How to move mail from Lion to Snow Leopard?

There is no reverse migration. Restore from one of the backups you made before installing Lion.

I have not done this and don't know if it will work, but I would try moving the mbox file from the Lion users Library - Mail folder to the Snow Leopard's user Library - Mail folder. You might want to change the name if there is already an mbox file with the same name.

As Linc said, your best bet is to restore from your backup of the Mail folder you originally had in Snow Leopard. You cannot import mailboxes from Lion into Snow Leopard's Mail program (well, you can do the whole Import thing, but the mailboxes after import will not display anything). You can actually read individual messages from the Lion Mail folder, but all the organization and what not won't go backwards. Also, I haven't found any way to put those individual message into a mailbox, trying to move an open message gives a weird error message. But evidently you can answer the messages as well as read them.

Francine

PS--While I was not able to actually put one of the emlx files (the actual email message) that I had opened into the main In Box, I was able to put one into another mailbox I had created myself. Depending on how much email you get, and save, opening the messages you got after the update and relocating them might be doable, but you would still need the pre-Lion Mail folder as the starter point.

Francine

Hi everyone,

I was able to import my Apple Mail after downgrading from Lion to Snow Leopard.

Here is what I did:

- In Mail, click Mailbox > New Mailbox.

- in the New Mailbox dialog box, select "On My Mac" as the location and give it any "MailboxName" you want. Click OK.

- Now in Finder, open Library > Mail > Mailboxes > MailboxName.mbox. In the MailboxName.mbox folder (where MailboxName is whatever name you gave the mailbox), all you'll see is an info.plist file. Add a folder called "Messages".

- Go to the location where you've backed up all of your email from Lion and drill down to the Messages folder where you have all your .emlx files. Copy all of these .emlx files and paste them into the new Messages folder you've created (i.e., at the Library > Mail > Mailboxes > MailboxName.mbox > Messages location).

- Go back to Mail. If you open the new "MailboxName" folder under "ON MY MAC", you'll see that it is still empty. Snow Leopard Mail can't read the .emlx files from Lion Mail. But we're not done yet. There are some more steps.

- On the Mail File menu, click Import Mailboxes.

- Select Apple Mail and click Continue.

- Browse to Library > Mail > Mailboxes, select "MailboxName.mbox", click Choose, and then click Done.

- Snow Leopard Mail will now import Lion Mail. It creates an "Import" folder in Mail under "ON MY MAC". Expand the Import folder and you'll see a a folder with the "MailboxName" you selected. When you open this you'll see all of your mail items that came from Lion Mail.

- You can repeat the above for each mailbox you want to import.

Hi Mate I hope you are well,

it's sounds amazing I tried so many solutions already but did not work at all, now I'll try yours.

My only question is that starting point "In Mail, click Mailbox > New Mailbox" is it in Lion or in Snow Leopard already.

I am waiting for your kind response

Best regards

Zoard