Patent ID: 7730146

Claim:
A method for use in a computer system comprising an email message system that manages a plurality of email messages and an email archive system, wherein the email archive system archives at least some of the plurality of email messages and replaces at least a portion of an archived email message in the email message system with a short cut identifier, wherein the email message system comprises an email message server and at least one email message client, wherein the email message system supports creation of user email accounts, wherein the email message client executes on a client computer that a user of the client computer having an email account operates to manage the user's email messages accessible via the user's email account, the user's email messages comprising at least a portion of the plurality of email messages, wherein the email message client comprises a local message store on the client computer that stores local copies of at least some of the user's email messages, wherein an archived email message from the user's email account is represented in the local message store by its short cut identifier, the method comprising: (A) providing a local archive store to store at least some of the user's archived email messages, the local archive store having a size that is configurable by the user of the email account.