backing up mail.app (non time machine)

[slicedbread]

I'm looking to do a clean install of 10.5.2, and have most of my data backed up. The only things I don't know how to backup are my mail.app mailboxes and their content.

I use IMAP so in theory I could just do a clean install and redownload all my mail. However my mail is over 2GB and it would take a long time to redownload that content. Is there any way to backup the mailboxes, so that I can restore them into mail.app after the clean install and not have to redownload them?

thanks.

 

[icoffee]

So far as backing up your mail, copy the folders Username->Library->Mail and Username->Library->Mail Downloads

That's what I use to backup my Mail and have been doing so for years. I don't think that will save your mail account settings, but it will definitely preserve your mail. After you reinstall, turn off your connection to the internet, start up mail, configure your accounts, close mail, copy the two folders back to Username->Library, turn on the internet, start up mail.