Advice for importing email, please?

[beekay]

I have 2.5gb of email, some 2,500 emails, many with attachments, in a POP account, in Apple Mail mailboxes On My Mac, that I want to archive in Eagle Filer.

Is there a recommended limit on the number of emails to import into Eagle Filer in a batch? I imagine that after importing two batches, I would use Merge Message Files to consolidate them all into a single .mbox, and then use Validate to check for .mbox integrity, and repeat importing, Merging, and Verifying in batches until all are imported?

I assume that the comment “If you get a Missing Apple Mail Attachment …” in the Eagle Filer manual (3.5.1 Importing Mail From Apple Mail / Importing Attachments / https://c-command.com/eaglefiler/manual#importing-mail-from-app) refers to possible scenarios when importing mail from IMAP accounts, and that given I am importing from a POP account, all attachments should be available?

I may wish to organize the imported emails and attachments into a one-level-deep folder hierarchy. Does creating folders in any way impact the .mbox? When working with folders, do I have to perform any maintenance (Merge Message Files, Verify library, or anything else)?

I am using Apple Mail on a mid-2014 MacBook Pro 16gm RAM with Yosemite 10.10.5.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Michael_Tsai]

Is there a recommended limit on the number of emails to import into Eagle Filer in a batch?

No. I regularly import batches of 50,000, and more should work, too.

I imagine that after importing two batches, I would use Merge Message Files to consolidate them all into a single .mbox, and then use Validate to check for .mbox integrity, and repeat importing, Merging, and Verifying in batches until all are imported?

If you’re going to merge them, anyway, I would just import in a single batch. That will be faster and simpler. It’s not necessary to use the Verify command in this situation. EagleFiler automatically verifies message and mailbox files before merging them, and there is no benefit to verifying the final mailbox file immediately after it was created.

I assume that the comment “If you get a Missing Apple Mail Attachment …” in the Eagle Filer manual (3.5.1 Importing Mail From Apple Mail / Importing Attachments / https://c-command.com/eaglefiler/manual#importing-mail-from-app) refers to possible scenarios when importing mail from IMAP accounts, and that given I am importing from a POP account, all attachments should be available?

Right.

I may wish to organize the imported emails and attachments into a one-level-deep folder hierarchy. Does creating folders in any way impact the .mbox? When working with folders, do I have to perform any maintenance (Merge Message Files, Verify library, or anything else)?

I would organize them in Apple Mail and then import them into EagleFiler as mailbox files instead of message files. That will give you the most efficient storage and best performance. If you do choose to organize them in EagleFiler as message files, you could later merge them to get those benefits. I like to Verify now and then, but that’s not any more or less needed in the situation you describe.

[beekay]

Thanks, Michael. A couple of followup questions, please:

I would organize them in Apple Mail and then import them into EagleFiler as mailbox files instead of message files. That will give you the most efficient storage and best performance.

It sounds as though the process of importing an Apple Mail On My Mac POP mailbox into EagleFiler copies the Apple Mail mailbox into an EagleFiler library, and that these mailboxes then appear as first-level folders in EagleFiler?

If you do choose to organize them in EagleFiler as message files, you could later merge them to get those benefits.

It sounds as though, after importing Apple Mail mailboxes into EagleFiler, the process of organizing messages into folders or sub-folders within EagleFiler extracts individual messages from their imported mailbox and stores them as individual files, and that in order to regain the most efficient storage and best performance, using Merge Message Files on the newly-created EagleFile folder would consolidate those individual messages into mailboxes?

And finally, are there any issues or caveats with searching messages and their attachments across mailboxes, and are attachments extracted from messages and somehow stored in EagleFiler as distinct objects that are associated with their source emails, and are attachments accessible on demand?

Thanks again.

[Michael_Tsai]

It sounds as though the process of importing an Apple Mail On My Mac POP mailbox into EagleFiler copies the Apple Mail mailbox into an EagleFiler library, and that these mailboxes then appear as first-level folders in EagleFiler?

Right, although it’s more a conversion than a copy because EagleFiler stores mailboxes in standard .mbox format, and Apple Mail uses a nested folder structure with .emlx and other files.

It sounds as though, after importing Apple Mail mailboxes into EagleFiler, the process of organizing messages into folders or sub-folders within EagleFiler extracts individual messages from their imported mailbox and stores them as individual files, and that in order to regain the most efficient storage and best performance, using Merge Message Files on the newly-created EagleFile folder would consolidate those individual messages into mailboxes?

Correct.

And finally, are there any issues or caveats with searching messages and their attachments across mailboxes

No, the message contents and attachments are both searchable.

and are attachments extracted from messages and somehow stored in EagleFiler as distinct objects that are associated with their source emails

No, they are stored in the original message data from the mail server.

and are attachments accessible on demand?

Yes, by double-clicking the message in EagleFiler.

[beekay]

Thanks again for your speedy replies.