Problems archiving old messages at the end of the year?

Question

At the end of 2007 I'd like to create new mailboxes for messages sent and received in the year, date them, and move the messages across into them; leaving the Inbox and Sent box empty and ready to handle messages for 2008. Is this a reasonably straightforward thing to do? Are there potential pitfalls I should be aware of?

Answer 1

Yes, it’s reasonable and straightforward, and is also what I do, except I don’t wait till the end of the year to archive my messages. Instead, I create a (white) folder for each year, including the current one, and organize my mail by topic into (blue) sub-mailboxes there as I read them. My Inbox only contains messages (if any) that are waiting for me to do something with them.
Are there potential pitfalls I should be aware of?
The main pitfall you should be aware of would be not doing that and leaving all your mail in the account mailboxes indefinitely. Using Inbox and Sent for archiving purposes (which a lot of people do) is a bad idea.
Another thing to be aware of is that you shouldn’t use the same folder as both a mailbox (i.e. to store messages of its own) and as a parent folder for other folders. Mail allows that duality, but doesn’t handle it very well, and it’s better to not try to “take advantage” of it.
You may also want to read this:
Blue and white Mail folders explained
BTW, the title of your post is “problems archiving old messages at the end of the year?