RE: can I export mail rules from one Mac to another?

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RE: can I export mail rules from one Mac to another?

Yes. It is definitely possible I have just done it in Monterey.:

There is a pre-existing question that I can't comment on because it's from a few years back where someone wanted to manually transfer mail filtering rules from one Mac to another.

One answer suggests moving MessageRules.plist but that is not sufficient because the message rules all have individual unique ids and these are also listed as to whether or not they are active in another plist.

If you want to copy mail filtering rules from one mac to the other you need to:

quit Mail

delete these files in ~usr/Library/Mail/V9/MailData/

MessageRules.plist

RulesActiveState.plist

SyncedRules.plist

UnsyncedRules.plist

replace with ones copied from old mac

restart mail

This is for Monterey. Folder name will be V10 for sonoma. I have looked inside the files generated by V10 and they it be exactly the same format so although I have not tried it you should be able to transfer them from Monterey to Sonoma as well.

Mac mini, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 25, 2024 7:19 AM

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Answer 1

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realseeds Author

Level 1

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Jun 25, 2024 11:38 AM in response to etresoft

I was just trying to answer a question that others have post multiple times, on whether its possible to do this without using iCloud. I'm not recommending the manual process, but sometimes situations arise where it is useful to be able to know that you can do this.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jun 25, 2024 7:27 AM in response to realseeds

Might want to edit out the usr, pah is...

~Library/Mail/V9/MailData/

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Answer 3

realseeds Author

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Jun 25, 2024 11:40 AM in response to VikingOSX

Well of course there's a risk, and I'd hope anybody poking around inside the library will be aware of this. But if you look inside the plist files then the structure is exactly the same, as is the plist version number. So I think in this case the risk is probably very small.

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Answer 4

VikingOSX

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Jun 25, 2024 12:09 PM in response to realseeds

realseeds wrote:

Well of course there's a risk, and I'd hope anybody poking around inside the library will be aware of this. But if you look inside the plist files then the structure is exactly the same, as is the plist version number. So I think in this case the risk is probably very small.

Until Apple decides to change the .plist organization which they decidely won't warn us about.

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Answer 5

etresoft

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Jun 25, 2024 8:09 AM in response to realseeds

Or use iCloud.

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Answer 6

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,182 points

Jun 25, 2024 8:08 AM in response to realseeds

And if the operating systems are different and the Mail versions are different, you are winging it in hopes that the internal format of those .plist files has not changed which may risk some misadventure of the Mail client receiving them. Apple changes stuff and that has bitten others making assumptions…

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