Try as I might, I’m unable to successfully archive my large GMail and Outlook mailboxes, even using date restrictions. I have been using Mail Backup X which directly connects to mail servers to download emails from my different accounts into databases for search and retrieval. The process is very fast and works well.
It would be great if the dev team could look into this approach to archiving emails rather than going through the Apple Mail app which is fraught with bugs and very slow. I’m on macOS 15.6 and often Mail will just hang, so it is difficult to pinpoint where the problem lies, but I’m betting Apple Mail. Thanks for your consideration.
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Thank for the suggestion, we’ll consider this for future releases.
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What mail servers, for example?
Apparently 4 providers cover almost everyone
I’d assume IMAP servers, as POP3 is not really en vogue anymore.
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These are clients. Eg, I use Apple Mail to connect to Gmail and another IMAP server.
My guess is that most mail clients can connect to any number of servers, and that those are mostly IMAP.
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Agreed - IMAP support would probably cover almost all use cases
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There would need to be compatibility with 2FA authentication method as well. This is usually OAUTH2.
There would need to be compatibility with authentication method as well. This is usually OAUTH2.
I’m having the same issue (though with Outlook and IMAP), and my primary use case for DEVONthink is to archive and search tens of thousands of emails. Would love if DEVONthink’s Archive feature worked cleanly with Apple Mail and Exchange with very large mailboxes, but in the meantime, I’ll check out Mail Backup X – appreciate the recommendation!
It is well known that Exchange doesn’t work great on a Mac and less so with access in Apple Mail. So you have two uncontrollable factors in the equation (and yes, there are more). Working cleanly isn’t something so simply done.
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I managed to pull in about 25,000 emails by using Outlook on my Mac, if that’s any use as a reference point. Mail Backup X looks excellent and I am having a look at using that to archive my much larger IMAP (iCloud) mailbox and then pull from there into DEVONthink.
