How to import emails from older Mini to new one.....El Capitan to Catalina

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How to import emails from older Mini to new one.....El Capitan to Catalina

I finally got my 2020 Mini (Catalina OS) set up BUT using the Migration Assistant, my emails and mailboxes never came over. I then tried to "export" one mailbox (from the old system) at a time to my thumbdrive and then "import" those mailboxes to my new Catalina-based Mail........EACH attempted mailbox transfer showed up in the left hand Mailbox column as an "import" in a sub mailbox heading......some of the mailboxes were imported as "partial" mailboxes and some had NO emails within......Isn't there ab easy way to just bring the mailboxes from my old system?

Educate me, please.......

Mac mini, OS X 10.11

Posted on Aug 10, 2020 12:06 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Matti Haveri

Level 6

16,673 points

Aug 11, 2020 2:53 AM in response to Slipstream 50

There have been some variations how to backup and transfer Mail. I usually do a clean install and manually transfer user data when doing major system updates. Yes, Migration assistant would be another option.

Years ago I just copied ~/Library/Mail folder to a new Mac. But it didn't work from OS X 10.10 to 10.11 (or even between 10.11 Macs) because the local folders were ignored. I then tried to first export mail and then import it back to Apple Mail but it didn't work then. I went through some hoops and in the end I used Emailchemy to export Apple Mail OS X 10.10 mail files as mbox. Apple Mail OS X 10.11 imported them OK.

A year ago I did a clean install from OS X 10.11 to 10.14. Simply importing 10.11 ~/Library/Mail to 10.14 Mail.app now did the trick perfectly:

Mail.app > File > Import Mailboxes... > Apple Mail

Move "Local" out from "Import"

Delete "Import" that contains gmail and other mailboxes

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Answer 2

Aug 11, 2020 7:08 AM in response to Matti Haveri

Hello Matti:

Thanks so much for your own experiences and suggestions. Have to try this. For whatever reason, when I did the Migration Asst. the first time, after it was supposedly complete, the restart would "hang" just before the white status bar was completely filled....and sat there for 2 hours, no change so I had to manually shut down.......this happened 3X! The next AM, I prepared to call Apple Support and started the new Mini up again while waiting for a tech...and it loaded normally and has done so since then when starting from a complete shutdown. Needless to say, I am leery of playing with the OS.......just wish that it was foolproof considering that Mail is an Apple appl..........should be transparent in its ability to import from another Mac.

Stay well and safe, Matti!!

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How to import emails from older Mini to new one.....El Capitan to Catalina

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