Is it possible to store archived emails separately from eM Client’s other data (in …\AppData\Roaming\EM Client by default)? I would like to make my archived emails available on both of my computers – desktop and laptop. I use a USB portable drive for sharing everything else and wish I could put eM Client’s archive there.
I’m afraid to try sharing everything – all of the settings as well as local folders – by putting all of it on the portable drive. That would probably cause problems if eM Client has settings that are hardware-specific or OS-specific. If somebody knows that this would okay, please say so. I don’t ever need to have eM Client open on both computers at the same time.
I’m currently archiving to Mail Store Home, which I like except that its search function is too primitive. But I can use it to access archived mail on multiple computers.
You can do it manually. Close eM Client and copy the Archive folder from one to the other.
This is going to replace what is in the target machine archive, so your best option is to only archive on one computer, then copy it across.
Another option is to not use eM Client’s Automatic Archiving, but instead manually archive to an IMAP or Exchange folder that both computers are syncing to. Kinda defeats eM Client’s definition of archiving though.
Copying the archive immediately after every update is probably what I need. Thank you. I hadn’t thought of that.
Is the archive in a format that MailStore might be able to read and write (.eml, .mbox, etc.) or in a proprietary database?
Background: now that I’m a tiny bit more familiar with eM Client, it appears that it’s search function isn’t really more powerful than MailStore’s. In Thunderbird you could choose between logical OR and logical AND for multiple filters (although you couldn’t nest them using parentheses to establish precedence). I can’t figure out how to do logical OR in eM Client. The other thing in Thunderbird that I relied on was running searches on the server. eM Client has to download everything in order to search message bodies. But Thunderbird in so unreliable in other ways that I have abandoned it.
eM Client is SQL database, and saves the data in that format. These files are not readable by other email applications.
eM Client cannot search content that it hasn’t downloaded, but you can change the IMAP settings to download for offline use, then the search will work just fine. You will find that in the IMAP section in Menu > Tools > Accounts.
You can do AND OR searches, but not too complex. Certainly not nestled.
To search for Subject is Microsoft OR Mac subject:Microsoft,Mac , or enter the conditions in one field separated by commas as below.
To search for Subject is Microsoft AND Mac subject:Microsoft subject:Mac , or enter each condition is a separate field as below.
(1) Thank you very much for explaining the difference between “subject:foo, subject:bar” and “subject:foo,bar”. I didn’t know that (or where to look for it). It’s essentially what Thunderbird could do.
[begin rant]I do wish that eM Client had a proper reference manual where users could look this sort of this up. But it seems that software manuals are a thing of the past. I’m old, have very ingrained habits, am very left brained, and am extremely dependent on linear (but searchable) narrative documentation.[/end rant]
(2) A question about “download for offline use”. Does it leave messages on the server or does it delete them from the server, like old-fashioned POP? Thunderbird gave you a choice between the two. Deleting them from the server seems to me to defeat the purpose of IMAP.
[repeat rant]I do wish that eM Client had a proper reference manual …[end repeat]
(3) Unless the SQL database is encrypted or locked with a password internal to eM Client. I could build my own front end to run SQL queries in it. That would be a lot of work for me, but possible. The same is true of Mail Store, which uses a different backend but the same principle.
No matter, Thunderbird is now a thing of the past, and that makes me happy.
You are quite welcome. Only the basics are documented in the Help File (F1), unfortunately. Maybe these things are not known to eM Client employees.
By default eM Client only downloads the message header (To, From, Date, Subject etc.), and everything else is downloaded when you open/preview the message. That is why you can’t search message bodies that you haven’t opened. Download for offline use will cache all of the message body including embedded and attached content on your computer as the new messages arrive. In that respect it is somewhat similar to POP3. Where is isn’t the same as POP3, is that it does not remove the message or content from the server.
Yes, you can try accessing the data externally. eM Client will need to be closed.
One more followup question, not anwered in the online documentation. If I turn on “download messages for offline use”, will eM Client attempt to download all existing messages in the IMAP account, or only new messages received from that point forward? Thanks.
I believe it will immediately download all past messages. If it does not, right-click on the folder and choose Properties > Repair. For a Gmail or Gsuite account, right-click on All Mail instead.
