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I use Mail on my Mac. I file emails which I want to keep under relevant local folders but I need to have some way of ensuring that these are backed up.
I subscribe to iCloud and back up to a hard disk also but I'm not sure that these are backing up my local folders.
Can anyone help please?
Regards,
Gordon.
iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 13.4
Apple's iCloud is not a backup solution. Remember that, even though Apple does provide a 30-day (only) sliding window for deleted file recovery on iCloud.
Apple's Time Machine, on the hour, will back up your entire changed local drive contents, your Mail folder and any contents within, including custom Mail folders to a local Time Machine drive. It is doing this with mine on macOS 13.4.1.
Apple's iCloud is not a backup solution. Remember that, even though Apple does provide a 30-day (only) sliding window for deleted file recovery on iCloud.
Apple's Time Machine, on the hour, will back up your entire changed local drive contents, your Mail folder and any contents within, including custom Mail folders to a local Time Machine drive. It is doing this with mine on macOS 13.4.1.
I back up my entire /Mail folder to an external hard drive.
If you want to back up individual mail folder, one option would be to export it to MBOX. Select the folder in Mail. Then do Mailbox > Export Mailbox. Select a save location.
Thank you MartinR for taking the trouble to reply. I'm using Time Machine to back up my Mac to an external drive but don't know how to find my Mail local folders there - hopefully VikingOSX will be able to point me to where they are.
Regards,
Gordon.
You don't need to dive into a TM backup and even if you do you may not get the results you want.
All your Mail, including your local folders, are stored in a hidden, default location: /users/<yourusername>/Library/Mail. You can use the Finder (or any backup application) to copy/backup the Mail folder to an external drive. However, due to the internal structure of the Mail database you should not use the Finder to copy individual mail folders that are contained in the /Mail folder itself.
If you want to manually back up an individual, local Mail folder, just follow the instructions I posted earlier.
MartinR, thank you so much once again. I've gone into my backed up files on the hard disk (Macintosh HD - Data), gone into Users but there's no Library there. There is a Library in the first menu but there's no Mail there. Is it maybe hidden in some way and if so, how do I find it?
On a supplementary point, are my Local Folders also in iCloud and if so, how do I find them?
Regards,
Gordon.
The user Library is normally hidden. To navigate to it, in the Finder, do Go > Go to Folder and enter ~/Library.
Keep in mind that the Library is hidden for good reasons. It is not advisable for users to manage or modify anything in the Library on their own.
Local mail folders are local on your Mac. They are not in the cloud.
All your mail is copied onto TM but it is very difficult to find a specific email. You can restore an entire mailbox by following the steps below. However, a better backup program would be MailSteward or MailBackupX.
To restore mailbox:
Open Finder
Click “GO” in top menu bar then click option key
Click on Library
Open mail folder
Open V9 or V10 (or similar) folder
Then find the folders labeled with cryptic titles (at this point you could open TM if you want to go back in time)
Look down through those folders to find a mailbox (note: there may be more than one with same label).
If it contains email you want you can copy the entire folder to your desktop
Go back into mail and import that folder from your desktop
tbirdvet - thank you for your response. I though that you'd solved my problem but when I tested by deleting one of the local folders I no longer needed, then selecting an old back-up, then clicking through to V10, then clicking through to where the folder Local Folders.mbox is stored, the date against it is today's date and time, so of course the deleted folder isn't there - what am I doing wrong?
Regards,
Gordon.
If you deleted one before TM did a backup then it would not be there. To test make a folder then wait until the next backup is complete. Then delete it then see if you can find it in the TM backup. It should be there.
Sorry tbirdvet, I obviously didn't explain myself properly!
I've deleted a folder today in my Local Folders. If I open Finder, go to Passport drive which is where my TM back-ups are stored, and select one dated 18.03.23, then click though eventually to the V10 folder, all the folders within the are dated today.
I'm clearly doing something wrong!
Thank you VikingOSX. Yes, I'm using Time Machine to back-up to a stand-alone hard disk. So from what you say, my Mail local folders should be on there too? How do I find them please?
Regards,
Gordon.
Thanks again MartinR but that navigation is surely pointing to the Library on my Mac rather than Library on my back-up disk is it not?
Regards,
Gordon.
Backing up local folders
