APPLICATIONS AND TOOLS

Email

Email - technical

Related links

Archive Mailboxes

Users should be aware that in the event of a major disaster archive mailboxes are given a lower recovery priority. Inboxes will be recovered first to restore a working email system. Then the archive mailboxes will be recovered, which may not be complete until up to a day later. Please bear this in mind when deciding where to file email.

Please note: these instructions relate only to email archive mailboxes on the staff IMAP server.

Archive mailboxes let users have a greatly increased email storage quota. They are located under the archive hierarchy and are given the user's UoB username (e.g. a user with the UoB username isxyz user will have a archive mailbox named archive.isxyz).

Requesting an Archive mailbox

To request an archive mailbox:

  1. Send an email to help-email@bristol.ac.uk titled "Archive mailbox request".
  2. Include the following information:
    • Username;
    • Full real name;
    • Email address;
    • The reason for needing extra email quota (this is for profiling purposes, we're not asking for justification).

Accessing an Archive Mailbox

Mulberry

Mulberry may not automatically check for new mailbox hierarchies (depending on configuration) and so may need to be prodded into doing so. This is a simple process.

To access an archive mailbox in Mulberry:

  1. Open Mulberry in the 3 pane view.
  2. Right-click on the INBOX icon in the folder list pane to open a context menu.
  3. Select Display Hierarchy followed by Reset All to open the Choose Mailbox Locations window.
  4. Select the Places to Search for Mailboxes on the Server field, at the bottom of the window.
  5. Add the text archive. (the full stop after the word 'archive' is important and must be included).
  6. Select OK to confirm the changes.

The folder list will now update to show a new base level folder named archive. and your archive mailbox will be named after your username and appear within this folder. Any other user archive mailboxes to which you have been given sharing permissions will also appear in the archive. hierarchy.

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Webmail

You need to be subscribed to a mailbox before you can see it in SquirrelMail. (Note that the subscription only approach speeds up the response of webmail.)

To access an archive mailbox in webmail subscribe to it as follows:

  1. Login to webmail.
  2. Select the Folders option from the banner menu.
  3. Select your archive mailbox from the right-hand Subscribe list (your archive mailbox will be named 'archive.your-username').
  4. Select the Subscribe button to confirm subscription.
  5. Refresh the folder list by reloading the webpage.

SquirrelMail only displays subscribed folders in the folder list and therefore if you have a deep folder hierarchy folders can appear to be within the previous parent mailbox if the actual parent mailbox is not subscribed to (as the unsubscribed parent is not displayed). Therefore you may wish to subscribe to the top level 'archive' mailbox too so that it appears to be within the 'archive' hierarchy, instead of your 'INBOX' mailbox. This is only a visual issue and does not affect the actual locations of your mailboxes.

Thunderbird

You will only have to follow these instructions if you have configured Thunderbird to display only subscribed folders. If you have configured it to display all folders it should automatically appear in your folder list.

To access an archive folder in subscribed folder only display:

  1. Locate your staff-imap-srv mailstore account.
  2. Right-click upon it and select Subscribe...
  3. Navigate down the archive hierarchy subscribing to the mailboxes you require.
  4. When finished, select OK.

The folder list will now update to show a new base level folder named 'archive.' and your archive mailbox will be named after your username and appear within this folder. Any other user archive mailboxes to which you have been given sharing permissions will also appear in the 'archive.' hierarchy.

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Outlook 2003

Instructions for Outlook 2003 are different according to whether or not you have configured it to display only subscribed folders.

Subscribed folders only display

To access an archive folder in subscribed folder only display:

  1. Locate your staff-imap-srv mailstore account.
  2. Right click upon it and select IMAP folders.
  3. Select the Filter field.
  4. Enter the text archive. (the full stop after the word 'archive' is important and must be included).
  5. Select Query button to search for the archive mailbox.
  6. Select your mailbox from the list (i.e. archive.isxyz).
  7. Select the subscribe button to confirm subscription.
  8. Select OK button to confirm changes.

The folder list will now update to show a new base level folder named 'archive.' and your archive mailbox will be named after your username and appear within this folder. Any other user archive mailboxes to which you have been given sharing permissions will also appear in the 'archive.' hierarchy.

All folder display

For all folder display, the archive folder will automatically appear in the staff-imap-srv account hierarchy, though you may need to refresh the display if it does not appear.

To refresh the display:

  1. Locate your staff-imap-srv mailstore account.
  2. Right click upon it and select Refresh from the context menu.

Please note: if this does not work check you are not using the subscribed folder only display option (see above).

Pine

If you already have a Collection for staff-imap-srv.bris.ac.uk that is anchored at the root, then your archive mailbox should appear in the hierarchy as soon as it has been created.

If you do not have a Collection for staff-imap-srv.bris.ac.uk, or you do, but it is anchored at 'user.', then you will need to create a new Collection.

To create a new Collection:

  1. From the main menu select S for Setup.
  2. Select L for Collection Lists.
  3. Select A for Create new collection.
  4. Set parameters as follows:
    • Nickname = archive
    • Server = staff-imap-srv.bris.ac.uk
    • Path = archive
  5. Select Control-X to save.
  6. Select E exit setup.

You will now be able to view your archive folder by selecting the new Collection and navigating to the archive folder, where your archive mailbox will be named after your username. Any other user archive mailboxes to which you have been given sharing permissions will also appear in the archive hierarchy.

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Moving folders into an archive mailbox using Mulberry

There are several ways that you can move messages between folders. Each have their eccentricities. Once moved, you may need to refresh your folders view. This is explained in detail below.

Moving with Drag & Drop

Important: Using Drag & Drop to move a folder to your archive will not behave as you might expect. Please read on before trying this method.
When you Drag & Drop folders in Mulberry it does the following:
  • It copies the messages, rather than moves them.
  • It does not copy the whole structure of the folder dragged. No sub-folders are copied.
  • It only copies the messages from with the dragged folder, rather than the folder itself.
  • It will not create a folder within the destination folder named after the dragged folder.

Moving with Rename

To move an entire folder to an archive mailbox you should use this method. This requires a little caution, but is straight-forward.

Important: Make sure that you have not opened the folder that you are moving. Otherwise the rename will fail and you will receive an error message.
  1. Right-click on the folder you want to move to display the context menu (Do not select it first!).
  2. Select Rename... to open the Rename window.
  3. Replace the prefix of "INBOX" with "archive.username" (where 'username' is your own UoB username, e.g. "INBOX.meetings" becomes "archive.isxyz.meetings").
  4. Click on OK.

Refreshing your folders view

The folders view may not refresh immediately. Therefore you will want to do this manually. Follow the procedure below.

  1. Right-click on the INBOX folder to display the context menu.
  2. Select Display Hierarchy menu option.
  3. Select Refresh sub-menu option to update the Inbox folder view.
  4. Right-click on the archive. folder to display the context menu.
  5. Select Display Hierarchy menu option.
  6. Select Refresh sub-menu option to update the archive mailbox folder view.

The time it takes to move the folder mainly depends on the number of messages in it. If there are a lot of messages with large attachments then this will increase the time. It takes about 30 seconds to move 1,000 messages.

Sharing archive mailboxes

Users can share their archive mailboxes with others. The users that have been granted access will see the shared archive mailboxes appear in the same archive hierarchy as their own archive mailbox, though they will only be able to see the archive hierarchy if they have applied for an archive mailbox themselves - see information box below.

Anyone wanting to access a shared archive mailbox who has not got an archive mailbox themselves will have to follow the instructions in 'Accessing an Archive Mailbox' above, the only difference being that they will be locating the shared archive mailbox and not their own.

Please note: instructions for giving shared access to a folder can be found in the training document, Making the most of email, available in the 'Training and learning' section of the website.

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