How to Remove Attachments from Maildir Emails – Quick Solution

 

A bit off-topic, but I want to remove attachments from Maildir emails. Someone suggested me to try Thunderbird AttachmentExtractor, but it only helps me to save attachment files. No option to detach, or remove attachments from the Maildir files.

I am using Mu4e & my emails are stored locally in Maildir file format. People are sending me emails containing large attachment files. Honestly, I want to keep my emails, but not the attachments included. What can I do to remove only the attachments from my Maildir files?

Note: I have the development editions of Emacs running on the Ubuntu 16.04 version.

Many Linux-based Mail Server & Email clients stored their data in Maildir file format. The structure to store data primarily in three folders i.e., Cur, Tmp & New. Maildir files stored messages in a unique single file for each email information.

Applications storing messages as Maildir are Qmail, Xmail, Dovecot, Postfix, Exim, & Courier mail server. You can obtain the Maildir files from the below location (example location of Horde Mail Server):

/var/spool/dovecot/private/hor.local

Maildir files contain the complete information of an email i.e., email content, header info, & embedded attachment file. The attachment files can be a PDF file, Image, Document, Spreadsheet, PPT file, or archive files.

Due to these attachment files, your mailbox space information increases so rapidly. As most of the Mail Servers are hosted on the cloud, hence users need to pay for the storage. To cut-cost, it is recommended to delete Maildir attachment files. Attachment files occupy the most space.

So, it will be a nice choice to remove the Attachments.

How to Delete Maildir attachments files?

The process to remove Maildir attachment file is not so easy. You may need a proper script to perform the function. In the case of Online Mail Servers, which run on Web GUI, there is no way to delete the attachments.

To delete attachments from offline Maildir files, stored in local. You can try RecvoeryTools Maildir Email Removal software. The application will allow the users to remove attachment files from all the selected Maildir emails.

The application is designed in such a way to delete the attachments in a very easy & simple manner. To check its working of trial edition. Follow these simple steps:

1. Install & Run software Maildir attachment removal tool.
2. Load Maildir mailbox items by dual ways i.e., Select Files/Select Folders option.
3. Choose all the required Maildir email mailboxes in the software panel.
4. Click on the Remove Attachment button to initialize the process.
5. Analyze live Maildir Email Attachment removal process in application panel.
6. As the conversion process finished, click on the OK button to confirm & exit.

Finally, all of your Maildir file attachments are removed from your Maildir files.

Disclaimer: Once you delete attachments from Maildir file, you cannot retrieve them backup. So, it is recommended to first extract Maildir Attachments.

Features of Maildir Attachment Removal Software:

There are many features & benefits of the Maildir Attachment Removal application. Due to a range of features, it is not possible to explain them all. Hence, here is a list of some of them:

• Delete Attachments from multiple Maildir files in batch mode.
• Only Deletes the attachments, not the emails.
• Delete all types of attachment files without any problem.
• Completely standalone application without requiring any third-party software.
• Highly advanced filters to delete the emails from Date Range, Subject, Attachments, Sender etc.
• Delete the attachments from Inbox, Draft, Deleted Items, Spam & other folder emails.
• The tool will preserve the original metadata & properties of Maildir emails after the removal of attachments.
• Run the application on any Windows OS i.e., Win 10, Win 8.1, Win 8, Win 7, Win XP, Win Vista, etc. for both 32-bit & 64-bit OS editions.
• Can’t retrieve the attachments once deleted from your Maildir email.
• Reduce your Maildir mailbox storage space by deleting large attachments.
• Creates SavingLog report that includes complete information regarding deletion process.

These are just a few features of this utility. You can get information about more features by trying its free trial edition.

Final Words:

In the above article, we learned about a complete procedure of how to delete email attachments from Maildir file. You can do it in a very easy & simple manner without any problem. If you want to save Maildir emails to other formats, try Maildir Converter software.