Do I Need a Folder Structure in MailStore Archives to Manage Emails?
Microsoft Outlook is likely the most widely used email client in organizations. Some readers of this blog may be familiar with the following situation: as an Outlook user, you often plan to organize your inbox. You usually try to achieve this by creating a clear and organized folder structure. But does it really work? Keeping your inbox clean and regularly sorting your emails into folders and arranging them by subject requires a lot of discipline.
Email Archiving Strategies: Daily Archiving vs. Mailbox Archiving
Microsoft Outlook is probably the most widely used email client in organizations. Some of this blog's readers might be familiar with this situation: as an Outlook user, you often plan to organize your inbox. You usually try to achieve this by creating an open and clear folder structure. But does it really work? Keeping your inbox clean and regularly moving your emails into folders and sorting them by subject requires quite a bit of discipline. Nevertheless, after some time you realize that even with careful maintenance of your folders, you still end up searching for emails. You can't find the emails among all these folders. In extreme cases, the number of folders becomes so high that it causes Outlook to slow down even to the point where it might not work properly. We can't say why people like organizing their inboxes with folders, but we can explain the results of this method regarding email archiving.
Archiving Strategies: Daily Archiving or Mailbox Archiving?
First, we need to look at two ways of archiving emails. There are two archiving strategies that companies using MailStore Server can apply: daily archiving and mailbox archiving. One reason IT managers might prefer mailbox archiving is that users can be better guided through the folder structure in the email archive. However, the folder structure in the archive grows along with the structure in the inbox. And remember, even if folders in the inbox are deleted, they still exist in the archive. As a result, the folder tree in the MailStore archive continues to grow. Experiences show that users use the fast full-text search feature of MailStore to search for emails and all kinds of attachments. In the end, the folder structure doesn't work because it doesn't help you find emails.
Folder Structure in the Archive and Compliance
The basic difference between daily and mailbox archiving is that the mailbox archives incoming and outgoing emails immediately. This means that the emails are stored as copies in their original format; they cannot be manipulated or modified. This guarantees the integrity of the archiving solution. In addition, this method helps companies comply with country-specific legal regulations. When companies choose MailStore as an email archive for compliance purposes, they should use journal archiving. As explained earlier, this means that the typical folder structure in Outlook is not applied to the archive. However, according to Daniel Weuthen, MailStore's Engineering Director, this is not a problem due to MailStore's search feature:
No Need for Inbox Folders
Daniel Weuthen, Engineering Director
"I spent years maintaining and optimizing the folder structure. It took so much time that it started taking away from my daily work. The folder structure became so large that it no longer helped me find emails," comments Daniel Weuthen. The increasing number of folders made it difficult to get an overview, forcing the engineering director to take a radical step. "I completely removed my inbox folders! Now I can search for my emails in the archive, which is fast and practical with this full-text search feature. There are two major advantages for me. I spend less time managing my emails, and MailStore archives everything in compliance with both the legal requirements and discovery needs," adds Daniel Weuthen.
Source: Is a Folder Structure Required in MailStore Archive?