Is there a way to backup mail to an external drive, keeping the structure, folder names, account names, email accounts, emails, attachments, rules and signatures (i.e. exactly as it appears in mail) when you do a complete clean install on a macBook Pro?
MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 12.6
Solved: I have managed to recover my entire locally stored emails by doing the following:
Do a re-install from Time Machine backup. Export all email locally stored email folders (I had 46) individually to a new folder. It’s a bit fiddly as, to keep the correct structure, you have to export the top level folder, which creates an Mbox folder which only contains emails directly in that top level folder, then you have to export any sub level folders individually, which will create another Mbox folder of the same name, and then you have to move each created sub level folder into the top level Mbox folder, and delete the empty folder of the same name. You have to do this for each sub level you go down to if you want to maintain the correct folder structure. Then copy the complete new Mbox folder containing your structured emails to whatever new MacBook you have, and import them in Mail.
It took me 4 hours, but if you need important emails, it’s the only way I could work out. Importing your entire old ~Library/Mail folder simply doesn’t work.
Why Apple have not made it easier to export Mbox folders I can’t say.
Yes. Just copy ~/Library/Mail to your external drive. This is a backup, not a relocation. If you are doing a clean install of the same version of macOS you can just copy the Mail folder back to its intended location (~/Library/Mail) after your clean install.
BTW, after your clean install be sure to create the exact same User accounts that you previously had, and create them in the same order as before; and do this before you copy your Mail folder back to the appropriate user Library.
The potential problem is that if you upgrade your Mac to a new version of macOS, the Mail app will probably also be upgraded and may not work with your backed up copy of your previous Mail folder. You would have to cross your fingers, give it a try and hope that it works.
I don’t think so. Likely best possibility would be to copy the entire ~/Library/Mail folder.
However, that would only work with a POP account and folders “On My Mac.” For all others, the master is on the server.
I use Carbon Copy Cloner to do my regular backups and it copies everything as you suggest.
Back up your Mac with Time Machine will backup whatever is locate in the Users Home Folder of this computer.
It will not include a Full Working Copy of the Operating system
To retrieve the e-mails afterwards - that is a bit more complicated and to be honest is not within my Skill Set.
Would perhaps suggest Using Setup Assist on the First Boot Up post Reinstallation and Bring Over Only your User Account and noting more
It should bring back what was in the User Account ( Home Folder ) including e-mails
What is your goal with making a backup that mimics what you have?
You won’t be able to view it in any meaningful way.
Regardless of how you back up the Mail folder, you will have to restore the entire folder. You won’t be able to browse the backup and restore one particular message.
Thank you for you response Martin. However, I did copy the ~username/library/mail folder, and put it in the same location on the clean installed MacBook, but very few email accounts (I have loads) and no emails were copied over. Now I am in the painful process of re-installing my iMac from the TM backup, and I'll have to export each MBox file individually and then clean it again. Luckily I haven't sold it. I've had to do this before, as it was the only way I could do it then also. I simply forgot this time. As far as I can find out, there is no way Apple have allowed for this type of migration.
Thanks for that. I’ve not used Carbon Copy Cloner. I’ll take a look.
I think you will like it. It also has a number of additional features not found in Time Machine.
Is there a way to completely backup mail to an external drive...
