How to manually import Mail and Internet Accounts from Yosemite to El Capitan

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Level 1

2 points

How to manually import Mail and Internet Accounts from Yosemite to El Capitan

I've read many threads on this issue and wonder if anyone has been successful in manually importing Internet Accounts, Mail and all its settings from Yosemite to El Capitan.

Rather than using the Migration Assistant (who might've migrated some of the issues I had on Yosemite as well), I decided to clean install El Capitan and import manually all the data. It's going fine overall, except for Mail and Internet Accounts, which refuse to see the mailboxes or the old accounts.

Does anyone have a successful means of performing this operation? I have 10 email addresses, 20-more years of content and a number of smart mailboxes which I'd like to get back.

Is there any way to use Migration Assistant to migrate only specific applications, such as Mail? Can you do the same with Internet Accounts? Can you tell Migration Assistant to migrate a specific Time Machine backup, rather than the last one (which might be corrupted)?

Thanks,

Z

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 11, 2015 3:26 AM

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Answer 1

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apple_mikey

Level 1

15 points

Nov 6, 2015 12:54 AM in response to zurdyoz

This is tricky, but I just figured it out. I'm surprised Apple doesn't have good documentation on this. The trick lies in TWO things - migrating both your Apple Mail Items AND the Internet Account Items. Before Yosemite, your email accounts were all contained in the Apple Mail folders. However, now they have been separated so if you JUST manually migrate the Apple Mail stuff, without the Internet Accounts, then Mail will open and you'll just get your a nakedn iCloud Inbox that will start to load your most recent emails. Also, it helps to copy the Keychain folder over so you don't have to re-enter all your passwords (in Mail or other places as well).

These are the files you need to copy over from your user's Library folder:

for Internet Accounts

.../Accounts (folder)

for Mail

.../Mail (folder)

.../Mail Downloads (folder)

.../Containers/com.apple.mail (folder)

.../Preferences/com.apple.accounts.plist (file)

.../Preferences/com.apple.accountsd.plist (file)

.../Preferences/com.apple.mail-shared.plist (file)

.../Preferences/com.apple.MailMigratorService.plist (file)

.../SyncedPreferences/com.apple.mail-com.apple.mail.vipsenders.plist (file)

.../SyncedPreferences/com.apple.mail.plist (file)

for Keychain

.../Keychains (folder)

I arrived at this with a fair amount of trial and error. I had backed up my old user folder (all the folders, including the Library folder) with both Time Machine and a manual copy. I played around with these on a separate, dummy user account (so I could delete it and have my nice, pristine, clean install still there once I figured it out). Finally, let me also say - BAD on you Apple for making this so complicated. Email software is one of those things that should remain elegant, even at the architecture level. Quit complicating things.

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Answer 2

WinkFish

Level 1

0 points

Nov 25, 2015 8:09 AM in response to apple_mikey

Thanks so much for posting this reply. Saved me a ton of time. I really appreciate it!

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Answer 3

MrAgapi

Level 1

8 points

Apr 17, 2016 5:13 AM in response to apple_mikey

Thanks Apple_mikey for these instruction. i am going to try these in a few hours. Checking your instructions, i can not find .../SyncedPreferences/com.apple.mail.plist (file) and ../SyncedPreferences/com.apple.mail-com.apple.mail.vipsenders.plist (file)

I check my mac also is not there.

From all the instructions these is the one that have some idea. I will try.

All accounts are POP and i have to format my iMac son the malicious software (mackeeper, mactraker, cleanmymac etc) i hope apple can STOP these since is problematic and there is NO way in **** to stop these.

Since all my test to put my V3 on the install has fail in 10.11.4 i will take these rute. And i do not have a password for 1 pop account that is not present on my mac and that email is not working anymore. But i need those emails.

I will wait until 12pm pacific time to start working on these since i what to get all files ready to try.

thanks Man. !!!!

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Answer 4

Sep 6, 2016 9:11 AM in response to apple_mikey

Hi,

I'm trying to copy from a User Account called Excession on a Yosemite Disk to a User Account called TheStateOfTheArt on an El Capitan Disk.

When I look in the user /Library/Accounts folder it doesn't show anything for Mail, just 3 files:

Accounts3.sqlite

Accounts3.sqlite-shm

Accounts3.sqlite-wal

I copied the folder anyway. I also copied all the other files I could find that matched the list above, however when I launch mail it fails to find the accounts.

There is no "Mail Downloads" folder in the user /Library/ folder.

There is no user Library/Preferences/com.apple.accounts.plist file in the source.

There is no user Library/Preferences/com.apple.MailMigratorService.plist file in the source.

There is no user Library/SyncedPreferences/com.apple.mail-com.apple.mail.vipsenders.plist file in the source.

There is no user Library/SyncedPreferences/com.apple.mail-com.apple.mail.plist file in the source.

I've copied the files I could find but still when I launch Mail it fails to find any accounts or mail boxes?

Any ideas on how to get the accounts and mailboxes transferred over would be greatly appreciated.

I can't believe its so hard to just do something simple like this. Apple has really gone to the dogs lately........

All the Best

Dave

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