Tried to move mail, now it's gone!

Hi all,

I am archiving mail that has backed up in my Mac Mail software into separate folders, that I categorize by year. I thought this would allow Mail to work faster, but in typical Mac fashion, things are only getting more complicated!!


I tried to move a bunch of mail I received in 2008 from one inbox to my "2008" folder. I got an error message saying it wasn't possible. Then when I went back to the mail I was trying to move, I get this ANNOYING message:

<<The message from (...) concerning “...” has not been downloaded from the server. You need to take this account online in order to download it.>>

This is of course BS because I HAVE downloaded it from my server (a POP account), otherwise it wouldn't be there. The original messages have been deleted from the original server.

Now where the **** has my mail gone? Why would this happen just from moving a bunch of mail from one folder to another?

Thanks for the help, folks!