I’m perplexed about the purpose of Local Folders. Are they useful when the account is a POP3 account?
To start with, I assume that a POP3 account’s local folder is not the eM Client main database. Is that assumption correct?
If it is: Are local folders subdirectories of the hard drive that contain .EML files? If so, is it a one-EML-file-per message situation? Or one-EML-file-per-folder-name situation (meaning, with multiple individual messages stored inside a given .EML file)?
If neither of the above is correct — how and where are local-folder messages stored?
Or is this feature useful only with IMAP accounts?
I don’t have a reply but I do have a similar question: All my email accounts are IMAP which normally means that the emails themselves remain residing on the server as I understand it. But what happens if I move them to a local folder? Do they then get downloaded permanently into somewhere on my hard drive (wherever that may be), or do they still remain on the server as well (in other words, is it a copy I get in my Local Folder, or the original)?
Hi Mike,
here is my understanding - may be correct, may be wrong…
eM-Client stores ALL Information in its own proprietary Database - not as EML-Files (like Windows LiveMail does). If you want separate eML-Files just drag-n-drop one ore more Messages out of the Application-Window into a Folder on your Desktop/Hard-drive. This will trigger eM-Client to export these Messages as separate EML-Files to the “drop-location”.
IMAP-Accounts are “synced” = the Client shows a “live-View” of the Account; changes done with eM-Client will be replicated to the server and vice versa in “real-Time”.
(for easier handling eMail-Applications usually have a locally cached copy of the IMAP-Account-contents
to speed up reading of earlier received messages or offline-reading etc… these options my be changed in the Account-Settings…)
POP-Accounts are different.
You usually copy the messages from your POP-Account into your eMail-Applications internal Database and it will be displayed in the POP-Account-Inbox.
If the appropriate option is set, the Application deletes the message from the POP-Server
either after a certain period of time or immediately after having downloaded the message… or never
(= leaves the Message on the Server).
Sub-Folders you may have created in eM-Client below the Inbox of your POP-Account are not replicated to the POP-Server. The only exist in eM-Client.
"Local Folders" …
…of eM-Client are just “Containers” offered by eM-Client where you can put Messages in - if you want.
They are not directly related/connected to any of your eMail-accounts.
(I don ́t use them at all since I want to keep the messages from my Accounts apart…)
to all Community-Members:
this is just my understanding, If any of this is wrong - please reply, thanks.
Fritz
Thanks very much. If I’m understanding this correctly — I’m also trying to fill in some of my personal blanks. 
—
Local folders are created and named arbitrarily by … oh… that’s weird. I had a whole reply prepared, scrolled upward within this message thread for a moment, then scrolled back down to the text input field in which I’m typing the reply. Nearly all of my reply had suddenly disappeared. WTH? Bug in the forum software (or maybe in Chrome). Trying again…
So local folders aren’t connected to a particular account, and mail from more than one account can be stored within them — and the local folders don’t “care” where the mail originated. Does that sound right?
Can I assume that local folders contain copies of messages, whether or not the messages originated on an IMAP server — and that removing them from local folders won’t affect anything on the IMAP server?
When I see the word “local” I usually think of files and directories on a local drive, as opposed to on a server somewhere in cyberspace. But are eM Client’s local folders simply in their own, separate, part of the main eM Client database? Or do they live in another database in a different location? Or do they exist on the local hard drive in some format other than a database format?
There are two folders in local folders that I haven’t seen elsewhere in the eM Client user interface: Conversation Action Settings and Quick Step Settings. I wonder what those are.
Hi Mike,
So local folders aren’t connected to a particular account, and mail from more than one account can be stored within them — and the local folders don’t “care” where the mail originated. Does that sound right?"
As far as I can say: yes.
Can I assume that local folders contain copies of messages…
The mousepointer does not show the “+”-sign when dragging a Message to a local Folder.
That makes me guess, that this is a MOVE-Operation, not a COPY.
But you can force a COPY by pressing CTRL during that operation (see different mousepointer…).
But since I do not use the “local folders” (as I wrote earlier) I can not share any experience about them with you. Why don ́t you try yourself with some dummy-Messages you sent to yourself?
When I see the word “local”…
As far as I can say: yes, the contents of the “local folders” is stored on your computers hard-drive.
Also all messages from POP-Account and IMAP-Accounts (if they are configured to download the messages for offline-reading).
Easy test: close eM-Client, disconnect from Internet, start eM-Client and check what you see: all that is stored an your Computer.
But are eM Client’s local folders simply in their own, separate, …
Sorry - No idea and to be honest: Who cares?!
here are two folders in local folders that …
I do not see any of those Folders you mentioned…perhaps because I disabled “Conversation View” …?
I am using eM-Client 7.x
Fritz
But you can force a COPY by pressing CTRL during that operation (see different mousepointer…).
Or if holding down Control proves irritating due to “mouse finger fatigue,” the keyboard shortcuts (Control+C/Control+V) also work.
>> But are eM Client’s local folders simply in their own, separate, …
Sorry - No idea and to be honest: Who cares?!
I do. I would like to know where archived (or whatever) messages are stored. I will be writing scripts that convert from .EML format to plain text. If these local-folder items are stored somewhere on the hard drive in .EML or some other plain text format, that would be useful to know.
I do not see any of those Folders you mentioned…perhaps because I disabled “Conversation View” …?
I did as well, but perhaps I disabled Conversation View after I first viewed local folders and so it created the additional folders for that reason. I’ll write to the company about it and see what I can find out.
Hi Mike,
I will be writing scripts that convert from .EML format to plain text. …
I already wrote that - as far as I know - eM-Client does not store the messages as .EML-Files. It uses some other, proprietary(?) Database-Format.
The only way I know to create EML-Files from your messages is to drag-n-drop the message(s) out of the Application Window.
Fritz
Yes, or while viewing the message, right-click and select “Save As…” — or for those who prefer keystrokes: Shift+F10, then “s”. (I like to avoid dragging and dropping as much as possible. Mouse fatigue and all that.)
I’ll have to experiment with this to find out if by good fortune using copy-to-local-folder is a workaround for the problem I’ve encountered with messages not being deleted from the server when I’ve copied them to “regular” eM Client folders and then deleted the originals from Inbox (with a POP3 account). This is becoming a bit of a deal-breaker. To remove messages I don’t want to keep on the server, at the moment I have to log onto my mail provider’s web-mail site and remove the messages manually — defeats a major part of my purpose for having an offline mail client. I’m not expecting the use of Local Folders to make a difference … but it’s worth trying once.