delete and keep IMAP emails

[jchuzi]

My wife has an IMAP account (mine is POP, so this question does not apply to me). She deletes as many emails as she can but still wants to keep many of them without going over the storage limit of the server (and she can come close!). If I set up a dedicated folder in the On My Mac section of Mail, can she move emails to that folder and have them stored on our computer and delete them from the server at the same time?

[Xairbusdriver]

I've never tried it, but perhaps she can use the "Message->Copy to" command? There is probably already an "Archive" mailbox in all your accounts. You can also create a new mailbox just for "SWIMBO Messages". I just tried the "Copy to" on a message and then deleted it, Quit and Restarted Mail and the test message was still where I copied it. That location is a separate account from where is was originally, however.

I gave up my attempt to get my wife to 'trim' her old (EarthLink/Mindspring) email account. I just paid for a couple of GB of storage...

[jchuzi]

Thanks! I'll try that.

[Paddy]

https://www.arxnetworks.com/2017/06/archive-imap-e-mail-apple-mail/

Easy-peasy. I do it all the time (or get clients to do it) when they're moving servers and have domain-associated email - then I get them to move all their mail (or just the mail they need to access from multiple devices) back to the active Inbox/Sent mailboxes after the move. 

It's one of the beauties of IMAP - you can keep all the important stuff you need access to from more than one device synced, and archive the rest in folders "on My Mac."

BTW - if you're using Gmail, yes, there is an "Archive" option - but you're not freeing up space on the server by using it. It just sends the archived emails to the "All Mail" folder (which I always disable from showing in Apple Mail, as I find it utterly useless...).

[jchuzi]

Thanks, Paddy. As it turns out, we access email solely from our home computer so we don't need IMAP (and we started with POP, but the conversion to IMAP for my wife occurred without our realizing it). Your solution certainly looks easy.