Apple Mail and IMAP (Leaving Mail on Server)

[xnetco]

Hello.

I've used POP most of my days but I've finally switched over to IMAP and love it although I'm confused about the best way to leave email on the server. I would like all my Macs to have copies of all email although would like the server to just say have the last 7 days.

Does anyone know if this is possible? If so how?

Thanks

Tim

 

[Mal]

The whole point of IMAP is that your mail is always on the server. It can't be synced between multiple computers if it's deleted from the server. As far as I know, there's no way to do what you're talking about with IMAP, it's simply not designed to do that (which is a good thing). If you're running out of space, best bet would simply be to switch to Gmail or somewhere else with more storage available.

jW

 

[Le Big Mac]

You might be able to set up some sort of rule with your local email client to archive messages locally and then delete them from the server after a period of time. I think that's asking for trouble and potentially creating a mess, but you could do that.

alternatively, do that manually -- move important messages to your local email client and then delete them from the server manually. If necessary you could move them back to the server to transfer them to other computers.

If you have space issues, check your attachments. I'd say that something like 95% of my disk/email capacity use is from about 5% of emails--ones with large attachments. When I have to delete (work rules) I clear out a few of those and I'm set for a while.