Saving an IMAP based e-mail locally
-
pradhansb last edited by
Greetings again,
I want to confirm my thinking. I have been experimenting with moving to an IMAP based e-mail system/client as opposed to POP3. I have been using Opera Browser/Mail for years. Now, if my understanding is correct, via Labels, Opera Mail allows for e-mails to appear (via internal pointer) in different label folders, but you are NOT actually copying the e-mail to that folder. You are viewing the same e-mail in different locations, correct?So, is there any way to actually MOVE an e-mail from my IMAP Inbox to a local folder so that it is permanently kept locally?
That's my goal, to be able to keep locally any e-mail from an IMAP account. Any way to do this at all?
Thanks,
Pradhan -
leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by
You are viewing the same e-mail in different locations, correct?
Correct.
So, is there any way to actually MOVE an e-mail from my IMAP Inbox to a local folder so that it is permanently kept locally?
You'll need to save/export that e-mail, import it into a fake account and then label it. After that you can delete the message in your imap inbox if you want.
Note that Opera mail doesn't use folders so you haveto use labels.
-
burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
You'll need to save/export that e-mail
http://www.reddit.com/r/operabrowser/wiki/m2tips/export_messages will help with that.
import it into a fake account and then label it.
"Menu -> settings -> import and export -> import mail -> import generic mbox". Set "import into" to a new or existing account. To change the name of an account, see the "General" tab in the account's properties. The import wizard usually generates an account named "import" (or "import (n)" where you can change the name to "account1_archive" for example if you want.
Now, if my understanding is correct, via Labels, Opera Mail allows for e-mails to appear (via internal pointer) in different label folders, but you are NOT actually copying the e-mail to that folder. You are viewing the same e-mail in different locations, correct?
Correct. Each view/label is a saved search that's made on the database. The message list for the view returns the results of that search. In Opera, that view's search is cached/index so that it opens really fast instead of running the search on the database again when you open it.
Delete on a message puts the trash flag on the message. In a label though, if you want to unlabel a message, you can right-click it, goto "delete" and choose "remove from view". Or, you can just uncheck in the "label as" menu.
Labeling works like in Windows Explorer where dragging from one label to another moves to that target label and ctrl + dragging copies. You can look at this old post to get more of an idea how Opera's views work.
-
pradhansb last edited by
Hey Burnout, still working I see! Thank you both for your comments. While I still love OperaMail as a mail client, not supporting any folder structure at all is an obvious weakness when it comes to supporting IMAP. The IMAP concept is appealing to me because I travel a lot and for great lengths of time, which necessitated the copying of my mail folder from one computer to another, and then back again, whereas IMAP would allow for server-syncing. But one important factor in IMAP (which I believe is true) is that once you move an e-mail from an IMAP subfolder to a local folder, it is now copied there and will remain local.
So, if there is no folder structure at all, there is no method to move an e-mail locally. And the export/re-import solution is fine but a bit tedious when compared to just dragging the e-mail to another folder.
Oh...which brings me to one other point slightly off topic. Before I experimented with this, I checked the forum for how-to's for moving from pop3 to imap, and one simple one which was not mentioned was simply creating a forward at the server to a second account and accessing this second account via imap protocol.
Thanks for your help again,
Pradhan -
burnout426 Volunteer last edited by
While I still love OperaMail as a mail client, not supporting any folder structure at all is an obvious weakness when it comes to supporting IMAP.
In the mail panel, under the you@example.com access point for the IMAP account, all those views behave exactly as folders. If you're a fan of tradition IMAP clients, you can just drag that access point up to the top of the mail panel and just ignore all the other access points in Opera. You can even click the wrench icon on the mail panel toolbar to hide the other access points. That way, you're just working with folders and everything syncs fine. You have to drag and ctrl + drag or cut/copy + paste (via context menu or keyboard shortcuts) to move/copy messages from one IMAP folder to the other (opera doesn't have a right-click -> move/copy to). But, it works great.
Just make sure to set your trash, spam ans sent folders on the IMAP tab in the account's properties.
Of course, I'm not saying that helps with POP3 accounts or archiving IMAP messages. But, for IMAP in general, Opera does have folders.
-
pradhansb last edited by
Yes, BUT those folder are all IMAP sync'd folders. There is no way to create a local folder and copy the e-mail to such a folder, thereby saving it off the server. I believe the only way to do this is the aforementioned export/import to another mailbox.
-
-
pradhansb last edited by
Nope...dragging it to a label just creates a pointer. As soon as I delete the message from the IMAP folder, it deletes from the label's folder as well. Too bad. The ability to create local folders would really make the stand-alone package still a very excellent all around e-mail client. But this deficiency really weakens the IMAP aspect. Folder creation was never part of Opera even though it has to be a piece of cake to have included it, and since the development of this software is over, it may be time to switch--unfortunately.
