#Mac mail archive emails how to#

Within Mail.app, choose? File > Import Mailbox > Files in mbox format and select the mail archive. Note that simply deleting the Smart Mailbox folder will not delete the email too, you must follow the above process, selecting the mail content manually and deleting it. Right click on your trash mailbox and choose 'Erase Deleted Items' to finish the deletion process.

#Mac mail archive emails how to#

You can then empty your trash to free up all those gigabytes. How to move an email to the Archive mailbox in AppleMail The easiest way to use the Archive mailbox is to just select some emails and drag them into the Archive mailbox. Right-click or Control-click the folder with the name of your email account and select Move to Trash. Plug /Library/Mail/V2 into the box and press Return. Press Command-A to select all the email in this mailbox, and press the delete key to remove it. To do so, open Finder, click the Go menu, and select Go to Folder. Make sure that the file is being backed up by Time Machine, if you're using the OS X feature. You will be prompted for a location to save the file to. Right click and choose 'Archive Mailbox' to generate an mbox format mail archive. For example, to collate all email received before the end of 2008, add: Name the mailbox appropriately, and then add filter rules to populate the mailbox. Using dates to identify old mail is a good idea. However, most of us prefer to manage all of our Mac Mail eMail accounts under the default Mac Mail Inbox, Sent, Junk, and Trash folders. Create a smart mailbox by clicking the? icon in the bottom left of the Mail interface. Mail has an interesting facility called 'smart mailboxes.' This is a virtual collection of mail, derived by following various rules. T he simple process is: create a smart mailbox, archive that smart mailbox's content and then delete all the mail in that smart mailbox.