AAM: Manually Migrate Mail
User, tao51nyc, has come across a rather tedious problem with migrating his Mail account from one system to another. His initial aim was to migrate his entire user account on his old iMac G5 to his new state-of-the-art Mac, but after an unsuccessful attempt at using the Migration Manager, opted for moving all of his files manually. While this in itself took long enough, it did thankfully work, except that his Mail 2.0 account has failed to move over with the rest of his information.
Whether or not his 8 POP accounts have anything to do with the complexity of the situation is unknown at this time and the Export/Import feature in Mail has also failed in his steps. The last option tao51nyc thought of was to move his Mail 2.0 library to the new system library, but to his utter frustration has found this doesn’t work either.
Wundryn II has kindly offered his help on AAM this week but whether his answer is the correct one remains to be seen, although it does seem pretty clear at this point. Wundryn II had the idea that by target driving the older machine, tao51nyc could replace the library on the newer machine, followed by logging out and back in again. The full answer is listed below but we’ll have to wait and see if it works.
If any readers of Apple Matters have come across this problem before in the past please feel free to leave a comment below or post a reply in the topic Manually Migrating to Mail in the Ask Apple Matters forums. Thanks again for the other questions this week, they haven’t been missed and we’ll hopefully get around to publishing them on AAM soon.
Until next week, all the best!
Question of the Week
By: tao51nyc
My issue is this: I’m migrating a rather large/complex user account (mine) from a dual G5 to a new Dual Intel 3.0ghz (I know, many of you are probably wishing YOU had this problem! LOL).
After three tries using Migration Manager (overnite, no less), all ending in failure, I opted for the more arduous option of manual migration, i.e., setting up a new account, reinstalling all the apps from scratch, moving my data from one machine to the other via a LAN connection, etc. Slow, but reliable. Everything got moved.
Except Mail.
Part of the complexity is that I am managing 8 separate POP accounts using Mail (yes, 8!). I have discovered, to my frustration, that simply moving the relevant files to the new system Library won’t work, and so far, no form of Export/Import has been successful either.
I’m curious to know if there is, in fact, a “manual” method of migrating Mail, the procedure you used (if successful), etc.
Answer of the Week
By: Wundryn II
Target drive the older machine and drag the library folder from your old user and drop it on the new. Hit replace and then log out and back in. You can manually move a whole user including preferences but you have to open the old user up and move each individual folder. Moving the library folder last. I have not had any luck moving an entire user folder (the whole folder at one time) and simply replacing the new.
FYI, I have not moved parts of a user before either. I doubt you will have a lot of problems but chances are some things might not work.
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Comments
Shouldn’t you just be able to overwrite the ~/Library/Mail folder on the new one with that from the old one?
I’m migrating a rather large/complex user account (mine) from a dual G5 to a new Dual Intel 3.0ghz
Indeed, I wish I had your problems!
Aha.
This apple document describes how to backup and restore your Mail preferences, as well as the emails themselves.
Turns out you have to copy com.apple.mail.plist from ~/Library/Preferences/ too.
By: gdk1
I have sucessfully moved Mail settings (10 different e-mail accounts) and files from one machine to another manually by the following method:
1. on old machine go to: <user/(you)/library/mail> and copy the entire mail folder to the same place on the new machine, replacing what is there.
2. on the old machine go to: <user/(you)/library/preferences> and copy:<com.apple.mail.plist> to same place on new machine, replacing what is there.
3. Open Mail on the new machine and you should see all your old accounts and all your e-mail files.
Well, I’m half way there. The main issues of the account migration may have revolved around the fact that the “old” computer’s account carried 166GB of load (!), including some major apps like the entire Adobe CS2/Macromedia übersuite, Quark 6.5 AND 7.0, and a ton of video files. Migration Manager just choked on it.
So I manually reinstalled the huge app suites, manually moved the docs and vid files over, then hosed all that from the old Mac. Then, on impulse, I tried migrating again (to a “new” account, separate from the one just created) - THAT worked, and took only 42 minutes. Of course, now I’m in “fast user switching” mode if I want to use Mail. (But ARD didn’t move over properly, and refuses to work! *grrr* Separate issue.)
But at least I’m down to ONE computer, albeit with two user accounts - it’s now a matter of migrating Mail across from one account to the other, and presumably the techniques offered by you guys will be of benefit.
Thanks all!
(Ben: This will probably be the last Mac tower I ever have at this company - I managed somehow to milk the upgrade strategy for all it was worth.)
tao
You need to use the iport feature in mail to bring in your older email.
Simple dragging the folders into the new mail or computer, you will lose certain email. You wll see the old email and who it’s from, but the body text on some will be gone. I don’t know why. but if you import the old email, you will be fine.
I tried the drag/drop technique between the accounts, and so far it seems to work; of course I had to re-enter the passwords for each mailbox to satisfy Keychain’s demands. (Now the thing is whether or not that will “stick” - it didn’t when I upgraded the laptop at home to MacBook Pro.)
Thanks for everyone’s input.
tao
on the old machine go to: <user/(you)/library/preferences> and copy:<com.apple.mail.plist> to same place on new machine, replacing what is there.
3. Open Mail on the new machine and you should see all your old accounts and all your e-mail files.
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I tried the drag/drop technique between the accounts, and so far it seems to work; of course I had to re-enter the passwords for each mailbox to satisfy Keychain’s demands. (Now the thing is whether or not that will “stick” - it didn’t when I upgraded the laptop at home to MacBook Pro.)
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