OT - stored emails and Android - Xpost

[David.WE.Roberts]

I do most stuff by email, and have done for years.

So most of my life, such as it is, is stored for reference in folders of emails. This includes details of numerous online accounts, Amazon and eBay purchases, and much more.

I am off for an extended holiday. :-)

In the past I have taken a NetBook with me - running Windows or Linux with plenty of mail applications which can import and export emails and store them in a hierarchical structure.

My email system of choice at the moment is Windows Mail, with a backup choice of Thunderbird.

Both of these support hierarchical file store based structures for storing and retrieving historical emails.

We have just bough an Android tablet as a light and portable computer for our next expedition.

Much is familiar from using an Android mobile phone, but the 10" form factor and HD screen make it look like a 'normal' PC and I was expecting to be able to do 'normal' PC things on it.

[Am I realising I should have paid a premium for a Surface Pro?]

I am trying out K9 Mail which is reputed to be one of the best Android mail applications, but it does seem limited compared to WM/Tbird.

Alternatively I would need a stored email viewer app. I note that OfficeSuite can read .eml files so that may be a route, but I would really like a reader App which includes next/previous functionality to traverse a series of emails in the same folder.

So has anyone already solved this?

Cheers

Dave R

[Adrian]

Leave it in folders on the IMAP server? With the amount of space that GMail etc give for free these days, there's no reason to store it offline, and a whole stack to store it online.

But a damn good clear-out and cull is usually a good idea, too... Do you really NEED order confirmations for stuff you used/ate/binned five years ago...?

[Mentalguy2k8]

Have you looked at the actual built-in Android email app? Not Gmail, email, it has folders and things. Do you want something to collect and organise mails while on holiday, or do you really need to import all the old mails?

[The Natural Philosopher]

so that anyone can read it? Right.

you would be surprised...

[Adrian]

If you're that paranoid, have you considered that it's all been read and archived already - especially the online orders...?

[Philip Herlihy]

Works with Google, and you can always get at it via a simple browser. I found out to my cost recently that Demon (otherwise a very good ISP indeed) delete anything older than 1 month, so when I got a whole month behind in dealing with my email I started losing them! You won't get this problem with Google unless your email history is absurdly large. My main PC now downloads using POP into Outlook, AutoArchived into ancilliary files (all backed-up weekly), while my Android devices use IMAP to keep track.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

Pfft. If it's from the last decade, it has already been sequestered by the NSA and GCHQ, and probably others. Stable door is still open, too.

Email transmits in the clear. You should always assume anyone can read it.

Cheers - Jaimie

[Tim+]

Indeed. It's really not worth getting too paranoid about your emails unless your messages are routinely encrypted. GCHQ will probably have them on file somewhere if you want copies. ;-)

I used to think my daughters were daft for not downloading all their emails and deleting them off the server. Now I think the only sensible option is to just leave them there. *SO* much handier when you suddenly find you need to access an email when you're on holiday on another computer.

Tim

[The Natural Philosopher]

online orders are not what bothers me.

MOST people I communicate do NOT use 'online mail' and so no record exists beyond the fact of a communication between us of the contents.

And MOST mail relays will not store even that beyond a year.

[Adrian]

Do you routinely enquire about the mail protocols and archiving arrangements of your acquaintances? Migawd, you must be a laugh at parties.

Sorry, I thought it was the NSA/GCHQ that was reading all of our mail?

If you're concerned about your online mail being "hacked", just use a half-way sensibly non-weak password, ffs.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Indeed, but the storage capacity to keep all of it for ten years does NOT exist,

and in my case, outgoing mail is definitely not read until its passed beyond my London based server.

to read it would require a court order, or a hefty bribe to some sysadmins, or the ability to pull it out of a random selection of routers and not always the same ones.

To read a gmail account all you need is a name and a password.

From anywhere, in the world. Phone hacking or worse.

Emails to your lovers, embarrassing confessions to your shrink..when you will be away from home..

nah. the government ain't the problem here.

[Adrian]

To read _any_ mail account, all you need is a user name and password. Or a network sniffer on the internet connection.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I dont have to.

I know from their email addresses...

They are welcome to use up CPU power reading my dribblings. Its not them I care about.

you have no idea how easy even those are to hack.

[David.WE.Roberts]

I can set my email accounts up to use IMAP from the Android tablet, and so can check new emails whilst on the road.

I do rely on the message store for all sorts of things that happened in the past, though.

As suggested, I could tidy it up to reduce the amount to take with me but I do need the emails from a lot of the folders.

I should add that I want to be able to access email off-line, not be dependant on a mobile data contract or an Internet Cafe to be able to see them.

Cheers

Dave R

[The Natural Philosopher]

not true at all.

You wont read any of my email from ten years ago with either.

At the best, a sniffer might pull in the mail I just received.

The only way to get at the archive is to physically access the machine its on, or the network its on, and that cant be done from outside the premises except using wifi, and that is encrypted so a sniffer wouldn't help.

And I would see an notice it happening in terms of activity on the network.

[The Natural Philosopher]

stuff the mail on a thumb drive or something than. Or configure a raspberry PI as an IMAP server and take that with you :-)

[David.WE.Roberts]

Yes I do need a tidy up - but this will not remove all the emails.

Also, I want off-line access.

I don't want to be reliant on an Internet connection to read my email whilst I am on the road. Apart from anything else trawling through stored emails is likely to be slow and cost money.

As with others, I have reservations about storing personal data in the cloud.

True, all the data has probably passed through various Internet observation points at some point, but I would be massively aggregating data which increases the security risk/threat level.

I have over 1GB of stored data.

Quite possibly 80% of this may no longer be needed.

However if I need the 20% I still have to solve the problem.

Going through the emails individually and culling (I do this from time to time) would also probably take a lot longer than solving the viewing issue.

Local storage is not a problem - I have 64GB on the SDXC card just begging to be used.

My plan (such as it is) goes:

(1) Configure Android to view emails via IMAP.

(2) Confirm that I can read stored emails on Android.

(3) Wait for the eve of departure.

(4) Make sure all recent messages I need are moved from the internal database to folder storage. Un-subscribe from most mailing lists.

(5) Stop using POP3 to pick up any more email and transfer stored emails to Android.

(6) Use IMAP on holiday.

(7) After holiday, download all emails from web by turning POP3 back on under Windows Vista. I will have to make sure that all my 'sent' mails are stored on the server for downloading unless they are saved in a compatible format by the Android mail App.

Simples :-)

Cheers

Dave R

Oh, and can you upload '.eml' files into Gmail's folder structure should I wish to use Gmail as my aggregation point?

[Bob Eager]

Unless it's been fixed recently, the built in email app won't talk properly to some mail servers (mine included). Despite years of moans from users, it still sends an illegal HELO command...

[David.WE.Roberts]

Ummm...don't see how 'stuffing it on a thumb drive' is any different (apart from more complicated access) than copying to the internal MicroSD card.

Taking the Pi with me also requires carrying more kit and either having to add a mobile power supply or to only use it when I have a power socket or two.

We bought the tablet because it was multi-purpose, compact, and LIGHT!!

I'm trying to avoid carrying a load of ancillary stuff just to get it to work.

Cheers

Dave R

[The Natural Philosopher]

I have in all 125GB of stored data and 375GB of TV recordings and other videos.. on my server and backup machine. shheesh

80% is needed.

if you can get the functionality on the android.;-)