Operamail: No separate forum for this? Or no sub category under Opera for Windows?

[rh99]

rh99 last edited by

Just want to make sure I'm posting to the right category.
Is there a way of changing the location of mail storage?
Why don't they title these folders logically in Documents and Settings? Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Outbox, Trash under each account name? I want to back up the Inbox and Sent folders and don't want them stored on C drive because if Windows dies, which it sometimes does and needs reinstalling, I'll lose it. Of course I'll back it up as well.

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

Is there a way of changing the location of mail storage?

Yep. Edit operaprefs.ini and add/change this line:

[Mail]
Mail Root Directory=path-to-the-folder-where-you-want-mail-to-be

Why don't they title these folders logically in Documents and Settings? Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Outbox, Trash under each account name?

Because they aren't real folders.

I want to back up the Inbox and Sent folders and don't want them stored on C drive because if Windows dies, which it sometimes does and needs reinstalling, I'll lose it. Of course I'll back it up as well.

You can change the location of all mail. not specific "folders"/views.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

Why don't they title these folders logically in Documents and Settings?

In each accountN folder in the mail/store folder, each message for the account is stored in an mbox file (with an .mbs extension). The mbox files for the account are grouped by year/month/day/number.mbs. They're not sorted more than that on the drive. (Drafts for all accounts are in the "Drafts" folder in the "store" folder though.)

For Opera's user interface though, it makes use of databases to keep track of messages. There's omailbase.dat to keep track of messages (and their states) and their IDs. There's the indexer files in the indexer folder to keep track of what messages are in what views (see how views work in the mail panel (the views are defined in index.ini). There's a message id file in the indexer folder to handle threading.

See http://www.reddit.com/r/operabrowser/wiki/m2tips/mail_folder_structure for more info.

As you can see, since parts of mail are outside of the mail folder, you need to back up all of Opera's profile. That means, back up all of "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Opera Mail\Opera Mail" and "C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Opera Mail\Opera" for example. Or, if all you are concerned about are the messages themselves, back up just the "store" folder in the mail folder.

You can export messages though to back them up if you want to do things that way.

[rh99]

rh99 last edited by

Edit operaprefs.ini and add/change this line: [Mail] Mail Root Directory=path-to-the-folder-where-you-want-mail-to-be

I should have clarified that I'm using Operamail 1.0, the stand alone program. Not the Opera browser's mail area.

I looked in operaprefs.ini but there is nothing in there regarding a Mail Directory.

It seems so sensible to keep all the important stuff in your life in one folder and that folder gets encrypted and backed up. You can create shortcuts to that folder from other folders of course to keep things organized. That's what I'm trying to do here. It would be optimal to have just Inbox and Sent data saved but that's asking a little too much I guess. For now, all of it would be a great thing.

Another great thing would be to have nothing of Operamail 1.0 placed on C drive. I install programs elsewhere so when Windows needs to be reinstalled, I don't have to mess with all the install hassles again. But Documents and Settings has stuff from Operamail there. I need to change the directory of that somewhere to place it with the program files.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

I should have clarified that I'm using Operamail 1.0, the stand alone program. Not the Opera browser's mail area.
I looked in operaprefs.ini but there is nothing in there regarding a Mail Directory.

Opera Mail 1.0 is just Opera 12.16 with the name changed and some browser stuff hidden.

If operaprefs.ini (not operaprefs_default.ini) doesn't have a [Mail] section, add it. Under it, if it doesn't have Mail Root Directory=path, add it. Then, before you start Opera, move your mail folder to that spot.

Another great thing would be to have nothing of Operamail 1.0 placed on C drive. I install programs elsewhere so when Windows needs to be reinstalled,

You'd still need to run the installer to create the necessary registry keys again for mail client associate. But, if you don't care about that, you can just run the installer, click "options", set "install path" to a folder on the drive you want, set "install for" to "Standalone Installation (USB)" and install. Then, everything for Opera Mail will be on that drive (including the profile files and mail). You just won't be able to set Opera Mail as the default mail client and you'll have to create a shortcut to opera.exe yourself. Then, if you reinstall windows, all you have to create is the shortcut. (If you see this page, it shows you a way to use the installer to add the necessary stuff to the registry to make a standalone installation the default client. You'd still have to run those commands again if you reinstall windows though.)

If you create this standalone installation now, you can replace its mail folder, contacts.adr and wand.dat with the ones from your regular Opera Mail to move everything over to the standalone installation. (If you copy over operaprefs.ini too, make sure there are no settings with paths in it like "Mail Root Directory" etc.)

But, Opera Mail is installed the way it is by default so that each user on the computer gets their own Opera Mail profile. This is how programs work on Windows and the default spots for the local and roaming profiles are in the application data folders in docuents and settings/user/. So, it's done for a reason (especially the roaming appdata profile folder as that's used for roaming profiles).

[rh99]

rh99 last edited by

Its amazing how the idea of multiple users complicates things to no end in Windows. I bet less than 5% of computers are used with more than 1 user. This makes things so confusing for average users. You should have an option when install: Is there more than 1 user? If not, then things stay logical and simple. And you could change this later if you wanted to. But this is the fault of the operating system of course.

Thank you for the info. Its good and will help many people. The USB install should be called the non-C drive install.