You could archive some folders tucked away in a remote location. When you need access, in seven years perhaps, you'd import the messages back into Mac OS X Mail and it would be as if they'd never been gone.
Archive Mail Remotely in Mac OS X Mail
To save a Mac OS X Mail folder to remote storage, removable medium or any hard disk location:
- Open the folder you want to archive.
- If you want to archive only some messages in a folder, create a new sub-folder and copy or move them to it. You can always only archive an entire folder.
- Select Mailbox | Archive Mailbox... from the menu.
- Go to the folder, removable medium or remote location that should hold the archived mailbox.
- Optionally, check Export all subfolders to archive the current folder and all sub-folders in one go. The folders will still be saved to individual files, not one big archive.
- Click Choose.
- Optionally, delete the folder or folders you archived:
- Highlight all folders you want to delete in the folder list.
- Select Mailbox | Delete Mailbox... from the menu.
- Click Delete.
Open a Remote Mac OS X Mail Archive
To open emails in a Mac OS X Mail archive (.mbox) folder:
- Select File | Import Mailboxes... from the menu.
- Make sure Mail for Mac OS X is selected under Import data from:.
- Click Continue.
- Highlight the desired .mbox archive files to import.
- If you archived a folder including sub-folders, also highlight the folder named like the root folder, but without an extension.
- Click Continue.
- If you selected more than one file:
- Make sure all folders you want to import are checked under Items to import.
- Click Continue.
- Click Done.
You will find the imported messages under ON MY MAC | Import in the Mac OS X Mail folder list.
