Moving email hosts - don't want to lose old emails

Question

Level 1

30 points

Moving email hosts - don't want to lose old emails

Hi
I'm just in the middle of changing over the email host and DNS host for my business domain. I've had email for that domain coming into my Mail as a pop account for the past few years and have 1000s of emails that I need to keep for business purposes.

At the moment I have been unable successfully edit the existing account settings for my new email host and I am worried that the tech guy from the new hosting company is going to ask me to delete my old mailbox and start from scratch. But as many mail users have discovered - that deletes all the existing mail ever sent to or from that account which would be a disaster.

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions on how I can make sure I don't lose my old mail?

Can I back it up and reimport it later? What about archives? or will these get deleted when the mailbox is deleted?

PowerBookG4, Black MacBook, 20" cinema display, Airport Extreme and 2 AEXs, Mac OS X (10.5.2), 4G iPod 40GB, 8GIpod Touch, 8G iPhone

Posted on May 10, 2009 4:33 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 10, 2009 4:50 PM in response to CBRGAL

All your Mail account information, downloaded messages, etc. is stored in the /Home/Library/Mail/ folder. You can save the data from your old account by moving it into another folder temporarily. Eventually you can copy all the old emails into your new account.

Alternatively, use Mail's Import option in the File menu to import your old email into the new account before deleting the old account. However, deleting the old account should not be needed in order to use the new one. Unfortunately, you've not provided any information regarding the problems you are having with your new account.

There are also many third-party mail archiving utilities such as Mail Steward that you can use to retain a permanent and accessible archive of your old account's messages. Look for them at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

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Answer 2

CBRGAL Author

Level 1

30 points

May 10, 2009 5:10 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks Kappy

And no - I didn't put in any detail about the problems I was having as I didn't want to inadvertently sidetrack the issue. But since you asked..... 🙂

I think the problem is probably that the old and new email hosts are using the same thing for the incoming and outgoing mail hosts - but not quite.

I've changed the settings in my existing account to the new settings advised by the new email host.

So my old email host has mail.mydomainname.com.au as the incoming email host and domainmail.myoldISP.com.au as the outgoing server.

but the new email host has mail.mydomainname.com.au for both.

I've changed over the username (which is slightly different), incoming (same) and outgoing (different but same as old incoming) mailhost names, and my password (different).

But it keeps asking me for a password and won't accept it.

Another time it told me it wasn't "signed" and when I clicked on the details the name of my old ISP pops up in some of the info.

It's all way beyond me.

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

362,007 points

May 10, 2009 5:24 PM in response to CBRGAL

Be sure Mail is configured to use the SMTP server for you new account. In the Accounts/Accounts Information preferences of Mail you should see a drop down menu at the bottom indicating which SMTP server you are using (assuming more than one is configured.) If you select Edit from the menu you will see a list of your SMTP servers. Select the one you now want to use for the new account. Check that it is configured correctly. Although you may have the correct password entered, your new ISP may require a different authentication method and/or use different ports, so check that these are properly set.

Be sure your new account was configured for the email protocol your ISP provides - POP or IMAP. This is done when you first configure the new account.

Also, since you are now using a new hosting service be sure your domain name has been transferred to the new hosting service. Then be sure you have set up the new mail accounts, usernames, and passwords on the new host's email service.

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Answer 4

CBRGAL Author

Level 1

30 points

May 10, 2009 6:44 PM in response to Kappy

Thanks again for your reply.

As far as I can see I have done ALL of those things so now I really am waiting for tech support to ring me back.

I've tried setting it up as both imap and pop and done all the port settings etc in the advanced menus. I had to delete my original SMTP server from my old host as it was in conflict but once that happened I was able to set up a new SMTP server and have got the account pointing at it.

I've also changed the DNS with my domain host.

It probably is PEBKAC but at least you've made me feel like I am on the right track here.

thanks.

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Answer 5

j.v.

Level 5

4,155 points

May 10, 2009 9:17 PM in response to CBRGAL

Could you go to your $HOME/Library folder then single-click on the Mail folder and control-click on it and make an archive zipfile? And do the same thing with your Mail Downloads folder? And option-drag a copy of your Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist to your desktop for safekeeping?

Then, could you create new "On My Mac" mail folders mirroring the structure of the old account and option-drag and drop (copy) the email messages from the old account into the "On My Mac" folders? Then you should be able to delete the old account from Mail Preferences Accounts.

Next, create the new account, verify that it works (this may require a visit to /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access to clear out old remnants of passwords from the old servers associated with the old account) and drag-and-drop the stuff you created in the "On My Mac" folder into the desired mailboxes and folders of your new account.

Worst case, this doesn't work (not clear to me why it wouldn't) so you trash the Library/Mail and Library/Mail Downloads folders, unzip the archives you made earlier, drag the plist on the desktop back into your Library/Preferences folder (replacing the newer version of the plist), and you're back to where you started. Then you wait for someone else to come along with a working idea.

Of course, when you are creating or extracting the zip archives or (option-)dragging the plist file around, make sure Mail isn't running when you do that. Paragraphs 2 and 3 obviously require Mail to be running.

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