Archiving Email

Important! The below information relates to archiving email from Denison's email servers and Webmail. If you are using Denison Apps for email, please see the "Archiving/Migrating Data from Denison Apps" instructions on the Denison Apps Learning Center (learning-center.denison.edu).

Email can be accessed from any internet location via Denison Apps or a desktop email application (e.g. Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.).

If you want to save just a few email messages, ITS recommends that you "redirect" them to a non-Denison email account or save them as text files on your computer.
If you want to save a good number of email messages, ITS recommends using a desktop email application like Mozilla Thunderbird or Apple Mail to save your messages locally on your computer. If you prefer, you can save entire folders to MBOX files using Webmail - those files can be read in a word processor as well as by a number of email applications.
If you have a Webmail addressbook, you can save that locally using Webmail.

NOTE: If you wish to use a desktop email application to archive messages, for best results that application should be configured to use the IMAP protocol rather than the POP protocol (see configuration instructions). Email applications configured to use POP can only download the Inbox, they do not provide access to other folders on the account like IMAP does. Please note that once messages have been moved to your local computer, you will not be able to access them via Webmail as the messages will no longer be stored on the central email server.

Redirect message(s) using Webmail

Redirecting a message preserves the original From: and Subject: information. Denison's Webmail service has a redirect function, other email applications may or may not have that function. If your email application does not have it, you can either use Webmail or forward the message.

To redirect a message using Webmail:

Log in to Webmail.
Open the desired message.
Click the "Redirect" link on the action bar immediately above the message header (between "Forward" and "View thread").
Enter the email address you wish to send it to and click "Redirect message".

Save messages locally via a desktop email application

Open your desktop email application (eg. Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple Mail, etc.). You will see that you have two mailboxes: one is your mailbox on Denison's server (usually called your email address, e.g. beamert@denison.edu) and one contains your local mailbox/folders. If you do not see a local mailbox or appropriate local folder, you may need to create one (see your email application's help for assistance).
Click on the messages or folders in your Denison mailbox you want to save and drag them to the desired local mailbox/folder. This will move the messages/folders from Denison's email server to your local system.

Copy folders via Webmail using the MBOX Format

This format will save entire folders in an MBOX file that can be used in several different email applications like Mozilla Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Eudora, and Netscape Messenger. However, it cannot directly be used with Outlook or Outlook Express. Attachments should be saved outside of this process as attachments don’t always transfer properly.

To save a folder as an MBOX file:

Login to Webmail.
Click on the “Folders” icon.
Check the box next to the folder you wish to archive.
In the “Choose Action Box” select “Download (zip format)”.
Click “Yes” to indicate you wish to save the folder in MBOX format.
Click “Save” to indicate you do wish to download the file and give the location in which to save the file.
Click “Save” to actually download the file.
When done with the download, click “Close”.

Opening an MBOX file:

An MBOX file can be opened by a word processor (e.g. Word) and will be seen as one long file with multiple messages in it.
To open an MBOX file with an email application, after unzipping the file, you may have to put the file into the directory where the application stores local messages in order to have the folder recognized.
Please note that MBOX files are NOT directly usable by Outlook or Outlook Express and cannot be read with Internet Explorer. Open source software is available that can convert the MBOX format to a format readable by Outlook or Outlook Express if you wish to use that software.
For more complete information on reading this type of archive search the Internet for MBOX files or see your email application’s documentation.

Copy messages to text files using Webmail

Saving messages via Webmail must be done a message at a time. There is no way to save multiple messages as text at one time unless you follow the instructions above to save folders as MBOX files.

To save a message using Webmail:

Log in to Webmail
Open each message you wish to save locally.
Click on the "Save as" link in the action bar immediately above the message header. A dialog box will appear.
Click on the "Save" or "Save File" button. Another dialog box will appear.
Indicate a directory and name for the message.

Save your addressbook via Webmail

To save your address book, click on "Address Book" link within the webmail window:

Click the "Import/Export" icon.
Click the "Export" button.
Click the "Save" button.
Indicate the directory and name you wish to the save the address book to.
To return to your email Inbox, click the "Mail" icon.