[rageman]

I use Mail to manage all my email accounts; currently I have four that are active (meaning I use them on a daily basis to receive and send). While I do organize my mail into folders (mailboxes, I guess) I am wondering if there is a way to archive old email and keep it searchable. My mail folder is getting too big, but I do sometimes have to reference mail from a long ways back (1+ years) so I am looking for a solution that compresses the old mail, but keeps it searchable. Any ideas appreciated.

[Veltliner]

On the left side (where the inbox, outbox, etc. are) on the bottom there is a "=" button.

Click it, and you'll get a new folder within Mail, that you can name yourself.

Now you just drag the e-mails you want to store to that or other folders, et voila, your inbox is freed of emails, and you have everything stored and sorted.

[rageman]

Thanks for the reply - this is how I organize all my email now, but over the last few years there are thousands in folders in the sidebar, many with attachments that I do not want to lose, but would like to compress and keep searchable. I guess larger hard drives are cheap and Mail does a better job keeping things in multiple folders rather than the large single file it used to.

[MacNNUK]

Originally Posted by rageman 

I use Mail to manage all my email accounts; currently I have four that are active (meaning I use them on a daily basis to receive and send). While I do organize my mail into folders (mailboxes, I guess) I am wondering if there is a way to archive old email and keep it searchable. My mail folder is getting too big, but I do sometimes have to reference mail from a long ways back (1+ years) so I am looking for a solution that compresses the old mail, but keeps it searchable. Any ideas appreciated.

Within Mail itself is one solution I use: Archive Mailbox


I also use myemaildb which I prefer for searching old emails.

[rageman]

Thanks for the tip on myemaildb; just a cursory glance looks like it would work well for me!