Backing up mail.app settings and preferences

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Level 1

9 points

Backing up mail.app settings and preferences

I would like to point a backup program to my mail.app settings and preferences (or an automated archive of this info, if such a thing exists):

I think I would like, at the very least:

*All the info accessed by the mail.app preferences dialog box.
*RSS feed addresses
*Settings specifying which imap folders I have assigned for inbox/trash/junk/sent.

However I do not need need to back up the local store of my emails since I already have on- and off-site backup of these (through full system time machine backups and my imap accounts).

Hence, I would appreciate it if someone could advise me on which files/folders to include in order to backup settings/prefs only.

Also, if anyone could point me to an article describing the the structure & contents of the folder containing these files, that would be great.

Thanks for reading

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Dec 30, 2008 2:40 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Dec 30, 2008 2:45 PM in response to opodder

If you want to back up Mail preferences, the best thing to do is backup your entire disk, not just certain files. The preferences file you're looking for is com.apple.mail.plist and is located at ~/Library/Preferences. The other files you need are all in ~/Library/Mail, and that includes all your mail messages, too.

Mulder

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Answer 2

opodder Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 30, 2008 2:59 PM in response to Mulder

mulder,

thanks for reponse.

I have an entire disk backup on-site (time machine on external hard drive).
I also effectively have my mail backed up up offsite since I use imap accounts.

What I want now is offsite backup of mail settings & prefs but not email itself (since I already have that).

In ~/Library/Mail I don't know which files I need to include/exclude, in particular with regard to settings for assignment of special imap folders (for my several imap accounts)

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Answer 3

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Dec 30, 2008 3:07 PM in response to opodder

I don't know which files I need to include/exclude, in particular with regard to settings for assignment of special imap folders (for my several imap accounts)

That all depends on what is in that directory. I presume you have a folder there named Mailboxes, and if you look inside it and see the names of your IMAP mailboxes, that is definitely something you need to backup.

You should also look inside the folders for each of your accounts to see if any of those folders you created are listed in there; if they are, you need that entire mailbox structure.

Mulder

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Answer 4

opodder Author

Level 1

9 points

Dec 30, 2008 3:51 PM in response to Mulder

I can see the imap account folders. They each contain several .imapmbox folders which each contain a single info.plist file as well as messages and attachments (subfolders). It seems to me that I should backup everything in ~/Library/Mail excluding the messages and attachments subfolders of the imap mailboxes.

However, for the imap accounts, I am still unclear which file contains the settings that I assigned through mailbox -> use this mailbox for-> drafts/sent/trash/junk. Is this not written to a single file?

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Answer 5

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Dec 30, 2008 3:54 PM in response to opodder

That would be in Mail's preferences file.

Mulder

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