AppleScript to automate archiving email from server IMAP folders to local folders while preserving folder structure from server
This Apple Script automates MacOS Mail emails archiving to a local mailbox (i.e. "On my Mac").
My personal use case is to archive emails older than 12 months from my corporate Exchange mailbox. My corporate retention policy is 15-months, after which emails are silently deleted. Having been through the dreadful experience of loosing a critical email I had to prevent that from happening again.
- macOS computer (not compatible with Windows / Linux)
- Apple Mail app configured with an Account (whatever type: Gmail, Exchange, Yahoo, etc.)
- Download Apple Script MailArchiver.scpt
- Edit MailArchiver.scpt to define parameters accordingly (see Configuration section)
- Schedule the execution of the Apple Script on a recurrent basis. I personally setup a Mac Mail rule to execute the script so that:
- Archiving gets executed once a day. As rule/script gets triggered upon every new email received, there is an optional mechanism -
preventSameDayArchivingtosetting to prevent the script from being executed multiple times a day. - Archiving gets executed when I am actually running Mac Mail. Executing the script in a standalone mode will open the Mail app, which I am not happy with (too naggy).
- Script must be placed into ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.mail folder to be assigned to a Mac Mail rule
- See Use rules to manage emails you receive in Mail on Mac for how to setup Mail rule
MailArchiver.scpt must be edited to match your configuration:
| Key | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
archiveAccount |
N/A | Account name to be archived. i.e. your Gmail/Exchange account name you defined in Mac Mail app |
archiveMailbox |
N/A | Target archiving mailbox name. i.e. the name of the automatically created local (On my Mac) mailbox |
archiveMonthsTimeWindow |
N/A | The archiving time period in months. i.e. every email older than those n months will be moved to archiveMailbox |
preventSameDayArchiving |
N/A | Prevent archiving process to be executed more than once per day. I recommend to set this to true. true of false |
logFile |
N/A | Script will log information into that file accessible from the Console app |
I took large inspiration from MacMail-Archiver script. pereljon deserves credit for that, thank you big time!