Exporting emails with attachments

[JMM]

Hello all.

When I first installed PocoMail 10 years ago, I separated the attachments folder, so I could backup PocoMail emails & keep the backup sizes relatively small, by not backing up the attachments. Seemed like a good idea at the time .

However, now I am at the point of needing to switch to another email client (Outlook). There are various utilities that I have tried, to export PocoMail & import into Outlook. The ones that I've tried so far, are able to import the emails themselves, but none of the attachments get imported.

In searching the forums here, I see that others have run into the same problem in the past. I see some solutions, but those are in posts from many, many years ago. Just wondering if someone with this same problem more recently has found a solution for somehow getting PocoMail's emails exported with their attachments.

By default, when PocoMail is first installed, what is the location of the attachments folder? Would I be able, after making a backup of the entire PocoMail directory, to simply move the attachments to where the default location is, and then re-index PocoMail?

I welcome any suggestions.

Thanks in advance & have a great day.

Regards,
John

[JMM]

Further to my original post ....

After making a backup of my PocoMail folders, I moved all my attachments from their other folder location into PocoMail's \attach folder, closed & reopened PocoMail, and compressed all folders. All attachments are still with their respective emails, and all attachments open fine.

The problem that I've had today, though, is the few MBOX to PST conversion demos that I've tried, although they convert the emails fine, they do not bring in any of the attachments.

Has anyone else experienced this attachment problem in the past, and if so, what conversion program (if any) were you able to use that successfully brought in all their associated attachments?

Thanks in advance.

[MarkB]

Hi, John.

This excerpt from the Aid4Mail FAQ appears to state that Aid4Mail will include detatched attachments -- and specifically mentions PocoMail -- PROVIDED the detached files are still in their original location.

Some mail clients extract attachments and store them in a separate location from messages. This is the case with Eudora and Calypso/Courier, as well as with The Bat!, PocoMail, and Barca, depending on the settings you’ve chosen. These mail clients usually store the path and filename of extracted attachments to maintain a link between the message and its files. Unfortunately, if you move the attachments to another location, or the original drive is assigned another letter, then the link is lost. Aid4Mail uses this link to find the attachments of the messages it processes. If it cannot find the attachment, Aid4Mail still adds the file placeholder but leaves the data empty. Note that some programs may show an incorrect attachment size for empty attachments, and even produce a “garbage” file on extraction.

Attachments that Aid4Mail doesn’t find are listed in the error log file; see the “Error Log File” topic in Help for details.

There is, however, a way to instruct Aid4Mail where to look for attachment folders that have changed location through a file called Tokens.ini. See instructions under the “Fixing Attachment Folder References” topic in Help.

http://www.aid4mail.com/faq-aid4mail-using

[MarkB]

When you say "All attachments are still with their respective emails, and all attachments open fine," I assume that you mean that they will open from within PocoMail. That implies that all X-Poco-Attachment headers, which contain the links to detached files, are current. If so, Aid4Mail should work as advertised. Theoretically.

[FFF]

When you say "All attachments are still with their respective emails, and all attachments open fine," I assume that you mean that they will open from within PocoMail. That implies that all X-Poco-Attachment headers, which contain the links to detached files, are current. If so, Aid4Mail should work as advertised. Theoretically.

The problem is, that JMM didn't tell us, if he removed/hided the original folder prior to his test. If no, Poco will simply look for attachment where it ever did
If he did, Slaven just might have been so clever as to include a "fallback" lookup into \Attach, if the path in the header doesn't work. Although it might have been still better to notice the user if that happens...

[MarkB]

The problem is, that JMM didn't tell us, if he removed/hided the original folder prior to his test. If no, Poco will simply look for attachment where it ever did
If he did, Slaven just might have been so clever as to include a "fallback" lookup into \Attach, if the path in the header doesn't work. Although it might have been still better to notice the user if that happens...

Yes. However, even if the links in the headers no longer point to the current location of the Attach folder, that needn't be the end of the story. That situation can be rectified either (a) by moving the Attach folder to match the links, or (b) by modifying the links to point to the Attach folder, or possibly (c) using the facility mention in the Aid4Mail FAQ. The second option is a wee bit geeky.