Mumbojumbo

Q: Best way to Move mail from OS X Lion to El Capitan

Hi All

 

Can any tell me the best practice for moving my mail accounts and settings from my old machine running OS X Lion to my new one running El Capitan?

 

I thought about using time machine to backup my old system drive then restore on the new one, would this work or is their an easier way to just copy the mail folders over? I've read the file structure is different in El Captian though.

 

Any pointers would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

Posted on Apr 25, 2016 5:24 AM

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Q: Best way to Move mail from OS X Lion to El Capitan

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Glenn Leblanc,Apple recommended

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc Apr 25, 2016 5:40 AM in response to Mumbojumbo
    Level 6 (11,021 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 25, 2016 5:40 AM in response to Mumbojumbo

    First, set up the account in Mail on the new computer.

     

    If your messages are in IMAP and stored on the server, then just set up the accounts and messages should download.

     

    If messages are in local mailboxes, export the mailboxes from the old machine, and Import them on the new one.

     

    You can also try direct copying the entire mail folder of Lion to an accessible drive for the new mac, and select the folder and Import from Mail. It should find all mailboxes within and import them.

    Not sure about the structure of doing this with Lion, but I think it should work.

  • by Rysz,Apple recommended

    Rysz Rysz Apr 28, 2016 9:19 PM in response to Mumbojumbo
    Level 7 (20,859 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 28, 2016 9:19 PM in response to Mumbojumbo

    Not to oversimplify the issue, but why not just use Migration Assistant to move your settings and data to the new set up?

     

    Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

  • by Mumbojumbo,

    Mumbojumbo Mumbojumbo Apr 29, 2016 12:43 AM in response to Rysz
    Level 1 (27 points)
    Desktops
    Apr 29, 2016 12:43 AM in response to Rysz

    Hi Rysz

     

    I was going to but I read somewhere that people were having issues with moving mail from an OS as old as Lion to El Capitan due to a different mailbox structure.

     

    Is this not the case and will migration assistant account for the different structure?

     

    thanks

  • by Glenn Leblanc,

    Glenn Leblanc Glenn Leblanc Apr 29, 2016 5:17 AM in response to Mumbojumbo
    Level 6 (11,021 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 29, 2016 5:17 AM in response to Mumbojumbo

    Migration Assistant should work, but I can't confirm that. People seem to have trouble sometimes migrating from one system to the next. So there is no guarantee that you won't have problems. Just be prepared for problems with good backups.

     

    You never said if you were using IMAP or not. If so, verify everything is on the server at the webmail site. If so, you have no worries.

  • by ignatzmouse,

    ignatzmouse ignatzmouse Sep 18, 2016 7:13 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 18, 2016 7:13 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc

    Take care.  Just found this on Wikipedia.  My new Macbook had a case-sensitive disc and was unable to use Migration Assistant to pull Mail data direct from my old Macbook….. sigh.

     

    OS X El Capitan[edit]

    In OS X El Capitan, Mail dropped full support for POP3 mail retrieval. In the process of upgrading to the new V3 mailbox structure, all local email folders associated with the previous POP3 inbox and sent mail are deleted, sometimes causing losses of thousands of emails depending on how the email library had been configured prior to the upgrade. POP3 can still be configured for certain mail services but only by making use of workarounds such as initially providing invalid login credentials to unlock the full configuration options.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_(Apple)#OS_X_Mountain_Lion

  • by ignatzmouse,

    ignatzmouse ignatzmouse Sep 18, 2016 7:15 AM in response to Rysz
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 18, 2016 7:15 AM in response to Rysz

    Migration Assistant only works if both machines' discs are either case-sensitive or non-case-sensitive formatted?