I have never made a review before. And for many reasons I have become very disappointed, even disgruntled with Apple and my MacBook Air and my iPad. But I wanted to share here the main reason I still use my MacBook Air - what I believe is the best mail archive program out there - for Mac or Windows - MailSteward.
Up front - two reasons: (1) it is the only mail archive program I have used with which I never had a problem of it not finding an email. When other programs failed to find something I was sure was there, I always returned to MailSteward, and it found the emails. (2) John Seward has always provided outstanding tech support - always zoomed in on the problem, or lack thereof, and resolved my issue. What’s more, I usually get a response in hours, sometimes minutes. For me, he defines good tech support - knows the product inside-out, actually provides quality support, and does so in a timely manner.
That said, I would like to share the best example of how I know what I speak of. In 2018 I made my first ever online course purchase. I then moved to Spain, then to Kuwait, then back to Spain. In 2020 I moved back to the USA. My editor convinced me to pursue my attempts to get my $3000 back through the Better Business Bureau. I spent weeks going through multiple computers and hard disks, to review recorded webinars, recorded phone conversations, and yse, emails. I made transcripts and spread sheets to submit my casse.
What is important here, is that using other mail archive programs, I could not find some emails I was sure existed, and that would support my case. In comes MailSteward. I had to combine/merge some data, but I used MailSteward and indeed found all the needed emails.
Additional details: I am a collector. I never delete an email. I never waste time trying to organize emails. I rely on searches to find what I need. I have archived decades of email, many hundreds of thousands of emails, tens of Gigabytes of data.
MailSteward is not the fastest archive program. The two I used on Windows are much faster, yet at times, for unknown reasons, they cannot find something. It reminds me of the not completely reliable search on Amazon - I have put an exact product name I just saw minutes ago on Amazon into the Amazon search, and it will not come up. Yes, very unusual occurance - but when you need to find an important email, reliability trumps speed.
A final note - despite my complete documentation of my BBB case, it was denied, appealed, denied, ignored. Due to some circumstances I choose not to share here, after three years, dealing with a company with a complete lack of integrity (in my humble opinion), I did indeed receive a full refund of my roughly $3000. And MailSteward was a big help in that.
I have used the free and paid up cheaper versions for several years and have found the retrieval from archives has been a life-saver. HOWEVER there have been various glitches, the last being related to upgrading to OS X Big Sur. Having paid $49.95 in August 2019, it looks as if another payment to upgrade is now needed. These are not trivial sums, and committing to using MailSteward does seem to mean periodic financial haemorrhages. Functionality when working is 5-stars but overall not 5
I have used MailSteward for a very long time. The app has been bulletproof until recently. Over the last year, I've unexplainably lost thousands of emails and now my files corrupt on a regular basis. I've contacted the company, but they offer little help other than to rebuild my databases which doesn't seem to work. He has also told me that I'm the only person with that problem which I find hard to believe since there is seldom one of anyting.
The app is no longer reliable for me.
This has been my default Mail backup client for as long as I have owned a MAC. The developer releases periodic updates, with new releases that require a small fee for upgrade. The program works very well (I would recommend MailSteward rather than the lite version) you can set schedules, set up databases etc. It has full search handling and will also store attachments etc. Like any database program it can slow while searching, especially if you database is big. Mine is currently around 8 GB and it takes a minute or two to search for emails. It has never crashed on me, and you can export files, print etc from within the program. I wouldn't be without this program. The initial purchases fee is high, but you are getting a stable program with minor upgrade fees between major version changes. Well worth the money I paid for it.
Utterly horrible experience. Having archived your emails with this company and paying them $50.00 to do it, a couple of years later with literally no perceivable update to the UI and using something that works at a snails pace on the fastest Mac available, they hijack your archives and charge you another ¢20.00 and to add insult to injury, the serial number they sell you to access your archives doesn't work and tells you it isn't on their database... you email them as you need to access the database you paid them to create and nobody answers... what a bunch of total ransomware scumbags
I hate this app. I would give it minus four stars because the developers seem to be extremely greedy and to use a very manipulative tactic to make money. This app might as well be a subscription service because essentially I am charged $20 every 3-4 months. I bought the pro version and have been using it for some time. I cannot say that it is easy to use. But what bugs me the most is that they have VERY frequent upgrades and charge $20 per upgrade! Essentially, I am being billed (knowingly but extremely begrudgingly) every three months or so. The latest upgrade which is at the time I am writing this review is for 2 bug fixes and costs yet another $20. Also, when you get the app, you get to store emails until 2020. In 2020, there will be yet another upgrade. So expect, to pay every 3-4 years for the annual upgrade, and every 3-4 months $20 for a couple of bug fixes with no major overhaul of their interface!
The developer has been extremely responsive to my questions, so that is definitely has not been an issue for me.
I've been using Mail Steward since 2010 and found it to be robust and reliable. When I've run into issues, the developer has been responsive and helpful. I think Mail Steward Pro (the version I'm running) is well worth the investment and I'm subtracting half a star only because the interface could do with an overhaul.
Potentially a good application but buggy and with extremely poor support. I paid $50 for this, and have continual problems with it being unable to open my mail to archive it. I have contacted Mail Steward several times asking for help but they just ignore the emails. Oh well, $50 just written off. My advice is to avoid this application.
Love this app, have been using it for just over a year with no problems.
But we had a burglary here and had the Mac stolen which was running our copy of MailSteward (they left the external hard drive that stored the backed up database - luckily).
My problem is, I have lost my license key, so I cannot re-install on my new Mac. I have all my account details and proof of purchase. But I have no way to contact the people at MailSteward because their website has no customer support contact details. I have tried emailing their "BugReport" email, but after 1 month - still no reply.
I would love to keep using this great app, but with no way of contacting them, I am going to be forced to look for an alternative.,, Shame.
Let's hope someone from MailSteward reads these messages and gets in touch.
Since last update, version 11.3.2 everything is fine again: scheduling works.
So rating is up!
The app does the job but I really don't like the user interface: not the apple's way first and old fashioned and not powerful.
I used MailSteward for years, but have encountered severe data loss problem, with Version 11.3.2 (1359). The bodies of many email messages have vanished!. The developer John Seward examined the problem and has offered no real help. There is evidently no way to rebuild a corrupted database, which is ridiculous. I am now backing up my emails using the high quality webmail client FastMail, at $40 per year. I cannot count on MailSteward.
I used MailSteward for years, but have encountered severe data loss problem, with Version 11.3.2 (1359). The bodies of many email messages have vanished!. The developer John Seward examined the problem and has offered no real help. There is evidently no way to rebuild a corrupted database, which is ridiculous. I am now backing up my emails using the high quality webmail client FastMail, at $40 per year. I cannot count on MailSteward.
The best of all mail archivers is, no doubt, Mail Archiver X. Simple, robust, quick, reliable. Developer is excellent in responding to your questions or solving problems in a 24 hours time.
Compering to MailSteward Mail Archiver X is much better and the price is $10 less. What to want more!
I am an old user of MS. Interface is not Apple's standards, there are minor problems as managing saving search and some workflow may be lighten but the app does the job and it helped me a lot.
But since last version scheduling does not work anymore. Developer is aware of it as we exchange a lot but currently he "don't know what to tell me" ! So I have an app I can use anymore. This maybe seem unfair for this software but from my current usage it does not work anymore.
Four weeks prior to v11 I registered MailSteward v10. I had a very rare issue with 5 out of 50.000 emails, which I imported flawlessly in a first batch, that I reported. John Seward, the developer, instantly replied and kindly gave me a link to the to-be-released version 11, which solved my small issue. Further on I send in some suggestions. Communication was always fast and helpful. This is a great app, which I consider a must have for serious backups of your email. Having used quote some other options I must say, that finding things in my emails has never been so effective (from simple to very granular search options) as with MailSteward. MailSteward 11 of course has been working fine here all these weeks including the automatic schedules. Considered the great support from the developer on top, I regret that I can only rate this applications 5 stars only.
Love this program, HOWEVER, the last update seems to have broken something on the Search screen.
Hoping the developer can figure this out and fix it soon.
I bought this 5 years ago and have found it indispensable. For me it works perfectly and, with the latest versions, is really fast, even on my old MacBook Pro of the same vintage!
I use both MailSteward and MailSteward Pro on two different computers, one personal and the other professional respectively.
MailSteward is reliable and easy to use. MailSteward Pro is much faster thanks to the SQL database and absolutely worth the extra expense for archiving business email.
By archiving my mail out of Apple Mail, it makes Apple mail more responsive and stable while never losing the ability to "quick find" historic messages and associated attachments.
Whenever I need support, I'm convinced that John never sleeps because my requests for support and his responses seem more like "instant messaging" than email. This guy is on top of his game!
Thanks and keep up the great work!
Mail Steward is fast, reliable, and powerful. The latest version adds new features, boosts reliability, and is even more configurable.
And frankly, a twenty dollar upgrade is cheap considering the value of the developer's dedication and improvements.
If email is important to you personally or professionally -- Mail Steward is as good as it gets.
Fixed some bugs (which should always get fixed in the current version anyway) and added a couple of checkboxes and cosmetic improvements… that's it for a $20 upgrade? Seriously?
I’ve only been archiving email since 2006 (wish I’d done it before), since when I’ve been using Apple Mail, then Entourage, then Thunderbird, then Postbox, then Gyazmail and then back to Apple Mail. I’ve always used Mailsteward to archive email from those apps into separate archives, but it was only ‘till today that I thought I’d try merging all of these Mailsteward databases into one. Although Mailsteward has always been nothing but 100% stable for me, I thought that merging these large databases may be a ram hogging time consuming exercise which would result in some sort of “Error”, hence why I’d not tried that up to now. Instead, I'm astonished at how simple and quick this turned out to be. Rather than having one’s email archived by each separate internal email app (and slowing it down in the process), it’s obviously so much better having all email stored externally offline in one central repositry with the inbox, sent, draft, and even junk mailboxes maintained as they were in the mail app you were using - not only with my own separate .mac, Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail/Live accounts, but with the wifes separate accounts as well. And in terms of searching for and finding a particular email, Mailsteward is right up there with the likes of File Buddy or Find Any File in terms of how comprehensive and speedy it is. Honestly, I have no connection whatsoever with the developer, but this really is an excellent Mac software and I can’t recommend it enough.
I forgot to add the stars to my review, below. I'd give Mail Steward and John the developer more than 5 if it were possible. Great program and very responsive and committed developer!
Mail Steward/Mail Steward Pro are both simply the best email archiver out there. I have 11 different email accounts on three different services with 100,000's of emails and Mail Steward Pro handles them all with ease.
I can't say enough good things about John, the developer. Fast and efficient user support! He's worked late into the night -- even on weekends -- to help me diagnose and correct a problem I was having even though no one else was having the same problem. We sent dozens of emails back and forth at all hours of the day and night. His commitment is amazing! I've never had such customer service from any developer ever before. The best!
So if you need to archive email, Mail Steward and Mail Steward Pro are your top choice!
What advantage does this App have over putting everything in a free email client? E.g. Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Eudora, Opera, just to name a few.
I use Google Apps, and would like to preserve Labels. Can this app do that?
I am not trying to stir, just to understand, if I should seriously look at this or not.
I love Mail Steward have used for years. It is so comforting to know that I have complete and accurate backups of all my mail incase internet is down or Apple and or GMail mess up. I have taken to downloading to an external HD which gives me the additional comfort of knowing I have all my backups.
As good as the product is, the one thing that is better is John Steward's customer support. He responded to my questions immediately, walked me through an issue I had and now it is working perfectly again.
I can not recommend highly enough.
I've been archiving several different email accounts for a couple of years now and I've been pleased with the performance of MailSteward. I upgraded to Lion and added iCloud. Little did I realize until it was too late that iCloud wanted to consolidate all of my email accounts. The short version is all of my email accounts were deleted from my computer.
I am able to search and find all of the important emails that I was originally saving. This application is a life saver!
I was experiencing an issue with MailSteward and was working on it around midnight. I sent the developer an email and expected a response the next day. 15 minutes later I received a reply that took care of my issue. I have never experienced customer support like I have with this developer.
Great application and greater customer support!
This software offers three advantages for me:
1. The workflow and of archiving is intuitive.
2. Extremely strong search engine.
3. Five-star customer service. The response is prompt and effective.
I definitely recommend it to every Mail user.
On the plus side, this works. I have it set up to archive my emails several times a day, which it does quietly and unobtrusively in the background, without hogging the processor.
It's really reassuring to know that every once in a while I can delete six months worth of email out of Mail to clear out the cobwebs and keep it ticking over smoothly, but the archiving is already done. So all of my invoices, software serials, business communications, and so on, are still there for me to access, without me having to take anything more than set up MailSteward once, then let it do its thing. The first run takes a while, and after that it goes much more quickly.
It really has been, for me, set and forget.
The main negative for me is speed of searching. Searching the archive for the first time after MailSteward boots up is slow. I'm talking minutes, not seconds. But everything's relative, and I have quite a lot of email in that database by now. I hope the dev can find some way to make that work better.
On the whole, however, this app has proven the best for me, and I've tried a few.
(MacBook Pro 2.53, 4GB RAM, OS X 10.7.1)
extremely impressed thus far. fast. flexible. accurate. great import/export and search functions. watched the tutorials, beta-tested the trial version, and purchased two licenses immediately. imported ~5k messages/500mb in a few minutes. the gui could use some work, but i've seen much worse. the method for handling attachments is adequate, but could probably also be improved. hopefully this continues to be improved and developed once lion is released.
Anyone have luck using MailSteward to import mail from Outlook for Mac 2011?
ALso for the developer, please have an area on your site to ask questions and post solutions.
Thanks!
I am so not understanding the low ratings for this great app. I've used a number of different apps to archive my mail and this is — hands down, IMO — the best. I especially love that I can set and save search parameters to easily locate messages with certain attributes. It works in the background to archive mail messages, which means I never have to quit Mail or wait for the archiving to complete before returning to Mail.
I used the lite version for several years and then gladly paid for the complete version which allows for unlimited message archiving.
I have to recommend this to anyone that has to archive their Apple Mail, its great. And lets not complain about the upgrade policy, people. Having any version of Mailsteward is a good thing. I'm perfectly happy with my version 8. Whatever version you have, it works fine and there's no need to upgrade. If it ain't broke.....I can only imagine that's what the dev's problem is and why he charges the way he does. He probably knows we only need to buy this once and we're not going to pay again, because it works so well.
I am looking for a program to back-up and archive from Apple Mail and MS Entourage. This program looks great, but does not seem to be able to do scheduled back-ups from Entourage due to the format MS uses. It seems that you must do these back-ups manually which seems painful. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
An update here as well ... with a happy ending.
First, my complaint about the developer being unresponsive proved to be unjustified. The delay I experienced was caused by a glitch in the mail being delivered. As others have observed here, once contacted, John responded immediately.
Second, he restored my v.8 license without question, leaving me a very satisfied user of that version.
Therefore, my prior critique should be ignored.
I will have to agree that there is a very rigid upgrade policy in place for this software and both buyers and existing users should be very wary.
I ran into trouble when I misjudged the original purchase date of v.8 and found that instead of a free upgrade that there would be a $20 charge for v.9. No problem up to that point. I just figured that since the changes were minor that I'd just continue with v.8 for awhile.
However, I then discovered that my serial# for v.8 was no longer recognized by the reinstalled v.8 software. My only choice was to either pay for the upgrade or be limited to the trial version.
To have paid for the full version only a year ago and then to suddenly lose my license because I didn't want to upgrade is something I haven't encountered in 24 years of purchasing Mac software (a lot of it).
My e-mail to the developer 32 hours ago has so far gone unanswered.
I agree that it's his business and he certainly has the right to be as hard-nosed as he wants in his upgrade policy. It just doesn't make any sense to me to lose customers who are otherwise content with the software and would eventually pay for many more future upgrades.
Mailsteward has an upgrade strategy that is rather…unique, to say the least. Basically, they just kind of stick new features in the application more or less at random. Periodically, they decide they want more money, bump the version number up without making any significant changes, and make you pay a substantial upgrade fee. They justify this by saying that they periodically add new features to the application without charging.
In theory, this arrangement could work, the problem is that you are really being asked to take a leap of faith with regards to paying for a new version that changes virtually nothing. It's more or less a subscription - if you want bug fixes and compatibility updates, you need to keep paying for each version bump. I might be OK with this if the developers had a history of adding highly compelling features in between paid releases. The problem is, they rarely do. Between 8.0 and 9.0, about the only improvements I noticed were those to the search feature. These were very welcome, but they were also long overdue. Search is one of the most important features of a mass archiver, and until recently, search in Mailsteward was really bad - anything beyond very basic queries involved manually entering a MySQL Search string. 9.0 offers pretty much nothing new, and I no longer have a lot of hope of seeing any significant changes in the near-future (for instance, an interface redesign is badly needed).
Basically, the standard static feature-set until a paid upgrade model provides a good incentive for developers to provide a strong host of improvements in order to entice customers to upgrade. I feel that the Mailsteward model removes this incentive, and means that improvements to the app come very slowly.
Mailsteward has proven to be a reliable app for archiving large amounts of mail, but I would highly recommend carefully considering the alternatives before putting down any money for this application, mostly due to their annoying upgrade model.
MailSteward is superb software and fills a vital niche for Mac users.
I have used this software for years -- and consider a 'paid upgrade' a
very small price to pay to have access to such a superb product.
Considering that many of us are held hostage by outrageous upgrade
prices from the likes of Adobe, Microsoft and other major publishers,
I find it troubling that you are comfortable beating up on a small
independent guy with a smaller niche market and profitability.
Geez -- if we continue to berate small developers, we will forever suffer
being in the clutches of the big guys who provably don't care.
MailSteward is a fine product -- we should be eager to support the developer!
//Quit soapbox
