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moving mac mail to external hard drive

Trying to free up some space. I am using MacMail. i have several 'mailboxes', each with lots of emails, and am attempting to move to my external hard drive. i can move one email at a time; but for the life of me after searching and trying, i cannot move MULTIPLE emails at the same time to the external hard drive. if i highlight them, it only moves one. Please help! Thanks, Donna

macOS Sierra 10.12.6

MacBook Air 11″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Nov 14, 2020 7:58 AM

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BDAqua

Level 10

245,501 points

Posted on Nov 16, 2020 10:24 AM

Sounds like maybe the last one, but 4 suggestions…

Have you emptied the trash lately?

Look for iOS backups…

/Users/[USERNAME]/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

OmniDiskSweeper shows you the files on your drive, largest to smallest, and lets you quickly Trash or open them.

https://www.omnigroup.com/more/

Purging local backups

Please note that although this doesn't affect your remote backup from Time Machine, this will get rid of the redundancy (at least until the next Time Machine backup) that a local backup disk will provide. If you need such redundancy or are worried about the recovery of your data then you would be best served to let macOS determine when to purge these files.

Start Terminal from spotlight.

At the terminal type tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates.

Hit enter.

Here, you'll now see a list of all of the locally stored Time Machine backup snapshots stored on your disk.

Next you can remove the snapshots based on their date. I prefer to delete them one at at time. Once my "System" disk usage is at an acceptable level, I stop deleting but you can delete all of them if you want to reclaim all of the disk space.

Back at the terminal, type tmutil deletelocalsnapshots YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS , where will be one of the dates from your backup. This will be in the form of xxx-yy-zz-abcdef. Try to start with the oldest snapshot.

Hit enter.

Repeat for as many snapshot dates as required

http://www.thagomizer.com/blog/2018/03/27/cleaning-up-time-machine-local-snapshots.html

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45 replies

BDAqua

Level 10

245,501 points

Nov 18, 2020 12:20 PM in response to donna Pieracini

The file multiples bother me, I'd plug in the external drive & either install the OS to it or Restore to it from a Time Machine backup.

Only thing I've seen like this id Malware chewing up Disk Space, naybe try a Safe Boot..

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup).

Nov 18, 2020 1:34 PM in response to BDAqua

oh poor me :(

--i started in Safe Mode ... and the Desktop came up and everything looked the same,,,,

no notes nor boxes ...

--i checked All My Files, and it looks back to 'normal' ... a few duplicates here and there ...

--i tried the Terminal again and it still said 'unrecognizable verb' ...

--what about running First Aid from Disk Utility ?

--i dont' know anything about the External HD and installing the OS, nor Restoring to it from Time Machine ... what would that do ?

BDAqua

Level 10

245,501 points

Nov 18, 2020 1:42 PM in response to donna Pieracini

-- ???

-- Improvement?

-- can you paste the exact tTerminal command you used here?

-- Yes, run First aid, though Safe Boot tries to repair the drive.

-- https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/how-to-format-external-hard-drives-on-macos/

Then install to the external drive... https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/macos-external-drive-3659666/

Nov 18, 2020 4:24 PM in response to donna Pieracini

i will attempt your suggestion(s)... but questions first

--the Sweetwater web page you sent shows how to format my external ...

why do i want to format the external? ......it's the computer hard drive that is messed up ...

--the external that i am using (canvio) is already formatted and has the data on it from the Passport External, which just crashed.

in the meantime, i will backup the Canvio .... since i'm worried about losing that too

is this the way i do that ?

--do i use another backup disk (Seagate) that i use monthly to back up my Mac? if yes,

--then i open Time Machine Preferences, find my external disk (canvio), and it will backup the canvio external to the Seagate external ?

can you tell i don't know what i'm doing and afraid that i'll lose everything :)

Nov 19, 2020 8:32 AM in response to donna Pieracini

Hi BDAqua...

i have backed up my hard drive and also the Canvio External that is working.

i received this message after it finished:

"low disk space window

terminal has detected that the system disk is running low on swap space. schoolbook buffers may automatically be trimmed to concern memory."

Does this help any?

If you think you've gone as far as you can go with me on this, please let me know.

i tried the Terminal thing again with the same results: 'unrecognizable verb'

I'll have to take it to an Apple store.

I REALLY REALLY appreciate your time and efforts, and patience with me on this endeavor. You have gone far beyond my expectations. You are very knowledgeable!!!!!!!!!

Please let me know if you think of anything else.

thanks again !

Donna

BDAqua

Level 10

245,501 points

Nov 19, 2020 9:10 AM in response to donna Pieracini

For Verb unrecognized, I forget what OS version are you running?

I needs to be MacOS Extended Journaled to use for Time Machine or cloning, or installing a fresh OS, but if it's already MacOS Extended Journaled we need not format it. How much Free Space is on it now? What exactly is on it?

Yes, we don't want to lose anything, do do a backup of the Canvio, but if it has been plugged in & NOT excluded in TM's prefs then it should be backed up.

Any chance you can get another external drive to eliminate both our worries?

I'm impressed with you asking all the right questions! :)

Nov 19, 2020 4:32 PM in response to BDAqua

sorry for the delay, i worked outdoors today, it was warm and needed to finish preparing for winter.

i know just enough to get myself in trouble; but thank you. i am 71yrs old, so this isn't easy for me, but i am learning a lot working with you !

i have MacOS Sierra, 10.12.6, Early 2014

Externals:

My Passport, 1T, used for photos, music, movies

--my cat knocked it on the floor, so now it needs to be backed up and reformated :(

--i attempted to back it up to the Seagate today, but got a message: isn't enough space on Seagate.

Canvio, 1T, 585G available, it is a copy of the Passport..thankfully

--now has been backed up to the Seagate--good call!

Seagate, 1T, 498G available, has been used only for Mac HD backups since 2017; now also stores the Canvio

--it worked a long time attempting to back up the Passport... i thought i 'excluded' the HD when i did the backup, but apparently i did it wrong, because it backed up the HD again today...then no room for the Canvio.

i am going to move more photos from my HD to the Canvio, so i can do 'something'. memory is so low i can't even save a document, nor get into my mail :( this is like dominos falling, one right after the other !

Yes, i need to go get another External... any suggestions ? ...not the most expensive one, i'm on a retiree's budget :)

thanks again