Mail

[jparker402]

Would like a little help with Mail. Not sure which forum to post in, but typed in "Mail" and past discussion makes me think this is a good place to start.

I need to organize my Mail and Mail files better than I have been doing. Browsing YouTube, I have found at least one person recommending filing emails outside the Mail filing system; creating files in Documents, for example. The idea would be to allow more versatility in managing and using the emails. I am not smart enough at the moment to really see how that would help me with the large number of emails I have already saved in Mail files. And I tend to let email build uptime in my inbox. I really need to get it put somewhere.

Just now while exploring options, I discovered another "problem" I have inadvertently created. Not only do I have things building up in my Inbox, my Sent Box has overflowed! I do use the "arrows" used to repeat entire emails when adding comments or replying until the point that I think the message is too long. Then I simply start a new email in response. To my horror I just realized that when I start a new response, I have just created a filing disconnect! A question that I asked is in the Sent Box and the answer is in the Inbox, and both separated. Other than creating a string of email correspondence 10 messages long, is there another solution?

Grateful for suggestions!

 

[jaysabol]

Choose New Mailbox and "On My Mac".. You can make mailboxes for the different areas you want and clean on out your in box.

 

[Fishrrman]

jay is right.

Open Mail.
Go to the "Mailbox" menu and choose "New Mailbox..."
Where it says "Location", choose "On My Mac" (like below).

Now, give it a name:
EXAMPLE:
For your sent mails, name it "Sent Archive".
Click OK.

Now, go to your "active account" (where your active "Sent" mailbox is).
Grab one email there you want to archive, and "drag it" to the new "Sent Archive" box.
Let it go -- it should drop into it.

This is what you want to do for other stuff.

You could create an "Archived Mail" mailbox for inbox stuff you want to clean out.
You could create "Bills" for things like utility bills.

I've created archives for friends (each with their name).

Whatever you want.

Once you've created some "On My Mac" mailboxes, you can drag them up/down in the list and arrange them as you want.

Try this -- it's incredibly easy.

 

[jparker402]

Relative to my first question, creating mailboxes under in my mac is what I have been doing. MacMost has suggested turning the emails into document files (for example) would give one more options and perhaps better organization. That is what I was wondering about.

More urgent need is some way to go back and connect outgoing emails with incoming emails. As in, I ask someone a question (outgoing) and someone replies (incoming).

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"More urgent need is some way to go back and connect outgoing emails with incoming emails. As in, I ask someone a question (outgoing) and someone replies (incoming)."

Create a new mailbox "on My Mac" with that person's name (or subject of the conversation).
Now put all the emails he sent to you, and all your replies, into the one mailbox.
Now you have them "together". If you sort them "by date", they ought to be easy to read through.

There's also some kind of "converations" option with Mail, but I don't use it, don't care for it.

 

[jparker402]

OP wrote:
"More urgent need is some way to go back and connect outgoing emails with incoming emails. As in, I ask someone a question (outgoing) and someone replies (incoming)."

Create a new mailbox "on My Mac" with that person's name (or subject of the conversation).
Now put all the emails he sent to you, and all your replies, into the one mailbox.
Now you have them "together". If you sort them "by date", they ought to be easy to read through.

There's also some kind of "converations" option with Mail, but I don't use it, don't care for it.

Great! Thank you! I think that that will do it quite well!

 

[BrianBaughn]

I assume you're aware that moving emails to folders "On My Mac" makes them inaccessible to any other devices that you may have that are accessing your email server(s). For me, this is unacceptable.

 

[jparker402]

I assume you're aware that moving emails to folders "On My Mac" makes them inaccessible to any other devices that you may have that are accessing your email server(s). For me, this is unacceptable.

I am afraid I do not understand. While I currently only really work with my email on my MacBook Pro, I do have an iPhone. Say if I take an outgoing email and file/move it into a folder (or whatever it is) that I call Parker Correspondence (and it is On My Mac in the email app) and then take an incoming email on the same subject and file it with the outgoing one, that something is going to be inaccessible to my iPhone?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Brian is right about what happens to email when you move it into a folder in "On My Mac" -- it is removed from the server and is now... on YOUR Mac (stored locally).

If you want to organize a conversation, yet have it available to other devices, could you create the folder "at the server level"? Seems to me that Mail.app can do this...?

 

[jparker402]

Hmmmm. Always kind of wondered what "On My Mac" was suppose to mean, other than it was on my Mac! Then relative to use in the Mail app if I put something in a folder in On My Mac, that means that is the only place it is? Did not realize that. But last night I copied the message from an email onto a Pages file and saved it. Did that because I wanted to keep it on a Pages folder. Is that the kind of action I need to take on all such emails then? Other than just keeping it in a folder in On My Mac.

 

[MacMorrison]

Having struggled with Apple Mail for over twenty years, my solution is to use Mozilla Thunderbird as a mail client instead. You can export those folders to other systems flawlessly. It's free.

Apple Mail (as a mail client) is messy and slow... avoid at all costs.

 

[Gregg2]

For me, Mail works well. I have several folders that messages are saved in, but don’t really manipulate them at all. Since I don’t need to do anything complicated, I have used Mail without problems.

 

[Fishrrman]

I've never had much trouble with Apple Mail, been using it since I first got OS X back around 2004.

I don't have lots and lots of emails, however. And I don't often find myself "going back" to old emails that much... very seldom do I do that.

One thing that I've learned over the years is... don't leave too much of your "old stuff" on the ISP servers. Clean it off now and then.

I've got a friend who uses the "trash" on his ISP as his "storage" of old emails. He seldom deletes anything...!

 

[MacMorrison]

Hmmmm. Always kind of wondered what "On My Mac" was suppose to mean, other than it was on my Mac! Then relative to use in the Mail app if I put something in a folder in On My Mac, that means that is the only place it is? Did not realize that. But last night I copied the message from an email onto a Pages file and saved it. Did that because I wanted to keep it on a Pages folder. Is that the kind of action I need to take on all such emails then? Other than just keeping it in a folder in On My Mac.

Yes, you can either keep your messages "On My Mac" (local) or in mailboxes on the server (the cloud). How many messages you keep depends on your email service - usually you can check your storage usage somewhere in your account settings online.

If you're using Time Machine, you can then transfer all those email folders to another Mac.