IMAP and saving messages locally

[bdog1234]

I have used POP3 email forever. I have all of my emails going back to the 90's stored on my computer. I have a small business and you would be surprised how often I find myself looking up something over a decade old. I use Thunderbird for my email but I assume it would be the same with Mail.

I just got a new email account and it does not offer POP3 only IMAP. My understanding of IMAP is the messages are stored on the server and not downloaded locally. I often work in remote areas with no internet service, and like being able to access all my old emails at anytime. Also while I am sure the email server is robust it makes me feel good having everything local on my computer and included in my multiple daily backups.

Doing some searching online it seems it is fairly easily to manually copy emails from the IMAP folders to the local folders on my computer but is there a way to automatically do this? In some ways IMAP seems better in that it syncs everything with all my devices which is great but I just want all my emails fully downloaded and stored locally. Am I missing something on how to do this?

 

[glenthompson]

I do not like using email as an information store. I’ve seen too many people screwed when their email store gets corrupted and they lose all that information. When I need to save emails I convert them to a PDF and store that in my filing system. Much easier to backup. You may want to talk to your lawyer about document retention policies. Discovery in a lawsuit could bite you in the rear.

 

[bdog1234]

Interesting. I do save PDF's of very important stuff but I am talking about finding the most random things in old emails. I don't have a lawyer. Haven't needed one. Small business. Myself and four manual laborers. I am not sure what you mean about the discovery. I mean I are or less know what it is but how would it bite me? By having too much information or not enough? Not sure I am following.

 

[glenthompson]

Too much information. If you get sued then those old emails could be used against you in the case since you still have them. If your policy is to delete certain records after a certain amount of time and you do delete them, they can’t be used against you. Such history can be used to show a pattern of behavior.

 

[bdog1234]

I see. Makes sense I guess but I don't believe I do anything where this would be relevant. Most my old emails are thing from friends and family some of which are now deceased.

 

[TiggrToo]

Unsure how we got from a generic email question to lawyers, retention and being sued. Dunno about you @bdog1234 , but I got whiplash reading @glenthompson's post.

As someone who's been directly involved in such a process, keeping email has been very beneficial as it allowed us to prevail in a lawsuit.

So I'd not worry too much on their "advise" right now.

There's several ways to keep important emails, including, but not limited to the aforesaid PDF, saving them in MSG format, printing or even sending the content to a second backup email address.

 

[bdog1234]

Thanks for the reply. I have a good backup strategy and system for important things. That really isn't what I am wondering. With POP3 which I have used for 25 years all emails are downloaded from the server and stored locally in their entirety on my computer. I liked that. Now with IMAP, which is the only option I have now, the email headers are downloaded to my computer and when I click on a message it downloads it then I think. It says you must be online to view your messages even in something like Mail or Thunderbird. What I want is to somehow have this IMAP automatically download complete messages and function like POP3 did more or less.

 

[TiggrToo]

Thanks for the reply. I have a good backup strategy and system for important things. That really isn't what I am wondering. With POP3 which I have used for 25 years all emails are downloaded from the server and stored locally in their entirety on my computer. I liked that. Now with IMAP, which is the only option I have now, the email headers are downloaded to my computer and when I click on a message it downloads it then I think. It says you must be online to view your messages even in something like Mail or Thunderbird. What I want is to somehow have this IMAP automatically download complete messages and function like POP3 did more or less.

Totally you can do that. In fact that's how it's meant to work!

The whole point of IMAP is that the server is the source, but you can have copies in multiple locations on phones, tablets and computers.

IMAP works best when it only has to deliver you new emails etc.

Unsure why Thunderbird is doing what you say its doing. It's been forever since I played with it.