That, of course, means that they are immune to any server-based activities. But these are locally stored copies of your email messages. There may be formatting or image issues, particularly if the content is web-based. From here, you can dive deeper into the folder tree until you see a folder named Messages.Click through these folders until you find several.From here, you should see another couple of folders that appear to be randomly named (V6 and a string of characters).Hold down Option and click on Go in the top menu bar.They’re buried in a folder in the macOS Library and the archive itself uses a. Unfortunately, they’re just not that easy to get to. Where are archived messages stored? This is an example of the locally stored mailboxes associated with a particular account in Mail - including the Archive.Īs we mentioned earlier, copies of your email messages are stored locally on your Mac when you use the Archive feature. You can also edit where archived emails are stored by going to Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts and selecting the Mailbox Behaviors tab.įrom here, you can actually set the Archive to a new mailbox, which you can choose to store locally on your computer. If you archive a message in a third-party Mailbox, that message will indeed be pulled from the email provider’s servers. That’s because all of your inbox will be stored in the Archive folder for that particular account.

If you’re using a third-party mail service with the Mail app, this may be confusing. Messages that you Archive will be placed within this Mailbox (but they will also be pulled from your email provider’s server). It’ll look like a cardboard box with a straight line across it.Īt this point, Mail will automatically create a new Mailbox called Archive. Click on the Archive icon in the top menu bar.The message will be placed in the archive associated with the mailbox.Īrchiving an email message in macOS is pretty simple. How to archive a message You can archive a message with the Archive button, located in the toolbar.

Hide archive mac mail