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Importing Apple Mail from 10.9 to 10.12 (Sierra)

Importing Mail from 10.9 to 10.12 (Sierra)


Does anybody know how to do this? I found several different instructions but have not been successful up to now. Since I am doing a clean install I do not want to use the Migration Assistant. or is there a way to only do the Apple Mail account with the Migration Assistant?


My main aim is to import all my accounts (settings of ISP’) so I do not have to set them up again. They are all POP accounts. Next it would be nice to import the folders and settings.


Any tips? Really desperate have been at it for a while.

Posted on Nov 18, 2016 1:38 AM

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11 replies

Nov 18, 2016 1:22 PM in response to ChangeAgent

Your Mail account information (and pretty much everything else related to accounts) are stored in Keychain. At the moment I don't have time to provide very specific step-by-step instructions, but if you want to import that information go to ~/Library/Keychains/ and import that entire folder's contents from the account containing your Mail account information. Before you do that be sure to archive that existing folder – do not overwrite it. Expect some consequences from that action, such as having to enter login information for all other services that require authentication. It would be a good idea to back up your Mac before doing anything.


Another, probably more reliable way of accomplishing what you want would be to use Migration Assistant to migrate account information to a brand new User Account. That Account would need to have a separate name from the one you are now using. Then, you could log into that Account, delete what you did not want to migrate, make sure that everything works the way you expect, and only then delete your other Account. Then, you could change the "short user name" of that User Account to one you wish to use.


The following Apple Support documents explain those procedures:


OS X: Manually migrating data from another Mac - Apple Support

Move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

macOS Sierra: Set up users, guests, and groups on your Mac

macOS Sierra: Delete a user or group

Change the name of your macOS user account and home folder - Apple Support


It bears repeating – back up your Mac before doing any of this.

Nov 18, 2016 11:57 PM in response to John Galt

Morning John, thanks for taking the time to answer.


I had moved the keychain already and that does not bring the accounts back in Mail. It will however move the paswords. So far it is also working fine (like automatically logging in to this site). But that is not my problem. first I need to move the 20 old mail accounts across from the old Mail programme to the new one.


The question is thus: Where does mail keep the accounts information?

Importing Apple Mail from 10.9 to 10.12 (Sierra)

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