How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

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JGAM
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Joined: December 2nd, 2021, 8:44 am

How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by JGAM »

How can I save to my local computer all of the emails (many years worth) from the Sent folder of my sbcglobal.net account. I have Thunderbird setup on this sbcglobal.net account using POP. I have all of the Inbox emails saved, but not the sent. I have been informed that I cannot save the Sent emails using POP. Is there another method? I am changing ISP and may soon not have access to my sbcglobal.net account.
mgagnonlv
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Joined: February 12th, 2005, 8:33 pm

Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by mgagnonlv »

What you said is not exactly right. Since you are using POP, sent messages are not stored at your ISP; they are only stored locally. But you have them. Problem is that messages that you sent are stored in the Sent folder while messages you replied to are typically stored in the same folder as the original message you received (ex.: Inbox). So you have all of them (unless you deleted some); they just are in different places. The simplest way is to copy your entire "YourAccount" hierarchy so that you have everything.

The content of your account might either be under the "Local Folders" hierarchy or under the account hierarchy, depending on how you configured the account. Saving under the "'Local Folders" hierarchy is an option that seems to have disappeared a few years ago, so you are likely to have the messages saved under the account hierarchy. In other words, your left side panel looks like this (the exact folder names might be different):

YourAccount@somewhere.com
– Inbox
– Drafts
– Stationary (or templates)
– Sent
– Archive
– Junk
– Trash
Any folder you created
Local Folders Note.: the folders below may or may not exist in a recent installation
– Inbox
– Drafts
– Stationary
– Sent
– Archive
– Junk
– Trash

*******************************

1st AND UNLIKELY SCENARIO
You have only the Local Folders hierarchy (or if you have something at the top, it is for a different account).


Check individual messages to make sure, but it would look like your installation is old enough and all messages of your account are already saved into the Local Folders hierarchy.

Then you have nothing to do, all your activity is already safely stored in Thunderbird.


2nd SCENARIO
You have your messages in a distinct "account" hierarchy, as shown at the top.


Then the safest is to move or copy all your messages under the "Local Folders" hierarchy.
(Copy allows you to keep a copy in place, so you can double-check that everything was moved)

The best solution to find your way later is to do the following:
  • Under Local Folders, create a new folder called "YourAccount – Inbox"
  • Select all messages in your current Inbox folder (i.e. the one you are using with your account).
  • Right-click and select either "Copy" or "Move", then the destination, which is the new folder you just created.
    Let Thunderbird do its job.
    Note. If you have many thousand messages or you are someone who sends huge attachments (5-20 MB), it is safer to move or copy only 1000-2000 messages at a time.
  • Create other folders like "YourAccount - Sent", etc. and do the same process for all other folders you have.
That way, when you close your current account, you can remove it and messages will still be accessible under the Local Folders hierarchy.
Michel Gagnon
Montréal (Québec, Canada)
JGAM
Posts: 19
Joined: December 2nd, 2021, 8:44 am

Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by JGAM »

Michel,
Thank-you for your reply. I shall carefully read through your suggestions this weekend and try to understand them a little better. If you don't mind, I may ask you for a little assistance at some point. Thanks again!
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DanRaisch
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Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by DanRaisch »

As noted in your previous thread regarding access to the Sent folder"
DanRaisch wrote:The sent messages will be saved on the local computer and a Sent folder will be created when a first message is sent.
JGAM
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Joined: December 2nd, 2021, 8:44 am

Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by JGAM »

So, if I send a message using Thunderbird, all of my past sbcglobal.net emails from my Sent folder will be stored on my local computer?
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DanRaisch
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Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by DanRaisch »

"past messages"? How have you been sending messages from that sbcglobal.net account in the past? Were accessing that account through the web mail page?
JGAM
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Joined: December 2nd, 2021, 8:44 am

Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by JGAM »

I have sent a test message using Thunderbird with my sbcglobal.net account, and a "Sent" folder has now appeared with the single test email. How do I now transfer all of the sent messages from my sbcglobal.net account to archive/save on Thunderbird?
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tanstaafl
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Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by tanstaafl »

There is no problem copying messages from your POP account to the Local Folders account, so that you can archive them before deleting the account. The issue is how to archive any messages that exist only in webmail.

The POP3 protocol (used by POP accounts) literally does not know about the existence of any folders on the mail server other than the inbox. This is not a Thunderbird specific limitation. The webmail Sent folder has nothing in common with the POP accounts Sent folder despite having the same name.

The simplest solution would be to add a IMAP account for the same email address. IMAP accounts let you access all of the remote folders (everything Webmail uses) as if they were local folders. You could then drag and drop all of the accounts folders to a child folder you create in "Local Folders" to back up your mail. You can have a POP and a IMAP account for the same email address at the same time, though its not a configuration people tend to keep for long. The reason to copy the folders to a child folder is to avoid name conflicts.

If you don't want to do that you could copy messages from the sent folder etc. to the inbox using webmail, and then try to keep track of what folder they were originally in as you archive them in Thunderbird. Doable but awkward, error prone and slow.
JGAM
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Joined: December 2nd, 2021, 8:44 am

Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by JGAM »

tanstaafl - Thanks for your suggestions. When you say to "add a IMAP account for the same email address" do you mean a new sbcglobal.net account or a new Thunderbird account. I have tried to add a Thunderbird account for this address but IMAP is not an option for my sbcglobal.net address, and if I try to configure manually, it does not work showing an error message instead.
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DanRaisch
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Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by DanRaisch »

When trying to manually enter the IMAP settings in Thunderbird did you use the values identified on this site -= https://www.att.com/support/article/ema ... /KM1010523
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tanstaafl
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Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by tanstaafl »

JGAM wrote:When you say to "add a IMAP account for the same email address" do you mean a new sbcglobal.net account or a new Thunderbird account.
The latter. The new account wizard expects a unique combination of the username, account type (POP/IMAP) and mail server . So if your email provider supports both POP and IMAP you can have both POP and IMAP accounts for the same email address. Some email providers use the same mail server for both POP and IMAP, others have separate servers.

If you follow the link Dan provided you see AT&T typically uses inbound.att.net with port 993 for POP and imap.mail.att.net with port 995 for IMAP, but it depends upon what domain your email address uses.
JGAM
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Joined: December 2nd, 2021, 8:44 am

Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by JGAM »

Error Message reads: "Unable to log in at server. Probably wrong configuration, username or password."
Under manual configuration using IMAP as protocol I used imap.mail.att.net as hostname with port # 993 and smtp.mail.att.net as hostname trying both ports 465 and 587 as instructed at the provided link https://www.att.com/support/article/ema ... /KM1010523 for sbcglobal.net.

Please advise.
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tanstaafl
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Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by tanstaafl »

SSL/TLS is enabled?

Does AT&T require you to use a application specific password with a email client or can you use the normal password? See the "Is your email program or app affected? Create a secure mail key so you can keep getting your AT&T email." sentence. I think the security key is actually an application password. that
https://www.att.com/support/article/ema ... /KM1240308 explains how to create.
JGAM
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Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by JGAM »

tanstaafl Thanks for all of your help. I needed to create a security key as you mentioned. I wound up with two IMAP ccounts for one of my sbcglobal.net addresses.
One is followed by (IMAP)_2 and appears to have all of my folders. The other (IMAP) is empty showing only the inbox folder, and has an error message pop up when I click on the Inbox that says "Failed to connect to server inbound.mail.att.net"
Please advise.
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tanstaafl
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Re: How To Archive sbcglobal.net emails from Sent Folder

Post by tanstaafl »

Where do you see (IMAP)_2 ? I don't understand the context.

Did you create another IMAP account or did you modify the existing one to use a application password? Thunderbird won't spontaneously add a account.

The new account wizard expects a unique combination of the account type (POP/IMAP), username and mail server name. What's different between the two IMAP accounts?
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