I have trouble managing a POP account in Mail, help is very mu appreciated!

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I have trouble managing a POP account in Mail, help is very mu appreciated!

Here's the deal:

I have a free Windows Live account, (which now has POP), if you didn't know.
I know that POP access is downloading, not syncing, which sort of is the problem.

I used to manage all my mail online, into folders. When free POP for Live came, I moved all my messages into the Live mail Inbox, and then proceeded to set up the Live account on Mail.

All my messages downloaded (yippee?), and I sorted them into mailboxes.

Problem 1: I noticed the mailbox i put the mail into was OUTSIDE of INBOX, in ON MY MAC. (Logically)
The mailbox is called RECEIPTS, with electronic receipts. Let's say I make another POP account. It also contains some RECEPITS. Should I make a seperate mailbox for its reciepts? Will putting emails from two accounts into one mailbox ever be an issue?

I realize the limitations of POP. I need to be able to move all my emails from one install of Mac OS to another, I reinstall a lot, because I always screw something up.
I know how to archive a mailbox, and then import it again. So on my Mac, I will always be able to access my emails. The problem is that when I do this, and set up an email account again, messages are redownloaded, regardless of how I organized them. So if I moved some of my emails into another mailbox, when I re-setup an account they come pouring through and I get duplicates and that ****** everybody off. But I cannot set up Mail to delete mails off the server because I need them there to view, when I'm not on my mac.
Problem 2: Is there any way to get Mail to remember which message it last downloaded after I set up a new account and add in my custom mailboxes, so no duplicates are made?

if not,

How do I set up Mail, so that I can view mails online, and also on Mail, without having any duplicates?

I have a proposed answer to my last question. Let's say I want access to my mail on my Mac, and online. Problem is I move my mail into mailboxes a lot and reinstall a lot.
So: I organize my mail as usual on my Mac, setting it not to delete server mails.
Every once in a while, I go on Live Mail, and move all the messages in inbox to a folder called Archive. Mail only downloads the Inbox folder, so my mail is safe on my mac and safe on the server. Is this a good solution?

MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo (Late 2006), Mac OS X (10.5.7), 3 GB RAM

Posted on Jul 19, 2009 9:50 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 19, 2009 10:16 AM in response to heytaxi

I need to be able to move all my emails from one install of Mac OS to another, I reinstall a lot, because I always screw something up.

No, you don't need to reinstall a lot. The problem is rarely the application itself, so doing that is a huge waste of time and creates more problems. It's much easier to solve the problem at hand rather than reinstalling things.

The problem is that when I do this, and set up an email account again, messages are redownloaded, regardless of how I organized them.

Then you should move your entire Mail folder out of ~/Library, onto your Desktop, and once you have your emails downloaded again and everything else works, delete that folder on the Desktop.

Is there any way to get Mail to remember which message it last downloaded after I set up a new account and add in my custom mailboxes, so no duplicates are made?

No. Refer to the solution just above.

Every once in a while, I go on Live Mail, and move all the messages in inbox to a folder called Archive. Mail only downloads the Inbox folder, so my mail is safe on my mac and safe on the server. Is this a good solution?

Only as long as you have a full backup of your Mac at all times, and the Windows Live Hotmail service doesn't go south without warning.

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Answer 2

heytaxi Author

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Jul 19, 2009 8:26 PM in response to sitspotsit

sitspotsit wrote:
Then you should move your entire Mail folder out of ~/Library, onto your Desktop, and once you have your emails downloaded again and everything else works, delete that folder on the Desktop.

Thanks for your answer. But I'm not quite sure what I need to do here.

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Answer 3

Jul 19, 2009 8:54 PM in response to heytaxi

If you have POP accounts, go to ~/Library (that's Home>Library) and remove the Mail folder to your Desktop. Be sure it's not in Home>Library anymore. Then go to Home>Library>Preferences and delete the com.apple.mail.plist file.

Restart Mail and setup your accounts again and wait for Mail to download all those messages again. They won't be the way you had them before, because you can't create new folders and organize things when an account doesn't yet exist, which is what happens when you delete the preferences file and setup your accounts again.

Essentially, what I'm suggesting is that you should do this only if you absolutely must reinstall things, but if you read my answer just before the one you quoted, I said you don't need to reinstall things all the time because it's not the real problem. You spend an awful lot of time doing something that in almost all cases is unnecessary.

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