NOTE: If you are looking for assistance with backing up your email account contents, please see the section titled "Retrieving a copy of your email."

Introduction

Your email stored on the IMAP server is backed up daily and is accessible from any Internet location with IT webmail. You may decide to remove email from the server in cases where

• you are reaching your quota limit and want to archive old mail
• you want to put email on CD for archival purposes
• you use webmail and want to retrieve email locally (account expiring)
• your account is being closed and you want to take your email with you
• some or all of your folders are destined for another person for example a job position change
• you want to actively read messages locally (offline) and have means to backup your important mail.

The original mail is still stored on the IMAP server so you may want to delete folders to reduce your email storage usage. It is suggested to empty Trash, remove spam folders and remove unwanted messages in  your sent-mail folder  prior to continuing.

Retrieving a Copy of your Email

You definitely want to have a high-speed internet connection (and suitable browser) if you have a large volume of email. Use IT Utility Check Disk Space for information about your email usage. For detailed information on the size and number of messages in a folder use webmail and select the Folder Sizes button. 

If you wish to retrieve a local archive of your mail folders, please use IMAPSize. Please click here for instructions on how to use IMAP SIZE to retrieve a local copy of your email account contents. 

Backing up your copy

The folders you downloaded are ready to be burned to a CD for backup, for archiving, moving to another PC, or to take with you if relocating. Backup your Mail folder if you decide to delete the server originals or if your account expires. Information Technologies only keeps mail backups for a few months if you lose or need to recover email.

New mail arriving and changes you made after retrieving are not in your local copy. Using IMAPSize, you may retrieve a new snapshot at any time.

About Viewing your Archived Mail

Mail folders can only be viewed by an email program because of encryption of attachments. Some programs import email easier than others. Information on obtaining and installing some of the mal programs is found at the location:  http://www.ucalgary.ca/it/email/clients

• Outlook or Outlook Express can handle the .eml files exported by IMAPSIZE. Simply drag the exported files into a new folder in the "Local Folders" section of Outlook.
• If you do not have Netscape Communicator or Mozilla/Thunderbird installed, PC-Pine is a simple install to peruse or validate the messages in the folders downloaded or on a CD.
• The following instructions are for Thunderbird, Mozilla, Netscape, Apple Mail, and PC-Pine clients.
• IMPORTANT: If you are not using Outlook, please convert the .eml files to .msf files by clicking Tools -> eml2mboxes in IMAPSize. Convert the archive, making sure to place the generated files somewhere you can find later. eg: Your Desktop.

Viewing with Mozilla 1.X / Thunderbird 1.X

Mozilla uses an area within the program profile called Local Folders for storing email folders on your machine.

If you have subfolders (folders within folders) on the IMAP then check that you have selected the option Import to Mozilla when you ran the Retrieve, otherwise you will not be able to view the subfolders. The utility would have added folders with a .sbd extension. Otherwise redo the Retrieve.

• In Mozilla Mail program, click Tools -> Account Settings and select Local Folders.
• Copy the path listed as "Local Directory" to the clipboard. The path will look something like "C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\RANDOM.default\Mail\Local Folders" on a windows PC.
• Open this folder using Windows Explorer or Finder.
• Copy the files which were generated using the "eml2mboxes" tool in IMASize to the Local Folders directory.
• Close Thunderbird and re-open it. Your imported folders will now appear under "Local Folders"

For more information on the profile area, use this link for the Mozilla Thunderbird 2.x profile locator.

Viewing with Netscape 4.5-4.8X

Please upgrade to Mozilla Thunderbird.

Viewing with Apple OS X Mail

Open the Apple Mail program

• Select File -> Import Mailboxes
• Select Other radio button and browse for the downloaded Mail folder
• Click Choose
• Click Continue
• Click Done

Your archived imap folders can be located in the Import folder.

Viewing with PC-Pine 4.30 or higher

Pine is an easy to use, menu-driven mail program (one-letter commands or mouse double-clicks). One bonus feature is it shows the message recipient if you are the sender for any folder message list. This is convenient for scanning messages in Sent or sent-mail.

You can download the PC-Pine General Setup program from Pine Source. Click the icon to install.

Pine defaults to locating folders in the c:\mail directory. Skip this section if the downloaded folders have been unzipped and stored in C:\mail.

To create a Collection List pointing to another drive or directory on your computer

1. Launch PC-Pine. You do not have to login or be connected to the Internet. Simply cancel when prompted to connect.
2. Select Setup from the Main menu.
3. Select L for collection List.
4. Select A for Add Cltn.
5. Type Local in the Nickname field. Leave the Server field blank.
6. Type the location of your local mail folders in the Path field. Examples:
   D:\ or E:\mail if your folders are on your CD.
   C:\MailDir if your folders are located in a directory called MailDir,
   F:\MailDir if your folders are located in a network drive (F:)
   Leave the View field blank.
7. Type Ctrl-X (^X) to eXit/Save the new folder collection.
8. Type E to exit the setup.

To View your folders:

1. Go to the Folder List (type l) from the Main menu.
2. Select the Local Mail (nickname specified above) folder collection you created and hit Enter. The folders in the collection should appear.
3. Select the folder you wish to view and hit Enter to view the folder's contents.
Use the Help command to explore the features of pine further.

Deleting email from the IMAP Server

IT Webmail has convenient links to manage (create new, rename, delete) your email Folders on the IMAP Server at the University of Calgary. After the login screen select the Folders link. You will notice a drop down box marked by Delete. Select a folder in the drop down list. Click Delete. Once deleted the contents are permanently removed from your IMAP storage. You can do this from any machine location that has a web browser and internet connection such as after you have relocated and taken your email CD with you!