As many emails as Hillary! What to do with ever-expanding email archive??
Thread poster: Dylan J Hartmann
Dylan J Hartmann
Dylan J Hartmann  Identity Verified
Australia
Member (2014)
Thai to English
+ ...

MODERATOR
Jun 7, 2017

I'm sure this is happening to many of us here. After a long history of working online, the archive of old emails is starting to take up serious disk space! Latest I checked, close to 20gig and well over 20,000! Also, with a concern for info-security, learning from the Hillary example, what should we do with old emails?!

I'm yet to do anything substantial because I appreciate being able to quickly search the archive but I've turned attachment downloads to manual and I've tried search
... See more
I'm sure this is happening to many of us here. After a long history of working online, the archive of old emails is starting to take up serious disk space! Latest I checked, close to 20gig and well over 20,000! Also, with a concern for info-security, learning from the Hillary example, what should we do with old emails?!

I'm yet to do anything substantial because I appreciate being able to quickly search the archive but I've turned attachment downloads to manual and I've tried searching all "automatic reply" email subjects etc and deleting.... but is there a better solution?

Your comments/suggestions appreciated!

DJH
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Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)  Identity Verified
Thailand
Local time: 23:48
English to Thai
+ ...
Back to basic Jun 8, 2017

DJHartmann wrote:

I'm sure this is happening to many of us here. After a long history of working online, the archive of old emails is starting to take up serious disk space! Latest I checked, close to 20gig and well over 20,000! Also, with a concern for info-security, learning from the Hillary example, what should we do with old emails?!

I'm yet to do anything substantial because I appreciate being able to quickly search the archive but I've turned attachment downloads to manual and I've tried searching all "automatic reply" email subjects etc and deleting.... but is there a better solution?

Your comments/suggestions appreciated!

DJH


I applied a number of email systems e.g. proprietary mail services, free mail servers, database software. My weak point is crashing of many of my PCs suddenly during my busy days with translation jobs [and Internet based research projects: I am a Ph.D. graduate, a former university lecturer who participates in many international conference domains].

I create a huge MS Outlook export database file (*.pst format) and backup to a huge portable USB hard drive. Many free software reads *.pst file quickly.

I also compile the database in MS Access and SQL server.
Now repeating crashes of my PCs hit my routine jobs minimally since large capacity portable USB hard drives can move here and there, and accessible with series of software.

I also enjoy free email server e.g. Gmail. Its "All mails" database keeps my mails for about 3 years (longer if paid mail server is purchased) although I deleted some mails unintentionally.

Now I master how to handle database deeply due to necessity to handle large email volumes.

Soonthon L.


 
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 18:48
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
I have my files back from 2008 Jun 8, 2017

I only use Thunderbird for my work address, and all non-deleted messages are there to be read and in a back-up file on an external disc. Its only 4 Gb. I could archive part of them but disc space is no issue these days anymore.

 
Oliver Pekelharing
Oliver Pekelharing  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 17:48
Dutch to English
Let your provider do it for you Jun 8, 2017

I have purchased about 30Gb from my provider and leave everything on their server.

Olly


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Hit delete? Jun 8, 2017

I have kept everything since the year dot, but can emails from more than a couple of years ago possibly be of any use to anyone?

 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 17:48
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Regular systematic cleanouts Jun 8, 2017

I used to do a cleanout every month, but have fallen behind this year... I do not use my mails as a general archive, far too messy!

I try to archive important mails as they come in - invoices and subscriptions paid, work and attachments if needed in various systems according to clients or whatever.

I also try to delete the ephemeral things immediately when read and reacted to - Kudoz digests, updates from groups and so on - OUT! 'Job received, thank you' Fine, OUT! Enq
... See more
I used to do a cleanout every month, but have fallen behind this year... I do not use my mails as a general archive, far too messy!

I try to archive important mails as they come in - invoices and subscriptions paid, work and attachments if needed in various systems according to clients or whatever.

I also try to delete the ephemeral things immediately when read and reacted to - Kudoz digests, updates from groups and so on - OUT! 'Job received, thank you' Fine, OUT! Enquiries about jobs that never materialise get deleted at the monthly cleanout if not before.

I unsubscribe from everything possible. Some proliferate - you agree to one, and it spawns subdivisions. Oxford University Press seems to have done this - and I have not deleted them all yet, but I know I never actually subscribed to some subject areas!

Then I search the mail system by subject, e.g. all mails from a particular PM or agency, and check that everything I really need to save is archived elsewhere. I go over and delete corresponding sent mails as well, of course. Then OUT!

But if you do want to keep vast quantities of mails, as others say, get an external hard disk.
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Matthias Brombach
Matthias Brombach  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 17:48
Member (2007)
Dutch to German
+ ...
My approach: I save relevant emails only ... Jun 8, 2017

... directly into my work folders on the HD (emails pointing on open questions, remarks, comments about bad pretranslations in locked segments, strange attitudes from certain PMs etc.) to secure myself against possible future claims and I delete almost all other emails (especially those with huge attachments) regularly after a certain period of time to keep the email programm (Thunderbird) running as smoothly as possible. Sheets with questions and (open) answers from the end client / agencies wi... See more
... directly into my work folders on the HD (emails pointing on open questions, remarks, comments about bad pretranslations in locked segments, strange attitudes from certain PMs etc.) to secure myself against possible future claims and I delete almost all other emails (especially those with huge attachments) regularly after a certain period of time to keep the email programm (Thunderbird) running as smoothly as possible. Sheets with questions and (open) answers from the end client / agencies will also be kept there.

[Edited at 2017-06-08 09:21 GMT]
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Michael Beijer
Michael Beijer  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:48
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
+ ...
My system (G Suite + Gvault = safety & happiness) Jun 8, 2017

I use a custom email address based on my website domain, via ‘G Suite’, which is basically the paid version of Gmail (which I don't feel can be beat yet in terms of features and ease of use) with oodles of storage.

I then make regular backups of my entire online Gmail database (just in case) using the free tool Gvault: http://gmvault.org/
In an hour or so, I have all my emails, in
... See more
I use a custom email address based on my website domain, via ‘G Suite’, which is basically the paid version of Gmail (which I don't feel can be beat yet in terms of features and ease of use) with oodles of storage.

I then make regular backups of my entire online Gmail database (just in case) using the free tool Gvault: http://gmvault.org/
In an hour or so, I have all my emails, in nice searchable, dated folders on my computer, which I then back up to
(1) an external HD via Macrium Reflect, and
(2) the cloud via CrashPlan.

gmvault-save-location

Michael

info: http://www.techerator.com/2012/07/gmvault-a-quick-way-to-fully-backup-and-restore-your-gmail-account/

[Edited at 2017-06-08 10:57 GMT]
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Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:48
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Trash 'em Jun 8, 2017

DJHartmann wrote:

Your comments/suggestions appreciated!

DJH


My method is similar to that outlined by Matthias.

Step 1 is the crucial step: all emails are immediately filtered on arrival, into an individual folder for each client.

I trash as many of them as possible as soon as I no longer need them (also making sure that they are deleted immediately from the server).

This could be up to 3 months but rarely longer than that.

This protects me from the Monica Lewinsky Syndrome (you thought you had deleted your emails but they're still on the server).

Important emails of potentially lasting significance: I save these as text files, giving each one a new name based on keywords included in the message text (i.e. I copy a key phrase from the message and paste it as the name of the file.)

All saved emails are filed in a specific client folder on my hard drive, along with the actual documents that I translated.

I use the MacOS, which automatically memorises everything that's on my system. (I assume Windows does something similar).

Any time I need to find an old email, I use Spotlight to search for one or more of the keywords of the file name (although Spotlight itself will find any word in any file).

By doing this I keep very few emails on the server, which has the added benefit that nobody (the CIA, MI5, the KGB etc.) is going to be able to trawl through my old emails.

OH and by the way:

I clone my entire hard drive to an external drive at the end of every working day (and sometimes more often than that).

Every month I also clone it to my other Mac.

I have never been able to understand why some people keep all their emails. They don't even know what's in them!

_________________

**Regular backup is one of the Buddha's Threefold Paths to Enlightenment**

[Edited at 2017-06-08 12:07 GMT]


 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 17:48
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
60 GB for four years worth of email Jun 8, 2017

DJHartmann wrote:
I'm sure this is happening to many of us here.

Indeed, also my case here. I have a The Bat! email client (which is far more reliable than other options I have used in the past) and it contains 60 GB of emails+attachments for the last four years. I like the fact that I can do ultra-fast searches of my archive for past communications and not depend on the reliability of web-based email.

Whenever I want to archive a year worth of email for good (i.e. when it is already five years old or so), The Bat! allows me to save emails as EML, which I can then convert to PDF with Total Mail Converter. This of course destroys the attachments, which I do not really need anyway since I keep a separate archive of all materials used in projects, including PO's, customer TMs, etc.

A year worth of sent and received emails stored as EML and converted to PDF takes some 400 MB (6000 PDF pages), which is reasonable.

Edited just to add that I keep some 50,000 sent and received emails for the last four years. Truly I could delete a vast majority of them, which simply say hello and deliver jobs, but... oh, well...

[Edited at 2017-06-08 18:38 GMT]


 


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As many emails as Hillary! What to do with ever-expanding email archive??







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