How to archive PMs

[jean]

I have no idea how to deal with PMs I might want to keep if my inbox is full. Help!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I don't think that there's any way of archiving them on the Forum itself - I copy the ones I want to keep and put them in a file on my computer.

[Cockney Sparrow]

On a quick look, if you select the messages, then the drop down box on the button on the bottom at the right (below the check boxes) changes and gives the option to download them as text. (Never done it, but is looks like what you need.......).

[Dave2002]

I have no idea how to deal with PMs I might want to keep if my inbox is full. Help!

I have been evolving a strategy over years, but it is not perfect and has holes.

Firstly, do you keep copies of Sent PMs? If so, you may be keeping duplicate data, as often a recipient will reply with the original PM embedded, so you don't need both. To delete PMs you navigate to the relevant folder - e.g Inbox, Sent etc., then select the ones you want to delete. Only select those ones! Then right down at the bottom right hand side you'll find a button marked Apply Filter. Hit that and you should see another button Selected Messages. Hit that and you'll see a pop up menu with the following options:

Delete
Mark as Read
Mark as Unread
Download as XML
Download as CSV
Download as Text
Deselect all Messages

At the bottom there is a Proceed button.

These operations work on the messages which are selected, so you need to be careful.

Actually you probably want to try downloading first. If you download as CSV then you can use Excel to look at the messages. XML would, in theory, allow very robust and flexible operations. I have been meaning to write a tool for handling these for a few years, but I haven't got A ROUND TUIT. The Text option is fairly obvious.

What I usually try to do is to save selected PMs in all three formats. You need to be careful of the file names, as the software tends to use exactly the same name on any one day - though the extensions should be different. It would be good if the file name also included the time - but last time I seriously checked it didn't. I usually try to change the file name to something I know about as soon (immediately, so I don't forget) as the file is downloaded using the forum file generated name.

Another possible gotcha, which I've not fully checked is whether all the messages are saved, or only the ones on the visible page - that's if the Select All option is chosen - you'll see a box above the column of messages at the RHS.

You normally only have to delete a few messages - say 10 to get things working again, though obviously the issues will recur if you send/receive a lot of messages.

Something went wrong last time I tried to tidy up my PMs, and I cleared them all out, so now I've got nearly 200 spare slots. Not a major problem as I should have back ups in various files, but tedious having to deal with that if I want to. Maybe that will spur me to write the PM archive software. Hope that helps.

Also - don't experiment with Delete first - try the Text and/or CSV options - otherwise obviously you may end up with nothing to save.

[french frank]

I have no idea how to deal with PMs I might want to keep if my inbox is full. Help!

Yes, under My Messages, you Edit Folders and create 'Archive'. You can move the messages you want to keep there (check their boxes, then Proceed and choose folder Archive) and delete the rest. The messages in Archive do count towards your quota of stored messages, so you still need to delete Inbox/Sent Messages, unless you download the Archive ones first.

You can then, if you want to, scroll down to the bottom of one of your pages, pick any folder, like Archive, and "Download all Private Messages as:XML | CSV | Text". At least I can, and I don't think it's a perk of Administration

But it does appear that you can't move Sent Messages. But you can download them - if you want to remember what you've said …

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The messages in Archive do count towards your quota of stored messages, so you still need to delete Inbox/Sent Messages, unless you download the Archive ones first.

This is the reason I copy and paste them elsewhere - if the problem jean describes is one of storage space, then there is no way of archiving without filling one's Inbox - at some point, the posts one wishes to keep will overfill one's allocated storage space.

[Serial_Apologist]

My problem is always forgetting to save a message in my sent items folder, despite having Gone Advanced to enable me to do so - and unless the recipient kindly includes my reply in a subsequent message, it's Gone Forever, Clementine!



Edit

I've just discovered that it is in fact possible to retrieve such messages, namely by reversing one's movements on the Forum since last logging on, until one's unsent message re-appears.

Unfortunately it means that poor jean is now in receipt in two copies of my PM!

Sorry about that, jean!

[jean]

I wondered about that - having read the first in all is fascinating detail and comprehensiveness I could not imagine there was anything to add - and indeed there wasn't!

T...if the problem jean describes is one of storage space, then there is no way of archiving without filling one's Inbox...

But the email I got said Your private messages box on The Radio 3 Forum has reached 90% of your allowed quota. To ensure that you do not reach 100% of your allowed messages, you should consider archiving or deleting some of your messages which implies that archiving frees up inbox space.

(Some MBs seem to store unlimited PMs. When people here mentioned inbox-ful problems, I would marvel that they could have received so many. Now I see it wasn't so many after all!)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But the email I got said Your private messages box on The Radio 3 Forum has reached 90% of your allowed quota. To ensure that you do not reach 100% of your allowed messages, you should consider archiving or deleting some of your messages which implies that archiving frees up inbox space.

Yes - unless I've missed something (and I raised this very question a couple of years ago when I had the same problem that you are describing) this message is misleading, as the "archiving" it suggests we "consider" is one away from the archive facilities available on the Forum itself. Moving PMs from Inbox to a Forum Archive doesn't in any way free any space in the Inbox, even when PMs copied from it have been deleted. The only "solution" I could think of was to copy them to a folder and store them in my computer.

(Some MBs seem to store unlimited PMs. When people here mentioned inbox-ful problems, I would marvel that they could have received so many. Now I see it wasn't so many after all!)

250 in total, IIRC.

[Dave2002]

250 in total, IIRC.

200 is still the limit on this one, I think.

[jean]

I've got upwards of 500 on a ProBoard.

What would bne simplest here would be if I could delete the things with one click after ticking the box on the right, and do several at once, as I can with my emails. But that doesn't seem to be possible - I have to open each message and then delete individually.

In fact, I can't see what the box at the top right of the message is actually for.

[french frank]

You don't have to delete each message individually - you can do them a page at a time. And can't you set the number displayed on a page?

Click the small box in the red band where it says Messages: 195 (or how ever many you have). That checks every message on the page.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Jean has remarked that she is unable to get PMs - I'm assuming her inbox is full, given the above, but forgive me if that is wrong as I haven't searched for all recent posts about that.
I'm also assuming that copying the text of the PMs out to her own computer (as a text file) will preserve the messages and enable their preservation, if required. And then delete the contents of the inbox. I'm hoping that Jean's problem in this respect is not specific to her computer (e.g. I know nothing about Apple systems) and also that this doesn't lead to further frustration...
I have just registered at Imgur, and this is the 1st time I have tried to post images - so, lots to go wrong - if so I will delete this post....)

Firstly Click on Notifications at the top of the web page, and then on "Inbox" :



In the "My Messages" frame on the left, click on "Edit". Then click on "Inbox"



Above the page of PMs, on the right click the box at the top where in this instance in the red bar it says "Messages:110 ". All of the messages on the page (50, not 110) are now selected.



(If you want to leave any of the PMs in the table in your FoR3 inbox, unclick them individually)

Going to the bottom of the table of messages, on the right click on "Selected Messages" in the red bar



Click "Download as Text"on the drop down menu. And click the "Proceed" button.



Those PMs should now be in a text file in the place where you find files downloaded onto your computer.

DELETING PMs AND FREEING UP SPACE IN YOUR INBOX

Once you have checked the text file preserves the PMs, go back and this time, on the drop down menu, click on "Delete" instead. (Again, make sure messages you want to keep are unchecked before pressing "Delete").

Follow the same procedure for other pages of messages.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You can also follow the same procedure but selecting the "Sent" folder of PMs - using the same commands.

I assume, having reduced the data stored in your PMs folder, you will be able to receive and send PMs again.