Data storage question for computer literate folk

[johnny]

I have to access my email from my phone and it has filled my phone to capacity.

Email is from Outlook and the phone is iPhone 5.

The deal is that I need to keep 75% of my emails for reference so they cannot be deleted. However, I don't have to access the older stuff from my phone, just from my desktop from time-to-time. As things stand all of my folders in Outlook automatically load onto my phone and my phone is choc-a-fucking-block - can barely even take a photo.

I'd like to be able to archive my older emails, whether that be through choosing which folders load onto my phone or by taking the folders I don't need to commonly access out of outlook and storing them on my desktop hard drive. Anyone have any suggestions on how I might do this?


And yes, I did ask my IT Service team but they couldn't offer any solutions (they are also one of the most retarded group of people on this green globe of ours. Put it this way, I got a spear phishing email once of decent sophistication and I forwarded it to them saying I'd received it, that it's a spear phishing attempt, that the attachment will be malware or something malign, maybe you guys would like to send out a warning notice to staff in case others receive something similar. The response I got was "This email is spam, do not open the attachment". Nice guys, just utterly useless).

 

[creaky]

Can't you just go to settings on your phone, the 'Mail,contacts,calendar' then the 'account' (whatever your sync'd account is setup as) then change the setting for 'mail days to sync' to a couple of weeks.

The settings menu may be a bit different depending which software update version you are running but there should definitely be a setting to not download your full outlook mailbox to your phone.

 

[johnny]

That setting only offers up to one month, I need it to be about 6 months. Right now I have about 2.5 years of emails loading onto my phone.

 

[stirk]

One easy was is to use an email client installed locally on your desktop. These clients can be set up to access online email services such as outlook, gmail etc. They download the email to your machine but what you leave in your main default mailbox will be available via the online mailbox also. You then use the email client to migrate email from the online mailbox to an archive file which is only stored locally. Be sure to back this up regularly!

I used Mozilla Thunderbird years ago and it worked really well.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

Many other clients are available.

Another option is Office365 which will store you email in the cloud but it costs money which is better spent on MTB parts.

 

[johnny]

Unfortunately due to constraints about what we are allowed to use and do with work desktops that's pretty much out. We have to use the system provided to us and have to apply to have anything installed locally on the desktop.

Put it this way, as we speak our whole system is being audited for apps, we had to leave our computers on as we left work on Friday. We can't do shit and have a useless IT sections, it's so much fun.

 

[stirk]

Ah, ok a locked down machine.

Do you have a local Outlook client? If yes then a PST file can be used to store offline mail, i.e. mail stored locally which should not sync to the phone. The IT crowd may have disabled PST files in which case you have a challenge.

Being a work machine the IT crowd should have all this sorted, bunch of fwits by the sounds of it. If it's all work related make IT responsible.

 

[Mr Crudley]

That setting only offers up to one month, I need it to be about 6 months. Right now I have about 2.5 years of emails loading onto my phone.

That seems to be your problem right there. Phone offers 1 month and actually has 2.5 years on it.

Surely the IT folks must have a view on this issue?

Surprised that they are fine to have 2.5 years of corporate email on a device that can be easily lost even if the partition that stores your email is encrypted.

Might be an undocumented feature

Sent from my F5121 using Tapatalk

 

[johnny]

Well the phone also offers unlimited syncing but you can limit it as well. Unfortunately the options to limit syncing only extend from one day to one month.

Nothing of any great sensitivity in the emails, anyone who reads them will very quickly become bored.

 

[johnny]

Ah, ok a locked down machine.

Do you have a local Outlook client? If yes then a PST file can be used to store offline mail, i.e. mail stored locally which should not sync to the phone. The IT crowd may have disabled PST files in which case you have a challenge.

Being a work machine the IT crowd should have all this sorted, bunch of fwits by the sounds of it. If it's all work related make IT responsible.

Not sure about the local client, will have to check.

The IT guys are nice blokes, they just don't know much about computers and how they network..., which is why making them responsible has already failed and why I'm now asking anonymous folk on internet forums unrelated to infotech!

 

[stirk]

Not sure about the local client, will have to check.

The IT guys are nice blokes, they just don't know much about computers and how they network

Without knowing much about the set up, here is your IT problem!

 

[pink poodle]

my phone is choc-a-fucking-block - can barely even take a photo.

Maaaaaaayyyyyyyyyte...don't go blaming your photography skills on the phone.

Can't you just leave the emails in the cloud and read them without syncing? I've used my phone as an office for a few years and used a variety of emails in that time (mostly Gmail though) all off the cloud...

 

[johnny]

Nup, gotta be outlook and I need push mail.

 

[pink poodle]

Nup, gotta be outlook and I need push mail.

Encrypted portable hard drive...

 

[Ideate]

Email is from Outlook and the phone is iPhone 5.

Sometimes there's no easy fix when you're locked down with shit tech support and red tape.

There's a few things that come to mind though...

1. Get a better phone.. a Samsung S7 with a 128GB SD? If it's a work phone then I'd take it up with whoever's in charge and say you need a new one.

2. Change how much mail to keep offline as explained here. Your phone should have similar settings but I think it's for Exhange Servers.

3. Make a backup of your .PST then clear out your account. Restore the .PST in another mail client or another account when you need to access the archives on your desktop.

4. I use the GMAIL app to sync all my email accounts (including personal Gmail, goverment Exhange servers, etc) and it has options to sync what folders I need on my phone. Can you do that on the equivilant iPhone GMAIL app? Might need to go back to point 1.

Sorry, that's all I got for now. I'll keep thinking when my brain wakes up tomorrow.

 

[johnny]

Lol, no. Having to back up my HD every time I go for a meeting away from my desk? Nope.

Security is not actually the issue, my email traffic is largely banal and inane. It's simply an access and capacity problem.

 

[stirk]

Lol. It's simply an access and capacity problem.

Yep, capacity to access decent tech is the issue.

 

[Tubbsy]

There's a way of getting an iPhone to clear space that doesn't appear to be available to clear.

Go to the iTunes store and commit to buy/rent an HD movie, a long one. You'll see it's lot's more gigabytes than your phone has available in the description.

iTunes won't go through with the purchase and charge you because you don't have the space to download it, but the phone will make the effort clear space all the same.

Not a long term solution to your problem, but it does clear a surprising amount of space.

 

[The Duckmeister]

I have nothing to add except amusement at the typo in the thread title.... :caked:

 

[indica]

If yes then a PST file can be used to store offline mail, .

This is the one I would think would be the go.
An archive folder. You can still see the emails within Outlook but they are stored on the desktop drive, not in the email folders.

 

[shmity]

If you change the sync settings on your phone to a month only, does it sync a month of emails locally to your phone and then allow access to the rest on the server?