Contact Us

NSIT Support Line
4-TECH (773-834-8324)
support@uchicago.edu
Current Hours

Home > Documentation > Email > Storing Mail Offline

Documentation - Email

Email Documentation Home | Clients: Configuration, Pine, Thunderbird, Webmail | Operating Systems: Mac, Windows | Junkmail | xMail

Storing Mail Offline

Problem

I want to store my email on my computer, not the server: how do I transfer my mail to a local machine from the server?

Please note, if you're using POP to check your mail, it is already being stored on your local machine. In other words, you don't have to do anything.

Solution

To move mail from the server to your local machine, you'll move the messages from your server (IMAP) mailboxes to local ones. How this is done depends on what mail client you are using; instructions are given below for Mozilla Thunderbird (recommended), Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007, and Entourage 2004 and 2008. The process is fundamentally the same for any email program. The key thing to remember: When you use IMAP, your mail is kept on the server. You need to identify which set of mailboxes are your IMAP mailboxes, and which are local. After that, it's a simple matter to create a local mailbox and transfer messages appropriately.

Watch out for periods in mailbox names!


The period character has a special meaning to our mail server: It indicates a subfolder, rather than a mailbox. For example, if you try to create a mailbox named "foo.baz", you will actually create a mailbox named "baz" inside an otherwise-empty folder named "foo". If that's not what you want, try using an underscore character in place of the period.
Storing Mail Offline with Thunderbird

Thunderbird lists your mailboxes down the left-hand side of the screen. The mailbox listing displays a collection of mailboxes for each account you have configured, plus a collection called "Local Folders". If you are using a default configuration of Thunderbird from the Connectivity Package, your IMAP account will be named after your email address (e.g. "cnetid@uchicago.edu"). Otherwise, it may be named after another client you imported your settings from (e.g. "Eudora"), or any name you may have given it. If you only have one account configured, it'll be the only collection besides "Local Folders". (The "Local Folders" collection, of course, contains those folders that are on your local hard drive.)

  1. To get started, make sure your IMAP and Local Folders collections are both open. If you don't see mailboxes listed, click the "+" sign next to the account name to expand the list.
  2. Create a local mailbox in the Local Folders collection to hold the messages you want to store offline. If you're using Windows, you can make a mailbox by right-clicking on the "Local Folders" heading and selecting "New Folders" from the context menu. For the Mac, go to File → New → New Folder. Enter the name you want for the new folder, and make sure "Local Folders" is selected in the "Create as a subfolder of" drop-down.
  3. Open the mailbox in your IMAP folder collection which contains the messages you want to store offline.
  4. Highlight the messages you want to transfer.
  5. Finally, transfer the messages by going to Message → Move → Local Folders and selecting the new mailbox you created in step two. This may take some time as all of the messages are now being copied to your hard drive.

You may wish to repeat this process several times if you'd like to sort the messages into multiple mailboxes; otherwise, you're finished!

Storing Mail Offline with Outlook 2003 and 2007

Outlook shows your list of mailboxes on the left side of the screen when you are in the mail view. The mailbox listing displays a collection of mailboxes for each account you have configured, plus a collection called "Personal Folders". If you are using Outlook in conjunction with the xMail service, you will typically see a collection called "Mailbox - Your Name"; if you are using Outlook in conjunction with the cMail service via IMAP, you will typically see a collection called "cnetid@uchicago.edu". Make sure that you also have a section of folders in your mailbox list called Personal Folders. Mail put into the Personal Folders section of Outlook is stored on your computer, not on the University servers.

If you do not have Personal Folders in your copy of Outlook, you can create them via the following:

  1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Outlook Data File.
  2. Click Office Outlook Personal Folders File (.pst), and then click OK.
  3. In the Create or Open Outlook Data File dialog box, in the File name box, type a name for the file, and then click OK.
  4. In the Create Microsoft Personal Folders dialog box, in the Name box, clear the Personal Folders text, and then type a display name for the .pst folder. This is the name that will appear as the top folder name in the Outlook Navigation Pane. Specifying a display name helps you to distinguish between different Outlook data files when you work with more than one .pst file. We recommend that you type a name that is unique and meaningful to you.

Now that you have Personal Folders, you can begin moving messages from the folders on the University server to your computer.

  1. To get started, make sure the server-based folders and the Personal Folders collection are both open. If you don't see mailboxes listed, click the "+" sign next to the account name to expand the list.
  2. Create a local mailbox in the Personal Folders collection to hold the messages you want to store offline. You can make a mailbox by right-clicking on the "Personal Folders" heading and selecting "New Folder..." from the context menu. Enter the name you want for the new folder, leave the "Folder contains:" set to "Mail and Post Items", and make sure "Personal Folders" is selected in the "Where to place the folder:" section.
  3. Open the mailbox on the server which contains the messages you want to store offline.
  4. Highlight the messages you want to transfer
  5. Finally, transfer the messages by going to Edit → Move to Folder → Local Folders and selecting the new mailbox you created under "Personal Folders" in step two. This may take some time as all of the messages are now being copied to your hard drive.

You may wish to repeat this process several times if you'd like to sort the messages into multiple mailboxes; otherwise, you're finished!

Storing Mail Offline with Entourage 2004 and 2008

Entourage shows your list of mailboxes on the left side of the screen when you are in the mail view. Make sure that you also have a section of folders in your mailbox list called On My Computer (Entourage 2004 may call this Folders On My Computer). Mail put into the On My Computer section of Entourage is stored on your computer, not on the University servers.

  1. To get started, make sure the server-based folders and the On My Computer collection are both open. If you don't see mailboxes listed, click the triangle next to the account name to expand the list.
  2. Create a local mailbox in the On My Computer section to hold the messages you want to store offline. You can make a mailbox by clicking on the "On My Computer" heading and then going to File → New → Subfolder. Enter the name you want for the new folder in the "On My Computer" listing.
  3. Open the mailbox on the server which contains the messages you want to store offline.
  4. Highlight the messages you want to transfer
  5. Finally, transfer the messages by going to Message → Move to → Choose Folder... and selecting the new mailbox you created under "On My Computer" in step two. This may take some time as all of the messages are now being copied to your hard drive.

You may wish to repeat this process several times if you'd like to sort the messages into multiple mailboxes; otherwise, you're finished!

Back to Email Documentation Home.

Last updated: 7/17/08