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Level 1

8 points

Quickest way to download my Mobileme email account

Another year, and another scare-mongering email from  threatening to delete anything over 5GB of emails (or are they going to say b/c we are so kind we will give yo another years complimentary 20-25GB FREE??) on my iCloud/Mobileme account saying:

As a thank you for being a former MobileMe member, you received a 20 GB complimentary storage upgrade when you moved to iCloud. Your upgrade expires on September 30, 2013.
When it expires, your iCloud storage will be automatically adjusted to the free 5 GB plan. Note that you are currently using 11.72 GB of storage. If you exceed your storage plan on September 30, 2013, iCloud Backup, Documents in the Cloud, and iCloud Mail will temporarily stop working.
To continue using these iCloud features without interruption, reduce the amount of iCloud storage you are using or purchase a storage plan by September 30, 2013.

I use only email. So whats the easiest method to download ALL my emails onto my Mac?

Do I use Mail application, select all and drag to a folder? Or is there something better I have missed?

-- Any ideas, advice appreciated

Posted on Sep 24, 2013 1:10 AM

Best reply

Roger Wilmut1

Level 10

131,158 points

Posted on Sep 24, 2013 2:18 AM

The extra storage you have as a result of having been a MobileMe subscriber will be removed on 30 September unless you decide to pay to keep it ($40 p.a.).

If you decide not to keep it you can download some or all of your messages to your Mac, removing them from the iCloud server.

Create a new Mailbox in Mail on your Mac, making sure that it is listed under 'On My Mac'. Go to your iCloud mailbox, click on the top message of the ones you decide to download and the shift click on the bottom message to select them all. Drag them to the mailbox you just created. It will take some time to download them. If you have a lot of messages I shouldn't try to do them all at once or you may hang the process - I should do 100 or so at a time.

If you wish to pay to continue your current storage level, the instructions are here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5527

Scroll down to 'How do I purchase my current plan?' and expand the section applicable to your computer or device.

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22 replies

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Sep 29, 2013 8:41 AM in response to sparkie_7

You need to be more patient, this is an over the internet procedure and it takes time, the way you are doing this is risky.

Slow down!

sparkie_7 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 29, 2013 8:46 AM in response to Csound1

Woah, I just dragged 21,245 emails for Year 2010 and Mail is churning it out pretty fast! Could it be that my Ibox count in the top left was showing that I had 30,000 UNREAD emails?!? -- If this is the case, this makes sense why it doesn't add up with my transfer counts ! 😊

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Sep 29, 2013 8:50 AM in response to sparkie_7

It is the unread count, and you are courting disaster, if you won't listen to the advice given here, good luck.

sparkie_7 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 29, 2013 8:50 AM in response to sparkie_7

So once I have completely transferred all my emails up to year 2012 for my INBOX emails. I suppose I need to transfer my SENT emails as well?

sparkie_7 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 29, 2013 8:53 AM in response to Csound1

Ok, ok, I think I have dragged the most I will ever do. 21K of emails and unlikely I'll have more in anyone year. My trusty old MacPro 2008 is handling this pretty well 🙂

Sep 29, 2013 8:53 AM in response to sparkie_7

Of course. Create a separate folder for them. And as Csound1 said, slow down. Drag around a thousand and wait until all activity has stopped before you drag any more. The way you've been going you are asking for a crash which could well lose any messages in the process of transfer. It will all take quite some time to transfer.

sparkie_7 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 29, 2013 9:12 AM in response to Roger Wilmut1

Ok thanks again Roger. I'll create "Sent email backup" folders by year as well, then transfer them over.

I just timed it -- the Mail activity dialog monitor says "Copying messages.. Moving 15113 messages..." -- it's now 13+ minutes and still churning "Indexing attachments" and "synchronizing with Server" with Mail at 100.6% CPU usage 😀 -- must have been a lot of large attachments in this 2012 year! There's life left in this old Mac Pro LOL 😝

As Csound and Roger have warned, don't try this at home!

Quickest way to download my Mobileme email account