value of it. It wouldn't be much different than just keeping all the messages in the Local Folders folder as it is now. Please correct me if I misunderstand.

[wintogreen]

An 'Archive' folder will be created in the account in question's list of folders ( it will be on the same level as inbox, and trash )

What's going to happen with IMAP accounts?

a context menu option will be added to the folder context menu, called 'Archive messages'
also a new menu option will be added to the 'messages' menu, called 'Archive'

Does this mean that you won't be able to select the whole account for archiving?

I am thinking that people using 'Global Inbox' will have the archive folder arranged like this
Local Folders/Archive/<Account Name>/Inbox/projects/X111a

Interesting. But for people using the global inbox, who specifically chose to have all their mail dumped into the same inbox in the first place, what's the purpose of sorting mail back into account-specific folders?

No need to have an 'Add' menu option to add back archived folders since TB does not use the same storage mechanisms like Outlook ( which uses ONE file for ALL messages and folders )

So, effectively, messages in the archive folder will be available to the user at all times.. The user just has to navigate the archive folder ( or search it ) when needed

I think this is fine. People who for some reason want to move archived mail outside the profile can use the MboxImport extension, which can save mail folders and subfolders (even for a whole account at once) to an external location, as well as import them back into the profile again if needed. At present it unfortunately cannot import folders and subfolders together, with the folder hierarchy intact, but with a bit of prodding the extension author might be able to get it to do this.

But a large, all-encompassing Archive folder <B>would</B> impact searching the folder for specific messages.

All you would have to do after archiving is drag and drop the archived folders into another (sub)folder named "Archive <date>". It would be easy enough to exclude those folders from your searches or Saved Search folders.