How do I move all "on my Mac" mailboxes to a new user ID?

Question

Level 2

151 points

How do I move all "on my Mac" mailboxes to a new user ID?

My wife and I have been sharing a Mac and the same single user account for years. We finally decided to create separate accounts; my wife would keep the original and I'd create a new one for me. That was easy.

Next, I copied the entire contents of her account (except for her Library folder, as I later discovered) to my account using an external drive. She then deleted all my documents from her account and I deleted all of hers from my account. Also no problem; easy and clean.

I then realized that because the Library folder is normally invisible, it did not get copied. Therefore, none of the "On my Mac" email folders/mailboxes and their contents that I had previously created while sharing the initial ID were available under my new ID. So I then - by holding down the Option key - went back to the Library in her account and copied the entire Mail folder to my ID's Library folder (I had first quit Mail under both accounts and changed the Mail folder's name under my ID; didn't want to overwrite it yet). When I started Mail again under my ID, the On my Mac folders were still missing.

There are a number of postings here and elsewhere that state quite definitively that the process I pursued should have brought everything over. Can anyone explain why it didn't?

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), 8 Gb RAM, 240Gb SSD

Posted on Aug 13, 2016 9:09 AM

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Answer 1

steven_a1

Community Specialist

Aug 14, 2016 8:48 AM in response to Brian Shaw3

Hello Brian Shaw3,

It seems that you are having some troubles with getting the on my Mac mailboxes over to your newly created user account on your Mac. Although I cannot explain to you why it did not carry over using the method that you tried, I can however give you another way to get those mailboxes over? You can log into the previously shared account then access the Mail app as normal and export all of the mailboxes you wish to an Mbox file, you will want to save this file in the Public folder in your Finder. Your Public folder will allow you to access that file when you log into your user account to import them to your new user's mail app!

The links below will certainly assist you with the procedures that I am recommending to you and have step by set instructions.

Mail (El Capitan): Import or export mailboxes

OS X El Capitan: Access another Mac user’s Public folder and Drop Box

Thank you for utilizing the Apple Support Communities for assistance. The steps above will allow you to carry over your desired mailboxes in no time.

Have an excellent day.

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Answer 2

Brian Shaw3 Author

Level 2

151 points

Aug 14, 2016 1:33 PM in response to steven_a1

Hi Steve_a1

Thanks for your suggestion and willingness to help. It seemed both logical and easy. Unfortunately, it didn't work either. The export from the old account seemed to go OK (I put the files in the public folder). However, I got the attached error message when I tried to import into the new account.

Also, the"Import" mailbox mentioned in the error message did not appear in the mailbox list. I tried it with all "On my Mac" mailboxes and again with just a single box; same result.

Any other ideas?

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,591 points

Aug 14, 2016 1:52 PM in response to Brian Shaw3

Can you put the folder on your Desktop and drag the e-mails to where you want them?

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Answer 4

Brian Shaw3 Author

Level 2

151 points

Aug 14, 2016 1:55 PM in response to Eric Root

If you mean can I drag the exported .mbox files(s) and drop them on Mail, no I cannot.

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Answer 5

JayB.

Community Specialist

Aug 14, 2016 2:08 PM in response to Brian Shaw3

No problem, glad I can lend a hand here. From what you've explained, the import process could be failing due to a permissions issue. Try moving the Mbox files from the Public folder to your user account's document folder. You can also check the permissions for each mBox file and changing them if necessary so you can have full access to them. After that, retry the import process and select the mbox files that you moved to your documents folder. Please review the link below to change the permissions.

OS X El Capitan: Set permissions for items on your Mac

Also, make sure that the file isn't listed as 'INBOX.partial.box'. If it has the word partial in it, that means that it hasn't completely exported it yet. Depending on the size of the mailboxes that you're exporting, it might take a little bit for them to completely export.

This should do the trick!

Cheers

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Answer 6

Brian Shaw3 Author

Level 2

151 points

Aug 14, 2016 2:20 PM in response to JayB.

I thought about a permissions issue, too, so I granted read and write permissions for 'everyone' to the exported file. There was no "partial" in the file name (interesting, though, that during the export there was absolutely no progress indicator anywhere; had to watch the Public folder populate over a lengthy period of time).

During the import effort, the error message, above, was displayed immediately.

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