I used a Google (Alphabet?) tool to extract more than a decade of GMAIL into a massive 6GB MBOX file.
Basically you request one huge file, Google compiles it, and then eventually sends you the MBOX file.
It took almost a day for google to export this 6GB file (I think 15hrs) .
But what can I do with one huge MBOX file?
The great and powerful Internet (which is really just one short man behind the curtain)
procliamed THUNDERBIRD as the answer.
(1) Side effect:
I observe the native GMAIL storage, in addition to this MBOX backup
can potentially consume or exceed the free allowance of 15GB
capacity in Google Drive which was allotted by Google long ago.
So 6+ GB is now 12+ GB. For my case, the result was GDRIVE very near the capacity threshold.
I imagine that if additional cloud storage (Picasa images) consumed the remainder of the free consignment ,
Google would likely start to ask for $3 per month,
therefore,
the "cloud" would no longer be free( aka "Advertising supported";
but I bet/guess that even if I subscribed to/paid for/ extra G-storage, Adverts would still pursue me).
This is one reason to extract my GMAILS prior to 2010,
save them to my home archive, delete them,
and free more capacity to store cute cat videos in the cloud,
so that when she(cat) runs out of 9th life, she can reminisce there.
(2) ?What do you do with one big MBOX file from GMAIL?
The issue is that I needed to back up this unwieldy large cumbersome collage somewhere ,
but I wanted to separate the mails into Year directories.
Online tutorials indicated THUNDERBIRD was the best client to open MBOX files.
And I find that it is.
Other users describe the MBOX importation method into Thunderbird Mail Client
as a method of migration (away from GMAIL, to some other email service provider).
(3) Thunderbird IMPORT to ARCHIVE brought the MBOX contents into a searchable format.
However,
Thunderbird started to slow down
despite the advanced uProcessing power of Intel i5 and SSD and adequate 4GB DDR3 .
*The objective was to save or export all individual emails to EML files in directories parsed by year
I have been online since the early 1990's in BBS and other methods ENVY AOL etc
so my legacy mails and correspondances may be atypical.
The issue is that during an operation to highlight 11,000 or so emails per a specific year,
a right-click to SAVE resulted in Thunderbird 45.4.0 freezing/halting, and the Client become unresponsive.
I opine that the FILENAME of the EML saved file is just too long
when the original EMAIL SUBJECT is concatenated with date to form a long string.
I discovered this is a common issue, and then sought to find a solution without a forum query.
There is a limit to the underlying DOS filename length, likely around 255 characters
and special symbols would also drive SAVE operation to a OS-pass halt.(but not catch fire)
(incomplete pass-next down)
Solution
- - - - -
SEARCH and EXPORT (brilliant feature)
I used DATE is BEFORE mm/dd/yy (+) DATE is AFTER mm/dd/yy
in example: DATE is BEFORE 1/1/2012 + DATE is AFTER 12/31/2010
results in all email within the MBOX in year 2011.
EXPORT {ALL} (at the bottom of this dialog) can export to EML (or TEXT)
Result:
GEEmails from ()years separated by year into directories, in EML , HTML or TXT format
that are searchable, backed up to redundant drives.
thanks ThunderbirdI knew I could come back in time to find the magic Mozilla Dinosaur to help me
