How you archive emails in Mac Mail?

[Machist]

Hello!

How you manage/archive your old emails?

I have email archive starting 2008 -> and Mail folder size is over 22 Gb

Example my 2008 emails are in
/Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V4/3BB7B2B5-4123-4BD0-8D85-101E92801E73/MobileMe 2008.mbox

Other archive files are in
/Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V7/... or /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V10/...

I think this solution:
I create folder "Email Archive" in my iCloud Drive and move all old .mbox files there.

- I Can easily find email archive and import .mbox files in Mail app
- I also can access my old emails via iPhone
- Reduce Mail folder size

Can I remove old V4 and V7 folders after that? I think V10 is latest

Any other ideas?
I do not want use any 3rd party software.

 

[MacGizmo]

Without the use of any 3rd party software, I think you probably have the only solution (at least the only easy one).

 

[adrianlondon]

Close Mail, rename (or move) the folders. Reboot.

Can you still access all your mails? Great! You can delete the old folders.

As for me, I have an Applescript (not used it in 2 years, so might not still work) which takes every email received in a year you pick and copies them to "On my mac" folders of the same name. Once I'm happy it worked I can delete them from the IMAP folder. I don't do this at the moment as I'm not short of space and just use the script as a backup method.

 

[gvmelbrty]

I use EagleFiler to archive email.. and catalog many other file types.

 

[Machist]

I use EagleFiler to archive email.. and catalog many other file types.

How often you need to purchase new version? There is some softwares witch you need to update(paid) after every major OS upgrade. Maybe I need to try 3rd party software if there is no easy solution.

 

[MacGizmo]

Mail Steward is really good ($25 one-time purchase). The downloads work for free forever with a 15,000 email limit, after that you need to purchase. I'm not sure it requires an upgrade fee for every OS update, but I suspect it does not.

 

[gvmelbrty]

How often you need to purchase new version? There is some softwares witch you need to update(paid) after every major OS upgrade. Maybe I need to try 3rd party software if there is no easy solution.

I've been using it (EagleFiler) for years on the original license, including many upgrades, while operating multiple MacOS versions.

 

[Machist]

EagleFiler sounds pretty good.
I will try that.

 

[Machist]

EagleFiler seems to be right solution.
I have 71 665 email in my archive 😅

Size is about 7Gb

Mail seems to duplicate archived emails so every folder is over 7Gb.
7+7+7=21..