Archiving E-Mail in Mail.app?

[Kelmon]

OK, here's the deal:

I have thousands of e-mails in mail.app that are distributed across a lot of mail folders. A lot of these e-mails are pretty ancient and I'd like to archive them on removable media since it's taking up valuable disk space (about 1.5GB) and slowing down Spotlight.

Is there any way to archive e-mails in the same folder structure based on the age of the e-mails? What I would like is the equivalent of Archive in Outlook whereby the same folder structure is created and e-mails are moved from online to archive when they exceed a given age. I am aware that e-mails can be searched for based on age and dragged into the Finder to create an archive file but I presume that will destroy the current organisation.

Is what I want possible and, if so, how can it be achieved? I am not adverse to spending a bit of money on the solution as this is pretty important.

 

[pdpfilms]

Isn't mail stored in a single file somewhere in the Library? If so, couldn't you just backup this file to disk?

This is the only way I can think of...

 

[mfacey]

Isn't mail stored in a single file somewhere in the Library? If so, couldn't you just backup this file to disk?

This is the only way I can think of...

No its not. Each mailbox has its own directory. The only way I know of archiving mail is by just dragging straight from maill.app. You can also drag out folders you made in Mail and it will stay organized. I don't know if this also works with Smart Folders though.

 

[Kelmon]

Sounds like a test worth trying.

But, in regards to just backing up the mail folder, that's an option and would give a backup copy in case of problems but it won't actually get the old e-mails off my hard drive. Basically, I just want to nuke those that are a few years old and maintain the others online.

 

[VanNess]

I haven't used this program, but it sounds like just what the doctor ordered.

 

[Kelmon]

I haven't used this program, but it sounds like just what the doctor ordered.

No kidding! That's a great link and has, if nothing else, given me 2 applications that may solve my problem for me. The limited demo should give me a chance to check out this product properly and I'll definitely be downloading a copy once I have gotten my PowerBook on a network again!

Many thanks