Can I make a mirror of an old and much used e-mail address?

Hi:

It sounds as if you are talking about backing up locally on your computer your email client profile and its contents (especially the old emails)?

If so, for starters, it would help if you could tell us please, what email client (e.g. Outlook or Thunderbird, etc.) and what version of that client you are using?

Thanks,

Hi:

So you're only talking about a webmail (Yahoo!) account?
You do not use an email client installed locally on the computer into which you download the messages??

If that is the case, then I'm afraid we'll need to wait for someone who is a whiz with Yahoo! mail.
AFAIK, everything in your webmail account will be in the "cloud" on the Yahoo! servers.
I don't know if there is a built-in means to back things up there.
And it might help to know if you are set up as POP or IMAP, and whether you are using the Free or Paid version (I think there are 2 different versions, with different features).

To more specifically answer your original question, I suppose it *is* possible to create a new Yahoo! mail account and to somehow copy/paste the folder contents into it from your existing account.
But that would seem to be a very long run for a very short slide....

There is probably a much better way, using an email client installed locally on your computer, along with any of several backup strategies and/or utilities, such as MozBackup for Thunderbird, etc..

Cheers,

MoxieMomma said:

Hi:

So you're only talking about a webmail (Yahoo!) account?
You do not use an email client installed locally on the computer into which you download the messages??

I don't know what an email client is.

If that is the case, then I'm afraid we'll need to wait for someone who is a whiz with Yahoo! mail.
AFAIK, everything in your webmail account will be in the "cloud" on the Yahoo! servers.
I don't know if there is a built-in means to back things up there.
And it might help to know if you are set up as POP or IMAP, and whether you are using the Free or Paid version (I think there are 2 different versions, with different features).

I don't know if Yahoo has a cloud on their servers. I also don't know about POP and IMAP, I am using a free Yahoo account and not certain if there is a paid version.

To more specifically answer your original question, I suppose it *is* possible to create a new Yahoo! mail account and to somehow copy/paste the folder contents into it from your existing account.
But that would seem to be a very long run for a very short slide....

There is probably a much better way, using an email client installed locally on your computer.

Being able to copy and past folders from one account to another is the part I would like to know. Again, I don't know anything about email clients but would like to know what they are.

I posted this inquiry because I just wanted to know if it can be done and if so that it not too much trouble to do so.


Cheers,

Cheers,
Anne

1. To read/access your emails currently, I assume you go to mail.yahoo.com and you log in to your account?

2. Is that the only way you access emails?

3. Do you have MS Office installed on the computer, with a program called Outlook?

4. If so, which version (2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, etc.)?

Thanks,

Hi:

Well, as it seems that you only use yahoo! mail as webmail, then we'll likely need to wait for someone more familiar with it to weigh in about your idea of copying data into a new account as a means of "backing it up". I'm not sure it's possible and feasible.
(Sorry, but I haven't used yahoo! mail in ~100 years.)

There are other strategies, including installing a local email client on your computer.
There are many options, most of which are free or are included in productivity suites.
I am not familiar with Apache Open Office, but I do not think it includes an email client equivalent to MS Outlook. So you would probably need a standalone email program.

One big advantage of an email client is that it allows you to download, store, save and manage your emails "locally" (on your computer), rather than in the cloud (on the webmail company's servers). It also allows you to collect emails from many different accounts and different protocols in one place. And, depending on the particular program, there are many robust ways to backup one's data. For example, I use Thunderbird to access & manage messages from multiple ISP, webmail (gmail) and exchange accounts in one program, and I use (among other strategies), a utility called MozBackup to back up the data. (I also use another utility, called Mailwasher Pro, to further manage my accounts & to filter for spam.)

One disadvantage of using an email client (mostly if using POP protocol), is that, once downloaded locally (e.g. to your desktop computer), the messages are no longer available to be accessed from other devices (e.g. from your laptop or smartphone). It really depends on how you use emails as to whether that is or is not a down-side.

In any event, it might be worth researching to see if that is something that meets your needs, if "backing up" your data directly in Yahoo! mail is not an option.

Cheers,

Yes, Yahoo is my main mail service provider. Deciding if backup is possible or feasible is what this thread is all about.

I've never heard of and never tried to do that.
As I mentioned earlier, we'd need to wait for someone with some expertise with Yahoo! mail to weigh in.
It would seem to be a cumbersome idea and fraught with the potential for data loss/corruption.
But perhaps there *is* a way to export data from one account to another....?
I just don't know.
Sorry, but I guess I misunderstood from your original post exactly what you were trying to accomplish. My bad.

Right. How do I determine which email client service will work best for me?

Alas, I could not possibly say.
You would need to research it and perhaps try one or two.
I suggest reading some of the links in my previous reply for starters.
There is no one perfect software application for all computers and users.
Just to be clear, it's not a "service", it's an application (software program) that you install on the computer.
But you can use it to download onto the computer your Yahoo! mail messages and messages from any other email accounts.

My personal preference is Thunderbird, with the addition of Mailwasher Pro (spam filter and message management application), with backup using MozBackup and several other methods.
(I take a "belt and suspenders" approach to backing up critical data, such as 15 years of emails...)

I have been using those particular applications for many years with multiple ISP, webmail and Exchange email accounts, across many versions of Windows.
But they are not the only options.
10 computer users will likely offer 11 passionate opinions about what's "best".

It does not matter to me that the saved data can only be accessed by one machine. Can I save the data when I make regular backups of documents and user profile?

That is more a function of how the email accounts are configured (POP vs IMAP).
But, yes, if you install and use an email client on your computer, and you download your emails into that client, you would be able to back up the user profile (with all its contents, including email messages) locally (on the same computer), to an external storage device (e.g. an external hard drive), and/or to the cloud (e.g. with any number of "cloud" backup services).

Cheers,