How to transfer mail from old mac to new mac

Question

Level 1

11 points

How to transfer mail from old mac to new mac

This is what I have done.

Copied folder Mail and Mail Downloads from Library on old Mac to external drive. Also copied file com.apple.mail.plist from Library/Preferences.

In new Mac - renamed Mail folder to Mail.old ( and deleted it)

Transferred from external drive files into Library of new Mac Pro. Checked that new Mac library now has Mail Folder plus Mail Downloads folder plus Preferences has com.apple.mail.plist

Result = zero. Opening mail in new mac reflects zilch - zip - nada.

Old Mac is Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6

New Mac is Mac OS High Sierra 10.13.1

Did try and update old mac but bombed out entire machine and had to restore from time machine so very wary of trying that trick again.

Any suggestions please?

MacBook Pro TouchBar and Touch ID, Mac OS X (10.7.5), MacBook Pro

Posted on Jan 6, 2018 7:21 AM

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Answer 1

tygb

Level 9

65,004 points

Jan 6, 2018 8:30 AM in response to robsantini

You have performed , some steps that can give complications .Create a new user account How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support

And configure you mail account Set up Mail on your Mac with email accounts - Apple Support once all the mails are downloaded perform the steps .

Transfer mail data from one machine to another .

Take back up of all mails in V 5 folder : Method to copy mails in V 5 folder .

Click on Go on top menu bar , hold option key click on > library > select mail folder > right click on mail folder there itself > click on copy mail > right click on extreme right hand side in column B , that is below persistence info.plist > click on paste item .

Entire mails are copied to V 5 folder .

Note : For Mac OS High Sierra the folder will be V 5 , For Mac OS Sierra the folder will be V4 , For El Capitan - the folder will be V 3 , and for OSX Yosemite the folder will be V2

Take a USB stick and copy V 5 folder into it , once it is copied right click on the USB stick and eject it .

Insert the USB stick in the second machine .

Configure new IMAP account in another machine , go to top menu bar , file > import mail boxes > import data from > select apple mail > click on continue > select the back drop folder then choose new .

When new IMAP account is opened , a new folder with all mails will appear in the mail side bar .You can rename the folder .

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Answer 2

Jan 6, 2018 8:43 AM in response to robsantini

Sorry to bother you if you've already solved it. What I did was to move all my mail folders, in which I save mail items,to the iCloud section of the left hand bar when viewing the normal mail screen. This meant that I could view all filed mail on my iPad and iPhone and the new iMac has just picked these up. I didn't have to do any intervention at all.

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Answer 3

macjack

Level 10

111,242 points

Jan 6, 2018 7:34 AM in response to robsantini

The best way to transfer all apps from old to new Mac is via Migration Assistant:

How to move your content to a new Mac - Apple Support

I suggest you wipe the drive on the new Mac and then reinstall before using migration, since you already have mucked up the files.

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