Synchronizing Mail app from two computers?

Question

Level 1

106 points

Synchronizing Mail app from two computers?

The Mail app on my tower has gone strange - half a dozen accounts have disappeared, my mailboxes have all disappeared. No explanation. I've replaced the plist file. No change.

I have everything in Mail on my laptop.

Is there any way to import everything that is missing in the tower Mail - from the laptop Mail?

I'm a little wary of just copying the missing folders over into the admin/library/Mail folder ... as there are a bunch of files that will be doubled (and I have no idea which are crucial).

Any suggestions?

B

MacBook Pro 2.16 Intel Core Duo, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Aug 6, 2010 9:38 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Aug 6, 2010 6:12 PM in response to Ben Low

Please check the amount of available space on the tower's hard drive, or if partitioned, on the boot partition? Would you at any time have been using an application that would have hogged all the disk space while Mail was running?

If Mail on the laptop is complete, you only need to transplant (after quitting Mail on both Macs) a complete copy of the Mail folder from Home/Library/Mail on the laptop to replace the one on the tower, and also transplant a copy of the com.apple.mail.plist file from Home/Library/Preferences to replace the one on the tower. Mail can then be the same on both Macs when you relaunch Mail.

Ernie

Reply

Answer 2

Ben Low Author

Level 1

106 points

Aug 7, 2010 9:27 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Thank you Ernie,

That makes perfect sense. There is 700 plus gigs free on the system hard drive. I have 10 gigs RAM. I don't usually keep too many apps running simultaneously ... mmm ... but there were a few days this last week when I had Final Cut rendering films, while I was working in Logic on processor intense tasks, though there was no stalling or the usual signs of overworking the processor.

I will follow your instructions, they make perfect sense, and do so with a lot more confidence that I would have done before your note.

Much appreciated,

Ben

Reply

Answer 3

Ben Low Author

Level 1

106 points

Aug 7, 2010 10:18 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Ernie,

I've got a long list of 'Sent' mail on the tower, which I'm going to lose I assume, if I change the principal mail folder. I notice I can 'move' or 'copy' one sent mail at a time to an external backup folder; is there a way I can copy all 1800 sent mails directly to a backup folder (collectively)?

Ben

Reply

Answer 4

Aug 7, 2010 3:14 PM in response to Ben Low

Sorry to not note you did not have Sent messages on the laptop that had been sent from the Tower. Create an On My Mac mailbox, and transfer the sent messages to that, and then drag it to the Desktop before replacing with the Mail folder from the laptop. Then once the transplant is done, Import that mailbox folder into Mail, and then move those messages to the Sent mailbox as newly constituted on the tower.

Ernie

Reply

Answer 5

Ben Low Author

Level 1

106 points

Aug 7, 2010 5:46 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

Aha!

Thank you Ernie. Exactly what I needed. This way I can save import material that has collected in the last week since the tower went sour.

I can see where I can also collect all the inbox mail too (that might not have been collected by the laptop) and import it into the repaired version of mail.

An ace you are,

Thank you X 10

Ben

Reply