Basic Mail Migration Procedure 10.5 to 10.6

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Level 2

157 points

Basic Mail Migration Procedure 10.5 to 10.6

I've got a very basic question about migrating Apple Mail from 10.5 to 10.6. The old mail is from a 10.5 Macbook with a dead logic board. The mail folder was copied to the drive of a new 10.6 Macbook -- but migration assistant was not used. On the new machine, Mail has never been initialized -- just opened once and closed when the system asked for an email address, etc.

My guess is that I should drag the entire Mail folder from the old machine to the ~/Library folder on the new machine. And also copy the old com.apple.mail.plist file to the new ~/Library/Preferences folder.

Then just start mail and let it do the import. Everything should come over, correct? Am I missing anything?

Thanks very much in advance to anybody who can shed any light.

Steve

15" Macbook Pro - 2.4 Ghz - 2 Gigs RAM, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Feb 27, 2011 2:02 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 27, 2011 6:38 PM in response to Steve Cohen4

Transplanting those two items should allow it to pick right up where it left off. If either file was created on the new Mac, remove those first.

Ernie

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Answer 2

Steve Cohen4 Author

Level 2

157 points

Feb 27, 2011 11:20 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

Thanks, Ernie. As always, your help is much appreciated.

Steve

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Answer 3

Mar 30, 2011 6:16 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Do you confirm that it is enough to just copy the mail folder from /Library/Mail of the Mac under 10.5.8 to the Mac under 10.6.7?? I am wondering about that because the mail.app version is not the same of course...

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Answer 4

Mar 30, 2011 7:29 AM in response to Skittoubar

It is not enough, as should be clear above, to copy only the Mail folder -- you also need the com.apple.mail.plist file from Home/Library/Preferences. These two different versions are not a problem.

Remember that the Address Book info is stored at Home/Library/Applications Support in a folder named AddressBook.

Ernie

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Answer 5

Mar 30, 2011 9:15 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Ok Ernie, thanks for your reply.

But what does the address book has to do with this? For my address book, I simply used the application's export and import to migrate my data. Simple and efficient. It is weird that in some applications it is so easy to migrate data, and in others, such as mail, nothing is clear, to say the least. Anyway, I will try to copy the folder and the plist tonight, and I'll see what happens.

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Answer 6

Mar 30, 2011 11:52 AM in response to Skittoubar

OK, it's working just fine like this!
I transfered the files, launched mail.app and got a message stating that the import was OK.

So simple, so Apple in fact (well....sometimes)

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Answer 7

Mar 30, 2011 12:26 PM in response to Skittoubar

Where do you mean you only have to use the Export and Import function -- from where?

The AB app in OSX is the main repository of addresses you have captured in Mail, Imported or that have been captured as Previous Recipients. The Address Book Icon in Mail accesses a subset of that data base, but does not allow for direct editing.

Ernie

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Answer 8

Mar 31, 2011 8:35 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

I just meant that when I migrated my address book database from my old MBP to my new one, I just made a backup of said address book database (in address book.app), transfered the backup file to my new MBP, and imported its content into the new address book application. This mechanism is simple, straightforward, and above all, reassuring, as I don't feel afraid of loosing some data. I never talked about the repository of addresses captured in mail. I just think that there should be such a functionality in mail.app, to be able to quickly backup and migrate your entire local email database.

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Answer 9

Mar 31, 2011 9:32 AM in response to Skittoubar

It is there. You only have to open the AddressBook application from the Dock (unless you removed it), click on File/Export/Address Book Archive. The AB is fully attended not from Mail, but from the AddressBook app since other applications can also use the Address Book, even if not using Mail.

Am I still missing what you are asking?

Ernie

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Answer 10

Apr 1, 2011 6:10 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

No, you're not missing anything.
I know how to migrate data from address book, it could not be easier.

I was just comparing the way to migrate data from address book (clear and easy), with the way to migrate email databases from mail.app (not difficult, but certainly not clear), and was thinking that Apple could provide within mail.app a similar functionality as the one that can be found in address book.app.

Am I so unclear when trying to experess myself????

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Answer 11

Apr 1, 2011 6:58 AM in response to Skittoubar

You can Archive any mailbox in Mail -- click on Mailbox and choose Archive Mailbox. What will be saved is in a format that can be imported into numerous email programs.

It seemed to me that you were wanting export email addresses from within Mail, and not message folders and mailboxes. Missed the analogy implication.

Ernie

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