convert mbox to csv

Maybe this can get you part way, at least give it a try with a few of the emails to see what it will do:

1. In the Apple Mail app, select all the emails you wish to move into Numbers
2. Print (Command P), but choose "Open in Preview" not actually printing to a printer
3. In Preview, click on a page then Command A to select all the text in the entire PDF (along with any images or whatever else is there)
4. Copy (Command C)
5. In Numbers in a new table select a cell then Paste (Command V)

I don't know what your data looks like but hopefully this will create enough of a structure that you can do something with it. I noticed some oddities, though, as I was playing around with it. For instance, in one email was the word "attached" but it came out as "a#ached". It also removed space characters in some places.

It should put each "From:" into its own cell, which will have the name and email address of the sender. Maybe IF can be used to point them out and REGEX.EXTRACT can be used separate out the name and the email address. In the next cell down should be the date and time, but with all the spaces removed. It might be hard to put the spaces back in to turn it back into a date and time but is probably doable. The answers to your questions will probably follow some pattern but I don't know what it will be.

I cannot guarantee it won't mangle a name or email address like it mangled the word "attached"

I think you will be able to go from a Mailbox directly into a Numbers table using Applescript. I have never scripted Mail before but there is individual access to name, address, date, etc and message content which could be turned into columns of a Numbers Spreadsheet. I just don't know how to do something "for every message of the selected mailbox". The problem is finding someone who knows how to do it, which is almost the same as your original question of "does anyone know of a way..."

There is a $10 MBox to CSV converter in the app store. Might be a bargain.

set dataLst to {{"SenderAddress", "SenderName", "Date", "Time", "Content"}}

tell application "Mail"
	repeat with aMsg in items of (get selection)
		tell aMsg
			set senderNameAddr to my splitEmail(sender)
			set senderAddr to item 2 of senderNameAddr
			set senderName to item 1 of senderNameAddr
			set msgSubj to subject
			set msgDate to date received
			set msgTime to time string of msgDate
			set msgDate to my dateFormat(date string of msgDate)
			set msgContent to content
			set msgLst to {senderAddr, senderName, msgDate, msgTime, msgContent}
			copy msgLst to dataLst's end
		end tell
	end repeat
end tell

tell application "Numbers"
	set newDoc to make new document
	tell table 1 of active sheet of newDoc
		delete column "A" -- remove default Header Column
		set column count to length of item 1 of dataLst
		set row count to (length of dataLst)
		repeat with i from 1 to length of dataLst
			repeat with j from 1 to length of item 1 of dataLst
				set value of cell j of row i to item j of item i of dataLst
			end repeat
		end repeat
	end tell
end tell

to dateFormat(aDateString) --> yyyy-mm-dd
	set {year:y, month:m, day:d} to date aDateString
	tell (y * 10000 + m * 100 + d) as string to text 1 thru 4 & "-" & text 5 thru 6 & "-" & text 7 thru 8
end dateFormat

to splitEmail(nameAddress)
	set text item delimiters to "<"
	tell nameAddress
		set theName to text item 1
		set theAddress to text 1 thru -2 of text item 2
	end tell
	return {theName, theAddress}
end splitEmail

If you want to save the MBOX file to a CSV file then you have need to use the MBOX Migrator tool that saves up to 50 items per folder for free.

https://www.arysontechnologies.com/mbox-migrator/

That you expect to get a ,csv file implies that the email content is organized in a way that it is possible to place the data in a .csv file—which is why I asked if you could copy the data (as opposed to copying an image of the data) directly from the email.

If it is already comma separated, or tab-depatated, you may be able to copy the data, then paste it into a Numbers table by selecting (single click) the top left cell in which the data is to start, then pasting.

Regards,

Barry

The solution was the script I posted in that thread and you reposted here that transfers data from selected messages in Mail to a Number table. No need to go through mbox and csv.

SG

What format is the content of the email messages before you export it?

What choices do you get when you export?

This article at file,org may provide some assistance: https://file.org/extension/mbox

Regards,

Barry

"it’s just the normal type of email content."

"normal type" includes a lot of territory. What is it about this "normal type" of email content that makes .csv an appropriate format in which to save it?

Can you copy that content, then paste it into Numbers, either directly onto a Sheet or into a Table?

Regards,

Barry

Sorry it did not work. Email messages are not structured well to convert them to tabular format. I was hoping the message part of these emails was somewhat structured and each email would come out about the same.