Everyone is issued a maximum amount of email space and once this quota is reached at 100%, you will be unable to receive any other mail. This document shows you how to save your email to a local disk on your computer's hard drive and remove it from the mail server, thus conserving space on the mail server. At the same time, this also allows you to have a local archive of your email.
This document assumes you are using Outlook Express 6 on Windows XP. It is also assumed that Outlook Express has been configured to use the IMAP protocol.
The first step in reducing your disk space usage should be cleaning up your current email. Delete any emails that are no longer needed, especially emails with attachments.
The Microsoft Outlook Express window is composed of three frames. The frame on the left displays your mail folders, both local and online. This is the frame we will be most concerned about for saving your email messages. In the figure below is an example of the Outlook Express window. Notice that in the frame on the left, there are two major divisions among the folders. The first is called Local Folders and the second is called imap.gmail.com. The latter is your email that is stored on the server. This folder is limited by your respective email quota.
Create a new local folder where you will store the email you no longer need to have online. To create a new local folder, go to the File menu, click New, and then click Folder. See figure below.
Next, Give the folder a name, and then click on Local Folders. Be sure to click on Local Folders to ensure the new folder will be created on your local hard disk. Click on the OK button to create the folder. See figure below.
Optionally, you may want to create subfolders for each of the folders on the server that you want to move mail from. Repeat the steps above to create additional subfolders under the folder you just created.
Now, select the email you wish to move offline and have saved in your local folder. Simply drag the emails that are to be saved into the new local folder that was created in the previous step. In the figure below, the email messages from the Inbox were selected and moved into the new local folder, Inbox located under the Saved E-mail folder.
To verify that the email has been saved to your local hard disk, click on the new folder you created (saved e-mail). The saved email should be displayed in the frame on the right. See figure above.
There may come a time when you wish to move the emails you saved onto your local hard disk back online to be accessed from different locations. The process of moving the email back online is very similar to the process of saving them to your local hard disk.
Go to the File menu, click New, and then click Folder. Next, Give the folder a name, and then click on imap.gmail.com. Be sure to click on imap.gmail.com to ensure the new folder will be created on the server. Click on the OK button to create the folder. See figure below.
Now, select the email you wish to move online to be accessed from multiple locations. Simply drag the emails that are to be uploaded into the new online folder that was created in the previous step. In the figure below, the email messages from the Saved E-mail folder were selected and moved into the new online folder, Upload E-mail.
That's it, your email is now back online. The email messages have been moved from the local folder and placed in the newly created folder online. These email messages now count against your quota, but they are able to be accessed from multiple locations.
