[MlMt] Getting started with MailMate

[Glenn Parker]

On 22 Nov 2020, at 15:46, Andrew Buc wrote:
> I think I’ll need to upgrade from my current 2GB plan to the 30GB 
> plan.
>
> I noodled around with MailMate a few years ago, and ISTR that there 
> was an option to import my entire Apple Mail database into MailMate, 
> although I didn’t actually do it. I take it that that doesn’t 
> address the issue you mention above, even if the database can be 
> imported?

Transferring old emails into an IMAP server may not not the best 
approach. You can still access any local folders via your AppleMail, or 
you might transition to a mail archiving utility for old messages, e.g. 
[MailSteward](https://mailsteward.com/).

>> When you've ascertained that, you'll have to transfer all your Apple 
>> Mail folders which are stored 'On My Mac' onto the IMAP server at 
>> FastMail. You can do this by setting up Apple Mail so that it can 
>> access the IMAP server at FastMail, and then just dragging the 
>> folders from 'On My Mac' to FastMail.
>
> I assume this would be a separate account in Apple Mail? As I said 
> earlier, I don’t want to ditch the POP3 mailbox until things are 
> squared away with MailMate.

The primary difference between POP3 and IMAP is moving versus copying. 
With POP3, the goal is to *move* messages from the POP3 server to your 
mail client. The main job of a POP3 server is to hold onto messages only 
until you have retrieved them. POP3 servers want to forget about your 
emails once you have retrieved them. Thus, managing email with POP3 is 
mostly a matter of managing the local storage used for your email files.

Now, I know some folks may have already hit Reply to correct me, and 
there are indeed some tweaks that can extend the features of POP3, but 
POP3 was designed when servers didn’t have petabytes of storage to 
spare. IMAP was designed for a new era of internet servers with far more 
storage, and for a more distributed usage model with multiple access 
points to your email.

With IMAP, the job of the server is to make it easy to maintain a 
synchronized *copy* of all your email. The server keeps every email you 
send and receive until you delete it. If your computer catches fire, all 
your emails will still be there on the IMAP server. You can set up 
another IMAP client and you’ll be back in business after it 
synchronizes.

IMAP really shines when using multiple clients for the same account. I 
routinely use 4 IMAP clients (phone, tablet, laptop, desktop) all 
pointing at the same IMAP account. When I mark a message as read on one 
device, or re-folder, or delete a message, all the other clients reflect 
the same changes automatically.

Managing email with IMAP is a bit more complicated because you are not 
in charge of the physical storage. You have a server-side quota, and you 
must decide how much email history you want to provide for your IMAP 
client(s). Right now I have four years worth of email using 4.8 GB out 
of a 10 GB quota. That has involved a certain amount of judicious 
pruning for very large emails, but I could easily manage another year or 
two before I start worrying about trimming old email.

At that rate, a 2 GB quota would be more than adequate for a little over 
one year’s worth of email for me, but upgrading to 30 GB would be 
overkill (even though every year’s email archive is at least 30% 
bigger than the prior year).

Glenn P. Parker
glenn.parker at comcast.net
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