How to export Account settings and mailboxes

Question

How to export Account settings and mailboxes

I am migrating to a new computer.

Now I need to trasfer some of the Mail.app data from the old mac, including:

--the mail account settings
--For POP3 accounts, i need to transfer the msgs for those inboxes because the received mails do not have a copy on the servers.
--the Sent box in Mail.app. It seems this is a "global" container for all outgoing msgs, regardless IMAP or POP3 accounts. And I assume all the msgs therein are stored locally.

These are everything I need to transfer. And not with other user data. So i guess the Migration Assistant wont help.

Email clients normally have Export/Import functions but i cant find them with Mail.app.

So how should I do the transfer as specified above? Thanks folks.

Macbook Pro, 15", mid-2009, Mac OS X (10.6.5), Macbook Pro

Posted on Dec 1, 2010 4:55 PM

Reply

Answer 1

babowa

Level 9

78,568 points

Dec 1, 2010 5:38 PM in response to Gabriel Dillaine

If you don't want to use Migration Assistant, you could just copy the files to an external HD and then copy them into the exact same locations on the new machine. You can find the emails here:

Users -> Library -> Mail -> there are several folders you want to copy: Mailboxes, all POP-yourname (if more than one).

As for account settings: what I've done is simply take a screenshot of every window in accounts, named it, and then have a copy to look at if I need to set it up again.

Address Book: If you will highlight one entry, then "select all", and then choose export under file menu, you can export the entire Address book and import the entries into the new one.

Reply