Misleading design puts Local Folders data at HIGH Risk
Scary behavior of 'Local Folders': I'm moving an IMAP account from one server to an other. I copy all emails from old server IMAP account to a place described as "Local F… (lire la suite)
Scary behavior of 'Local Folders': I'm moving an IMAP account from one server to an other. I copy all emails from old server IMAP account to a place described as "Local Folders". I then delete the account connected to the old server. WTF: the the local folders to which I copied the messages are now GONE. My plan was to recreate the account to the new server, then copy messages from LocalFolders to IMAP. But the LocalFolders got deleted along with the IMAP account. This I was doing in a separate profile from my own, as it's for a friend I'm helping with a hosting move.
In my own profile: For more than a decade, I have been maintaining the size of my mailboxes, by moving older messages to LocalFolders. As it happens, for these, I did indeed direct the folder to a separate drive, which also gets backed up offsite. My concern is that 'Local Folders' are portrayed as being INDEPENDENT of IMAP accounts. This is VERY POOR design, to allow a user to delete data they thought was safely stored locally while they recreate a moved or misbehaving account. I have dozens of Local Folders. Five years ago, I abandoned an entire domain name and it's email accounts. I know I still have those emails in my local folders despite having deleted the IMAP accounts from my profile. I fear that the current version, by default, might not be so respectful of my data. Can someone please explain? Where are the links that TIE an IMAP account to Local Folders, and how do I sever that link?
In my case, the source account still exists. I can repeat my steps, but for some other unfortunate users, this may not be the case.