How to create room for PMs without really trying

[markem]

Many people want to save all their PMs (private messages) because they may be of use some time further down the road. CA has a maximum on the number that you may have associated with your account. This leads to a bit of tension when the number you want to save exceeds your allotment.

There is a very painless method of dealing with this tension that I will outline here. Before that, it is important to notice that everyone has at least two folders, and inbox and an outbox. It is the total of all folders that is counted against this maximum number of PMs.

So, here is a simple approach that can work wonders for both your sanity (you get to keep all your PMs) and the ability of others to PM you (over quota means no new PMs ). I will explain this using my account as an example.

I go to my private messages screen and ignore all the information about folders, for now. Next, I scroll to the bottom of the page and find the section on the lower right marked, "Download all Private Messages as:". There are several options. I always choose "text" as that is easiest for me. It may be more convenient for you to use one of the other options and I encourage you to play with these until you find the one that works for you (note that just because you download all the PMs doesn't mean that they have been deleted). The system will now ask you if you want to download all the messages and name the file something like privatemessages-markem-02-16-2011 (at least for me on my MS Vista system using the Firefox browser). On MS machines, these typically go in your "Downloads" folder (or whatever you have configured in to your browser). Once downloaded, I move them to a folder where I store all my PM archives. It is pretty simple now to use the MS search function to find which folder may contain any PM that I wish to look for.

Now comes the really important part

Go back to the top of the page and go through each folder and delete what you don't absolutely need on CA anymore. You can always search the downloaded PM file that you created, so almost none of these messages are needed on CA now. For large folders, it may seem that deleting messages can be a real pain, especially if only know how to delete them one screen at a time. But wait, there is an easier way! Go to the folder you want to delete and then notice that there is a teeny tiny link just above the folders drop down menu that lets you remove all the files in the currently selected folder!

Voila! You are now able to delete all the messages in any folder you have at a touch of a button (quite literally if your mouse/touchpad/pen uses buttons). You can get to all your PMs (conveniently archived by date) on your local system (where only you have access to them) and so you never have to delete a PM again.

This is a win-win situation for the user who wants to save everything and the sanity of the TOE who get to administer the system and listen to complaints of not enough PM storage.

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