[Users] Windows Mail folder location

[m***@hoehle.net]

Hello,

I am pretty new to Claws and would like to use it in the near future.
For the time being there are only two questions that remain unsolved.
I have searched through the "Users" list here as well as the usual
search engines but couldn't come up with the answers... One of them is

Where does the Windows version of Claws store the mails / mailboxes ?
It would be nice to be able to backup the specific folder containing
all emails...

I have created a few subfolders to the default Mailbox (MH) folder
structure and created and even imported a few emails in them to play
with. I am aware of the folder
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Claws-mail, but it doesn't
contain a subfolde named "Mail" but only what to me seems like the
database for tagging emails: \tagsdb\#mh\Mailbox\.... In fact the
whole \Claws-mail folder mentioned above is not even big enough to
contain all these emails.

Any clues ?

Martin

________________
***@Hoehle.net

[Andrej Kacian]

On Sun, 18 Oct 2015 00:51:06 +0200

Post by m***@hoehle.net
Where does the Windows version of Claws store the mails / mailboxes ?

Hello Martin,

try looking at "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\<mailboxname>",
where mailboxname is however you named your local MH folder tree
(default name is "Mail", if I recall correctly).

Regards,

[Martin Hoehle]

Post by Andrej Kacian

Post by m***@hoehle.net
Where does the Windows version of Claws store the mails / mailboxes ?

Hello Martin,
try looking at "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\<mailboxname>",
where mailboxname is however you named your local MH folder tree
(default name is "Mail", if I recall correctly).
Regards,
--
Andrej

Andrej,

thank you for your input, that has saved the day !

I would never have imagined that the Mail folder could be somewhere
else but under /Claws-mail and some of the docs I have found do say
so... In hindsight it's rather logical because the MH format could be
read by other programs as well and therefore should not "belong" to
CM in all cases.

Is there a way I can change the location where CM keeps the mail
database, to another partition for example ? I had a look at the
clawsrc config file but it does not seem to define the mail folder path.

Regards
Martin

[Andrej Kacian]

On Mon, 19 Oct 2015 00:00:06 +0200

Post by Martin Hoehle
I would never have imagined that the Mail folder could be somewhere
else but under /Claws-mail and some of the docs I have found do say
so... In hindsight it's rather logical because the MH format could be
read by other programs as well and therefore should not "belong" to
CM in all cases.

Indeed, and it is also because traditionally, on Unix-like operating
systems (where Claws Mail started), mail usually goes to a different
location than program configuration. :)

Post by Martin Hoehle
Is there a way I can change the location where CM keeps the mail
database, to another partition for example ? I had a look at the
clawsrc config file but it does not seem to define the mail folder path.

You can just remove the MH folder tree from Claws Mail, move it
wherever you want, and then add it again (via "File/Add Mailbox/MH..."
menu) using full path, e.g. "d:\my stuff\workmail". You can also create
new mailboxes using full path, so that they won't be placed in the
default location, but where you want them.

You could also edit folderrc file directly, if you know what you're
doing, but be careful.

Regards,

[Martin Hoehle]

Message: 1
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015 00:17:52 +0200
Subject: Re: [Users] Windows Mail folder location
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
On Mon, 19 Oct 2015 00:00:06 +0200

Post by Martin Hoehle
I would never have imagined that the Mail folder could be somewhere
else but under /Claws-mail and some of the docs I have found do say
so... In hindsight it's rather logical because the MH format could be
read by other programs as well and therefore should not "belong" to
CM in all cases.

Indeed, and it is also because traditionally, on Unix-like operating
systems (where Claws Mail started), mail usually goes to a different
location than program configuration. :)

Is there a way to move the config folder from
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Claws-mail to another folder as
well ? Obviously CM should know where to look for it so the relevant
path cannot be defined in one of the files in this folder itself.
Since there do not seem to be any CM settings in the registry (and
not in the program folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Claws Mail) I fear
that it's hard coded into CM that the config folder location is under
the /Users folder as defined by the relevant environment variable ?
It would be nice to have that automatically backed up with all my data.

Post by Martin Hoehle
Is there a way I can change the location where CM keeps the mail
database, to another partition for example ? I had a look at the
clawsrc config file but it does not seem to define the mail folder path.

You can just remove the MH folder tree from Claws Mail, move it
wherever you want, and then add it again (via "File/Add Mailbox/MH..."
menu) using full path, e.g. "d:\my stuff\workmail". You can also create
new mailboxes using full path, so that they won't be placed in the
default location, but where you want them.

Ok, perfect !

You could also edit folderrc file directly, if you know what you're
doing, but be careful.

I do some Linux server admin stuff, don't worry. But the Win version
of CM doesn't seem to have such a file. :(

This is alredy OT, hopefully you don't mind: How for X's sake can I
change the language of CM's user interface ? It defaults me to the
system locale but I need something different. I've already had a look
at clawsrc and in the GUI settings menu item but no luck there.

Regards
Martin

[Andrej Kacian]

On Mon, 19 Oct 2015 18:53:01 +0200

Post by Martin Hoehle
Is there a way to move the config folder from
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Claws-mail to another folder as
well ? Obviously CM should know where to look for it so the relevant
path cannot be defined in one of the files in this folder itself.
Since there do not seem to be any CM settings in the registry (and
not in the program folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Claws Mail) I fear
that it's hard coded into CM that the config folder location is under
the /Users folder as defined by the relevant environment variable ?
It would be nice to have that automatically backed up with all my data.

Post by Andrej Kacian

Post by Martin Hoehle
Is there a way I can change the location where CM keeps the mail
database, to another partition for example ? I had a look at the
clawsrc config file but it does not seem to define the mail folder path.

You can just remove the MH folder tree from Claws Mail, move it
wherever you want, and then add it again (via "File/Add Mailbox/MH..."
menu) using full path, e.g. "d:\my stuff\workmail". You can also create
new mailboxes using full path, so that they won't be placed in the
default location, but where you want them.

You can use whatever path to configuration you need by running
claws-mail.exe with "--alternate-config-dir c:\path\to\config" option.
You can add this in Properties of the desktop shortcut.

Post by Martin Hoehle
Ok, perfect !

Post by Andrej Kacian
You could also edit folderrc file directly, if you know what you're
doing, but be careful.

I do some Linux server admin stuff, don't worry. But the Win version
of CM doesn't seem to have such a file. :(
This is alredy OT, hopefully you don't mind: How for X's sake can I
change the language of CM's user interface ? It defaults me to the
system locale but I need something different. I've already had a look
at clawsrc and in the GUI settings menu item but no luck there.

You can control the language by changing the "lang" environment
variable. See http://www.rarst.net/software/change-interface-language/
for a nice description.

Regards,