# Private storage space



## Guerric

Hi,

2013, and our storage space is limited to 200 private messages.
It's time to upgrade that, don't you think?
I hate deleting messages.


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## Paulfromitaly

Guerric said:


> Hi,
> 
> 2013, and our storage space is limited to 200 private messages.
> It's time to upgrade that, don't you think?
> I hate deleting messages.



You can save your private messages on your computer before deleting them from here 



> *Download all Private Messages as*:
> XML | 		CSV | 		Text


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## Guerric

Didn't know/see that. Thanks!
I guess I can download all as text, then send a PM to myself with all of the text.


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## JeanDeSponde

Paulfromitaly said:


> You can save your private messages on your computer before deleting them from here


Looks to me like the old "tell me what you need, I'll tell you how to make do without it" answer...
1/ When saving old messages, the chronology is lost: the file I get has first all the "sent" messages, then all the "received" ones.
It makes it very difficult to read a thread...
2/ The CSV file format is worthless, as each new line characters force a new line in the file, placing plain text in the "date" field.
3/ All the cosmetics is gone (quotes, icons, links etc.)
Have you _really_ tried to read one of your backups, except in case of emergency...?


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## Peterdg

Well, the download as XML could offer some possibilities.

Does anyone know of a product (free if possible) that can read and format VBulletins exported PM's in XML format?


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## romarsan

Si le das al botón izquierdo del mensaje y le dices "guardar como", salvas el mensaje manteniendo imágenes e incluso links directos al foro.
Perdón si esta información iba en los enlaces que te han adjuntado, pero no los descargué


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## Peterdg

romarsan said:


> Si le das al botón izquierdo del mensaje y le dices "guardar como", salvas el mensaje manteniendo imágenes e incluso links directos al foro.
> Perdón si esta información iba en los enlaces que te han adjuntado, pero no los descargué


Romarsan,

No lo entiendo. No hay un "botón izquierdo del mensaje" (o no entiendo lo que quieres decir con eso).


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## romarsan

Perdón, no me expliqué bien. Me refiero al botón izquierdo del ratón. Situándolo en cualquier parte del mensaje, entre las opciones que te ofrece está la de "guardar como" y el formato que ofrece por defecto es el de "página web completa".


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## JeanDeSponde

Peterdg said:


> Well, the download as XML could offer some possibilities.
> Does anyone know of a product (free if possible) that can read and format VBulletins exported PM's in XML format?


You'd still have the chronology issue.
Do you read your email history as "all the mails I sent, then all the mails I received"...?


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## Peterdg

JeanDeSponde said:


> You'd still have the chronology issue.
> Do you read your email history as "all the mails I sent, then all the mails I received"...?


Well no. But the XML format contains the date and time of the message. An XML reader and formatter for this kind of messages could organize the views in function of the date/time of the message. I say "could" because I don't know any product. I googled around a bit and there seem to be some Vbulletin XML PM readers/formatters around but 1) I couldn't find any that said it was apt for Windows 7 and 2) I'd like to hear from someone who has experience with it to make sure the freeware does not contain malware.


romarsan said:


> Perdón, no me expliqué bien. Me refiero al botón izquierdo del ratón. Situándolo en cualquier parte del mensaje, entre las opciones que te ofrece está la de "guardar como" y el formato que ofrece por defecto es el de "página web completa".


¡Aaah!


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## romarsan

Perdón, botón derecho


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## Peterdg

romarsan said:


> Perdón, botón derecho


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## JeanDeSponde

Peterdg said:


> Well no. But the XML format contains the date and time of the message. An XML reader and formatter for this kind of messages could organize the views in function of the date/time of the message. I say "could" because I don't know any product. I googled around a bit and there seem to be some Vbulletin XML PM readers/formatters around but 1) I couldn't find any that said it was apt for Windows 7 and 2) I'd like to hear from someone who has experience with it to make sure the freeware does not contain malware.


What you mean is that skilled programmers may work their way out of the bog.
Fine.
And what about plain foreros...?
The "save your private messages on your computer before deleting them" is, at the moment, simply irrelevant: just say "You know what? I don't care", but don't say "Hey stupid, there is an easy way round"...


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## JamesM

I don't think anyone has said anything close to "Hey stupid..." in this thread.  No need to get testy.

I agree that it would be nice to have a better download capability, but what you're looking at is all that is offered in vBulletin, the bulletin board software that runs this board, as far as I know.

I've poked around a bit and haven't found any kind of add-on or mod that would offer a better message download experience.

Ah.. here's some shareware that might work for synchronizing and managing PMs on your PC from one or multiple vBulletin sites.  I haven't used it so I can't vouch for it.  Just trying to be helpful (contrary to the way you seem to picture us trying to be.  )

http://vbulletin-pm-reader.findmysoft.com/


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## Guerric

Here's a working download link... hard to find one.
Due to the space limitations, I had disabled "save sent messages", so I can only access my received messages...
Seems to be working okay. But it would be nice to have a proper display like:


> (subject)
> -Original message
> 
> -Reply​
> -Reply by original sender
> 
> -Reply
> ​etc.


The same comment goes for the forum itself.
Anyway, I still think that 200 messages is not much...even with millions of users.
And I also think it would be more appropriate to grant X KBs per user, because small text messages use almost no disk space.
Also, maybe it's possible to merge the space allotted for attachments with the space allotted for messages...so people can really manage their user diskspace as they want to.


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## jann

Hi JDS, 


JeanDeSponde said:


> 1/ When saving old messages, the chronology is lost: the file I get has first all the "sent" messages, then all the "received" ones.
> It makes it very difficult to read a thread...
> 2/ The CSV file format is worthless, as each new line characters force a new line in the file, placing plain text in the "date" field.


I routinely download old PMs as a CSV file, and I don't have the problems you describe.  Save the file as a CSV, then import it into Excel (or other spreadsheet sofware of your choice) and re-save it in .xls or comparable format.  You'll have one line per PM, with columns for mailbox, date, title, from, to, and message. Then you can use the "Sort" feature in the spreadsheet software to organize (and reorganize) the messages in whatever order you like.  It is possible to designate primary and secondary sort criteria (e.g., sort by date, then by mailbox).  If you wish, you can copy all the sent messages to a second worksheet in the same spreadsheet, deleting them from the first worksheet.  This would leave you with something functionally similar to an "inbox" and an "outbox."


> 3/ All the cosmetics is gone (quotes, icons, links etc.)


This, unfortunately, is true.  The vB tags are there but of course they are not parsed, and so....


> Have you _really_ tried to read one of your backups, except in case of emergency...?


... on the _numerous_ occasions that I have needed to refer back to my archived PM spreadsheet, if the message I want to reread has heavy formatting, I simply copy & paste the text of the PM back into a blank message on WR and use the "preview" or "go advanced" feature to read it in fullly formatted version. 

Yes, these are work-arounds.  But I confess I like the searchability and sortability of a spreadsheet-based archive.  I don't think of WR's PM feature as an equivalent to cloud-based email service...


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