# Saving emails **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 8, 2008, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498 "2008-04-08T19:08:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21825_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/1 "2008-04-08T19:08:06Z")
I saw this when I checked my Yahoo email account: > [@](#): > > **Your mail. Keep it all. > Enjoy unlimited storage. Save every email you receive in Yahoo! Mail.** šŸ˜• Do you save all of your emails? Lots of your emails? Some? Hardly any? Iā€™ve saved some over the years, but Iā€™ve never gone back to read any. If all of my accounts came up empty one day, thereā€™s very little Iā€™d miss, if anything. So the concept of unlimited storage is silly to me. Plus most of what I get is junk anyway. How about you? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/2 "2008-04-08T19:12:18Z")
Well my emails arrive in outlook, (at home and at work) and they stay there unless I delete themā€¦ So I guess I save all but spam. At work weā€™re heavily reliant on email so we often refer back to old emailsā€¦ weā€™d be lost without it ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/3 "2008-04-08T19:24:11Z")
I donā€™t save the junk but I save the useful and/or personal stuff. At my work e-mail I get lots of patient-related mail. I save those for about 5 months. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/4 "2008-04-08T19:34:03Z")
Yeah, same here. We use email as our ā€œpaper trailā€ and have copies of the same handful of accounts on 4 different computers. ---
**Author:** ![Litoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@Litoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Litoris)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/5 "2008-04-08T19:58:37Z")
I donā€™t really ā€œsaveā€ them, but I am selective about which ones I delete. Sometimes, it does help to go back and pull information (like a phone number or such) that I have in an old email. _Of course this all goes for personal email, I do have reasons to save work emails, but I think that is universal._ ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/6 "2008-04-08T20:04:23Z")
I tend to keep personal corrospondence indefinitely, business emails until the conclusion of the business at hand unless itā€™s something I need to hold onto longer, and spam gets deleted. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/7 "2008-04-08T20:12:01Z")
Save it all except for obvious junk. Some of the most useful mail is the acknowledgements I get from on-line merchandisers ā€“ I use this as records of where and what Iā€™ve bought. Comes in handy when I need a receipt for insurance purposes or whatever. Also, old email serves as a quasi-diary. What was I doing in March last year? I dunno ā€“ let me check my email. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/8 "2008-04-08T20:18:09Z")
Work email gets deleted after a year and a half, unless you park it in an archive folder. I donā€™t delete nearly enough. When I get a chance I go through, move stuff that is useful into folders, and delete the rest - such as intermediate mails in long email strings, and comments on issues long since settled. Which gives me an idea for a thread ā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/9 "2008-04-08T20:24:10Z")
For work, I tend to keep at least a yearā€™s worth of emails on file. Itā€™s CYA kind of thing, because so many things tend to get decided/confirmed by email and sometimes itā€™s the only record we have that someone actually agreed to something if they decide to backpedal a couple of months later on. For personal, Iā€™ve kept quite a few emails archived for sentimental reasons. The Boy and I conducted much of our early courtship over email and IM, so the archived messages and chat logs are kind of like old love letters. I like to go back and read them sometimes, if I happen to need a pick-me-up. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21825_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/10 "2008-04-08T23:23:22Z")
I wasnā€™t thinking about work emails when I started this thread, although I tend to dump most of that pretty quickly, too. I have created a couple of Outlook folders where I keep all the emails that apply to specific projects, plus a personal/admin folder, but the rest disappears in a great cosmic flush. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/11 "2008-04-09T07:09:14Z")
I save all serious emails - spam gets deleted, of couse, but Iā€™ve got a pretty good set of filters. Iā€™ve got well over 250,000 emails in my archive. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/12 "2008-04-09T07:55:31Z")
I used to save more, but I delete lots more these day. I use a folder for holding onto somewhich which I may need in the next two weeks, and a lot of things do into there. I save important emails which may need to be referred to, but I rarely need to look back at them. ---
**Author:** ![exclamation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/858c86/32.png) [@exclamation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/exclamation)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/13 "2008-04-09T07:58:48Z")
I save everything. I donā€™t read spam, but I donā€™t bother deleting it either, so it just sits in my inbox. Iā€™ll move the _really_ important emails into a seperate folder, but every email Iā€™ve received for the past five years is still sitting in my inbox. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/14 "2008-04-09T08:32:50Z")
Gmail looks after it for me, so yes, I do. And I do, on occasion, go back and read old ones. Itā€™s interesting (for a few minutes). ---
**Author:** ![NunOfTheAbove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@NunOfTheAbove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NunOfTheAbove)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/15 "2008-04-09T08:50:13Z")
Hey, I was just doing this earlier! I save all my emails because a lot of them are for/related to work, and other emails occasionally contain something I later on need to remember. At any rate, I had an old email with the large JPG images of our schools seal and ā€˜logoā€™ for lack of a better term. These are nice, high res images that work well when blown up to poster size, so we use them on all the posters we take to conferences, competitions, etcā€¦ I needed them again today, and Iā€™m in the habit of just searching gmail for my old message and retrieving the images. This time, it didnā€™t work. None of my emails that contained the files actually had the JPGs. I cannot get the images to download on any computer I own. My point is, I now have to rethink the usefulness of saving emails when I cannot count on the fidelity of saved attachments. Granted, it is just ONE example out of the countless times it has proven useful over the years. Still, it makes me curious if I could find other bad attachments if I actually looked through the 500mb of old emailsā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/16 "2008-04-09T09:00:58Z")
I donā€™t delete or file anything - I have colleagues who obsessively manage their email by sorting it into folders for different types of correspondence, each containing subfolders for different senders, each containing subfolders for current emails and emails that are dealt with. Lifeā€™s too short to be dicking around with crap like that. I just sort my inbox so that the newest messages are at the top and let them fall off the bottom of the screen. When I want something, I can do a search for it (which is all my colleagues end up doing anyway, as their elaborate systems just make things hard to find). I donā€™t delete anything unless it offends me. I donā€™t even open some messages if I know what theyā€™re about (usually automated notifications such as ā€˜Congratulations! - your auction item sold!ā€™ or ā€˜You have received a PayPal paymentā€™). ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/17 "2008-04-09T09:03:11Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] I donā€™t even open some messages if I know what theyā€™re about (usually automated notifications such as ā€˜Congratulations! - your auction item sold!ā€™ or ā€˜You have received a PayPal paymentā€™). [/QUOTE] I do, but only because, with broadband and Gmail, itā€™s faster and fewer mouseclicks to open and then return to the inbox than it is to do all the ā€œmark as readā€ stuff, and for some reason I am fussy about having 0 messages unread. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/18 "2008-04-09T09:04:09Z")
I have the following folders set up for my personal email: 1 Friends and Family 2 Shopping and Finances 3 Memberships, Newsletters etc and move emails into the appropriate folder once Iā€™ve read/dealt with them. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/19 "2008-04-09T09:30:00Z")
[QUOTE=TheLoadedDog] I do, but only because, with broadband and Gmail, itā€™s faster and fewer mouseclicks to open and then return to the inbox than it is to do all the ā€œmark as readā€ stuff, and for some reason I am fussy about having 0 messages unread. [/QUOTE] Iā€™m not. Sometimes I do the ā€˜select allā€™ and mark them as read, but usually, I canā€™t be bothered. My hotmail account (actually the only one where I do delete old stuff once in a while, through habit acquired when they limited the space) currently contains 1795 messages, of which 1117 are unread. I find it easier just to remember the number 1117 and use that - if it changes - to determine whether I really have any new messages. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2008, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498/20 "2008-04-09T09:38:54Z")
I really donā€™t delete a whole lot, in fact, just the other week it was necessary for me to go back and dig up a personal email from three years ago. They had some files saved to it that had gone missing from my hard drive. I was very grateful for that. PS: **exclamation!** is my favorite new user name, kinda sorta welcome! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saving-emails/444498.md?page=2)