Hi Alston,
Thanks for sharing your experience with the software, and sorry for the difficulty.
The MBOX export feature was developed based on specifications provided by an ePADD user who wanted the ability to import mail via IMAP and export the unprocessed email archive for preservation. We are updating the user guide to better clarify the current MBOX export functionality.
To build further support for a broad range of preservation workflows during this grant period, we have discussed a variety of options, including the possibility of enabling the export of processed mail via MBOX and EML (with separate attachments), as well as providing checksums for all files.
We welcome your feedback, and the feedback of anybody else who is incorporating ePADD into their preservation workflows, as we are now gathering requirements for this functionality. Feel free to reply to the list with this information, or if you would prefer to share it privately, please write us at epadd_project@stanford.edu. We have also discussed forming a working group around this topic -- please also write that address if you wish to join.
I do want to clarify that ePADD does support the bulk export of messages to MBOX within the Delivery module. But we recommend that you wait until we have developed more dedicated support for preservation -- the preservation sprint will take place during the current grant period (which ends October 2018).
Thanks again for your feedback.
Best,
Josh Schneider
ePADD Community Manager