Disable account but keep e-mail visible

I realize this is a [very] old thread, but I had the same question and found a good solution, in case someone with the same issue ever finds this thread in the future:

• When you are inside Mail, click on the Mail menu and choose "Preferences"; then, select the "Accounts" tab at the top of the options dialog that opened.
• You will see a listing of all email accounts you have added in Mac Mail: click on the one you want to temporarily disable and/or exclude from automatic checks for new messages. (If only one email account is present, it is already selected.)
• Then, click on the "Advanced" tab on the right:
• The second checkbox in that section is labeled "Include when automatically checking for new mail", and is also checked by default.
• If you uncheck that checkbox, Mac Mail will no longer check this account's email server as it normally does: but you can still send email messages from that account, and still manually check for new emails.
• The first checkbox reads "Enable this account", and is checked by default. If you unchecked it, you will no longer be able to send emails from that account, and Apple Mail will hide its mailboxes in the main window.

I tried this and it seems to work. I found this solution on "www.freeemailtutorials.com" (credit where credit it due).

Just jumping into discussion, as I found the easiest way for me to keep emails from a cancelled account for future reference. I am running Sierra and Mail 10.1

My first attempt was to renamed the account, but when I would compose an email this old address kept popping up as an option as my "From" account, and sometimes it even appeared as the default sending account. This was a problem as I'd not notice this and click "Send".

So what finally I did was to go to Accounts, click on the old account and then simply unchecked the box next to Mail. The account then is shown as "inactive" in the accounts list, and the email folders (Inbox, etc) from that account are then "hidden" in the Mailboxes section of Mail (they disappear). But to be able see and access them again, simply do the reverse, re-ticking the "Mail" box for this account in Accounts and the folders re-appear.

Hope this helps others.

Is there a way ti disable the account (no more checkin mails and using it to send mails) but keep my inbox and sent items still visible?

Yes, but it does involve some work.

First, you need to move (not copy) the folder for that POP account to your Desktop. Then, in Mail's preferences, delete that POP account entirely. Now you can setup the account as IMAP (although I think you'll regret that in the long run) and let it retrieve whatever email is currently there.

Next, you need to go to File->Import Mailboxes… and navigate to and select the folder that contains the POP mailbox for the messages you want to import; for example: /Desktop/POP-xxxx@xxxxx.com/INBOX.mbox/Messages and click Choose to proceed with the process.

When that's done, you'll have an 'Imported' mailbox in Mail, after which you need to create your own new mailbox for those old messages from your Inbox and label it Old Inbox, or something to that effect. Then go to the Imported mailbox and Select All messages in there and drag them onto the icon for the new mailbox you just created for them; they should now all be moved into that mailbox.

Now you can go back and import the other mailboxes (Sent, Drafts, Deleted, etc if you like) one-at-a-time, stopping after each one to create a new mailbox for them and moving the messages into them before proceeding with the next one.

When you're done with that, you can delete the 'Imported' folder(s), then quit Mail and restart it to see if everything is still the way you want it to be. If so, then you can delete the POP account folder you moved to your Desktop previously.

Your question doesn't make much sense.

If I enable it, for some reasons, all the emails sent will be using this old account. I can not change this so it would use the new IMAP account.

Outgoing mail doesn't use POP or IMAP, it uses SMTP. Therefore it should not matter what accounts you have set (POP or SMTP) all mail will go out using the SMTP settings.

Your problem might be related to the fact that you have the same email address set in both accounts. That's a no-no. You should change the email address in your POP account to some dummy account and turn off automatic checking of mail in that account. Then only the IMAP account will actively download mail and your outgoing mail should be fine.

Is there a way ti disable the account (no more checkin mails and using it to send mails) but keep my inbox and sent items still visible?

The simplest way to disable an account while still keeping it in the list of accounts (and having access to its maileboxes, etc.) is to go into the Accounts preferences, select the desired account, click the Advanced tab, and then uncheck the checkbox for 'Enable this account".

Actually, X42342X, that's the source of the problem. If you uncheck the account, the account disappears in Mail along with all the mail folders.

You can prevent any account from sending mail via:

Mail -> Preferences -> Accounts -> (this account -> Outgoing Mail Server -> (none)

also check the 'use only this server) checkbox and you're done - this account now cannot send any mail since it doesn't have a SMTP server configured.

As for getting mail, just disable automatic checking for mail under the Advanced tab. Clearing (or setting an invalid) password will ensure that you don't accidently retrieve mail for this account, either.

Jonathan Rose wrote:

Actually, X42342X, that's the source of the problem. If you uncheck the account, the account disappears in Mail along with all the mail folders.

That's wrong. It only disables the account. It doesn't delete it. Just tried it on my own account. Unchecked the "Enable this account" and that is all it does.

The only way I know of to to delete an account is in the Mail Accounts preferences where you select an account and click the minus in the bottom left of the Accounts window.

Interesting. I am using Mail 5.2, OS 10.7.2. When I unclick "enable this account" under Inbox the Mail inbox that had all my previous emails disappears. You are right that it's not deleted as when I click enable this account, the inbox that has all my mail re-appears.

I wonder why mine is different?

Incidentally, to the original poster, I highlighted all 12,000 of my inbox messages, and temporarily moved them to a new mailbox I called Temp Inbox. Then I unclicked "enable this account", and the previous inbox disappeared. I did Apple A to highlight all the messages in the Temp Inbox and moved them to the new IMAP inbox.

I wonder why mine is different?

Probably because I still use Snow Leopard, not Lion.

Hi, I realise this is an old thread but, I have followed your instruction and all seems fine until I move the emails to their final 'old emails' destination. When I try to move them my mail activity box I have displaying informs me that they have all become 'outgoing messages' and look like they are sending!!! I cancelled quickly but are they really all being sent???

Many time stop you do not understand respect email and you stop

Sent from my iPhone

In Mail you can create a new Mailbox or several On My Mac, then move all the emails from that account, then delete that account once you're sure they moved... take it off the Internet to do this.

Thanks...very helpful.