save email before deleting account

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Level 2

153 points

save email before deleting account

Say I want to delete an account: doray01. I know that its Inbox and Sent folders will be deleted when I remove the account from Apple Mail.

My question: If I move emails from the Inbox and Sent folders of doray01 to the Inbox and Sent folders of another account (say, draymo3), then delete the doray01 account, will the doray01 emails in the draymo3 Inbox and Sent folders be deleted?

In other words, will Mail "look inside" other accounts' Inbox and Sent folders to see if any of the removed account's emails are in there, or will it simply delete the mailboxes of the doray01 account?

I'm just wondering because Apple's site says to move emails to an "On My Mac" mailbox -- it won't delete them from there. But I want to keep them in Inbox and Sent folders....

Thank you in advance!

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Mar 8, 2020 8:30 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,036 points

Mar 8, 2020 6:39 PM in response to DonnaR

Yes, if you move them to another account, they will be available there. You can also move them to a local mailbox (ON MY MAC).

If you move them to a local mailbox, they won't be available on any other devices. If you move them to a "cloud" account (IMAP, Exchange, iCloud, etc), then they will be available every where that account is available to you.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,036 points

Mar 9, 2020 7:24 AM in response to DonnaR

While they could possibly explain the implications, it may be that people are unaware that the transfer might exceed their account storage capacity. Having never tried, I'm not sure how to go about seeing how much storage is used on a particular account (probably the account's web portal). You would have to make sure you have the space available to move the files.

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Answer 3

DonnaR Author

Level 2

153 points

Mar 9, 2020 9:04 AM in response to Barney-15E

Another well-thought-out, excellent point! Thank you!

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Answer 4

DonnaR Author

Level 2

153 points

Mar 8, 2020 7:06 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thank you so much, Barney! It's a pleasure and an honor to get a response from you, because I know that you're a longtime, well-respected member of the Apple support community.

You even pointed out something I hadn't thought of, which was having the emails available on other devices!

I wonder why Apple doesn't give the advice on their website to move emails to another account's Inbox/Sent folders before deleting an account, rather than (or in addition to) saying to move them to an On My Mac mailbox. Since most people have IMAP or cloud accounts now, it seems that moving emails to somewhere where you could have them on all your devices would be better.

Thanks again :-)

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