Is there any way of getting *old* e mails onto a blackberry?

I've just had to do a warranty replacement on my MD's BlacBerry 8310. The new unit has been set up on our BES and is synchronising without any issues, however the MD has now said he wants to see all of his old e mails on the new device (some going back 6 months or more). I've tried Google but there doesn't seem to be any way of doing this without having access to the old unit and doing a backup/restore. Anybody have any ideas on this?

From serverfault Marko Carter

• This isn't possible directly. However, there's a workaround.

  If a user has OS 4.5 or higher on his device and is on a BES of a certain minimum version, they can do a remote email search. Hit 'S' in the Messages screen and change the search type to 'Remote'. This searches through email on the server mailbox.

  Once those messages are found, they can be added to the Blackberry by selecting the message and 'Add' or 'Add All'.

  Granted it's not a perfect solution, but may solve some of his pain. Remote search is very handy!

  John Gardeniers : I wish that was available when I had to support Blackberries. :(
  From MikeyB

• The max you can prepopulate without using the Remote Search feature is 14 days. If you still want to do this (I suspect not), here's the instructions:

  1) Select the server tabs, highlight your BES 2) Edit Properties 3) Tweak the settings in Messaging > Message Prepopulation

  Alternative workarounds could be to install a POP/IMAP client, obviously you'll need to then enable reprocipal service on your mail server and convert your MD's mail file.

  From booyaa