# Archiving private messages



## radjane dessama

Hello,

my private messages box is almost full and has to be cleared, but before that I wish to back up my private messages in a file so that they will not be lost.

How can I do that?

Thanks for the help


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## SPQR

radjane dessama said:


> Hello,
> 
> my private messages box is almost full and has to be cleared, but before that I wish to back up my private messages in a file so that they will not be lost.
> 
> How can I do that?
> 
> Thanks for the help


 
It's actually easy.

1. Go to the PM page.
2. Select all of the messages that you want to save by clicking on the little box on the right hand side of the screen.
3. Go to the bottom of the screen and you'll see a popup box "selected messages". Click it and select the way in which you wish to save them, perhaps "Download as Text" then click "go"
4. Another screen will appear with all the text and you can then do a "file" "save as" to your own computer.


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## ireney

Hello radjane dessama,

When you open your inbox, if you scroll down, you will see that on the right, below the  number of the page (Page 1 out of 2 i.e.) it says

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

If you click on XML you get a text which IS readable but not useful or easily understandable for laymen like me!

CSV will save them as an Excel. I didn't like that one either

Text will save them as, well, text, which you can open with your Word or your Notepad. 

Bear in mind that if you haven't cleared your Sent Box it will save those too (of course you can edit the saved file afterwards)

I would suggest opening *but not saving* the Private Messages with all 3 ways to see which one you like best.

After you've made up your mind, instead of clicking on "Open" in the pop-up window that appears after you click one of the three options, select "save", give it an appropriate name, find the appropriate "place"/directory to save it and click save. That's it!


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## radjane dessama

thank you, thank you, thank you


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## maxiogee

ireney said:


> Bear in mind that if you haven't cleared your Sent Box it will CAN save those too (of course you can edit the saved file afterwards)



You need to perform the same procedure in your sent section, saving while in your in-box won't save the sent messages.


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## ireney

Maxiogee when I tried it out it saved both (I hadn't checked any specific messages though)


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## Jana337

Whenever you save a file, all of your messages are downloaded regardless of the folder where you store them.

Jana


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## maxiogee

My apologies, I never knew that. I've been using the "select all" check-box and saving them that way. I didn't know one could do otherwise.


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## lsp

maxiogee said:


> My apologies, I never knew that. I've been using the "select all" check-box and saving them that way. I didn't know one could do otherwise.



My PM inbox and outbox save separately, I _wish_ they would all save in one file. Could it be a MAC thing?


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## panjandrum

This downloads all your in and out messages to one file.

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


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## lsp

panjandrum said:


> This downloads all your in and out messages to one file.
> 
> *Download all Private Messages as* :
> XML | CSV | Text


If that was for me, thanks but I have to repeat that it doesn't work, and I've tried all 3 options. Not only do the incoming and outgoing _not_ save together, if I have more than 2 pages of incoming , they have to be saved separately also.


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## panjandrum

Sorry - I also realised just now that ireney had posted what I said some time earlier.

It is really strange if this doesn't work for you.  I can't imagine why it would have anything to do with PC/MAC.


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## cuchuflete

lsp said:


> My PM inbox and outbox save separately, I _wish_ they would all save in one file. Could it be a MAC thing?



I just tested.  Do NOT select anything.  Just go to the bottom of the page and click on your preferred saved format.  My Mac, 10.2.8, saves all messages to a single file (I use .txt, then open and save as .doc.)  This leaves all the messages in my folders, for saving or deletion.


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## lsp

Thanks, C. I always check all, so I'll try it with nothing checked!


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## cuchuflete

lsp said:


> Thanks, C. I always check all, so I'll try it with nothing checked!


Let me know if it doesn't cooperate, and we can try IM or PM for keystroke emulation.


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## johnL

Hello, folks.
I got an email that said my private message inbox was almost full and I should either archive or delete some messages. By "archive" does it mean simply download them to my computer and delete them from the inbox? I've looked and looked, and I can't find any way to "archive" my private messages.

Thanks
John


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## Jana337

johnL said:


> Hello, folks.
> I got an email that said my private message inbox was almost full and I should either archive or delete some messages. By "archive" does it mean simply download them to my computer and delete them from the inbox? I've looked and looked, and I can't find any way to "archive" my private messages.
> 
> Thanks
> John


Precisely, you have to download them to your computer. I merged your thread with another one. Please scroll up to learn how to do it (in case you don't know).



Jana


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## Daddyo

I find it peculiar that so many people in these forums wish to save their PM's. I suppose that, as soon as I start getting friendly PM's, I may want to save them too.
Thank you for explaining how it's done.


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## Alxmrphi

Daddyo said:


> I find it peculiar that so many people in these forums wish to save their PM's. I suppose that, as soon as I start getting friendly PM's, I may want to save them too.
> Thank you for explaining how it's done.



A lot of them are interesting questions and answers and useful information on language learning, wait and see, you'd be surprised!


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## lsp

cuchuflete said:


> Let me know if it doesn't cooperate, and we can try IM or PM for keystroke emulation.



OK, well I didn't forget this little nugget of info, and I'm finally at 100%, so I wanted to download them all (text). I checked nothing and got the error message, "You've got no messages selected." Did I miss the trick?


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## cuchuflete

Hola Lsp,
We have had some vB upgrade since we last talked about this.
I have a huuuuuge # of messages to clean up or clear out, so I'll try it now and get back to you with the results.


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## lsp

cuchuflete said:


> Hola Lsp,
> We have had some vB upgrade since we last talked about this.
> I have a huuuuuge # of messages to clean up or clear out, so I'll try it now and get back to you with the results.



Thanks, I'll stay tuned.


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## cuchuflete

Hola L-
Two clicks:

1. *Download all Private Messages as*:
XML |         CSV |         Text 

I clicked on Text         


2. Mac pop-up asking if I wanted to open or save to disk, which was the default.  I clicked Download, and the file appeared on my desktop.


If it would help, I can send you screenshots.  Let me know.


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## lsp

cuchuflete said:


> Hola L-
> Two clicks:
> 
> 1. *Download all Private Messages as*:
> XML |         CSV |         Text
> 
> I clicked on Text
> 
> 
> 2. Mac pop-up asking if I wanted to open or save to disk, which was the default.  I clicked Download, and the file appeared on my desktop.
> 
> 
> If it would help, I can send you screenshots.  Let me know.


Eureka and Thank you! What a labor saver that was!


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