"freebody" wrote

| How do I tell if a mail subfolder is local or on the provider's server
| without going to the provider.
|

If you use TBird for POP3 or IMAP then you're
downloading the email from the server. The folder
is local. You can find it in your App Data....

| For
| hotmail.com
| gmail.com
|
.... But in this case it's academic because freebie
webmail providers also keep a copy. Usually they
keep a copy even if you think you deleted it.

If you want to back it up, back up the App Data
folders. If you're worried about privacy, don't use
hotmail or gmail.