Deleting Mail account deletes all its mail?

[Halcyon]

Mac OS10.6.8 Apple Mail 4.5

I have a mail account that I need to delete (long story I'll spare about it being corrupted), but when I do a warning message says that everything related to that account will also be deleted, that is: setup information, mailboxes and all messages.

Mailboxes and all messages is what I'm concerned with, as I need to keep all the messages received in the past for reference.

How can I delete an account and keep the messages?

Thanks,
JC

 

[soloer]

How is your mail setup? Do you retrieve your messages via POP or IMAP? If IMAP, your messages should all remain on the server after you delete the account from your machine. If POP, I'd just create a new folder within Mail under the "On My Mac" section. Copy your account messages/folders into that, then you should be safe to delete the account.

If you use Time Machine, you could always do a backup prior to making changes just for precautionary measures.

 

[Fishrrman]

No promises this will work, but go to the account in question:
username/Library/Mail/Mailboxes

... and make a copy of the "Mailboxes" folder to somewhere else where it will be safe. You could even burn it to a CD

Later on, these mailboxes could be re-imported if necessary.

I've found that I can select an ".emix" file (they are not intuitively named), double click on it, and have that message open in Mail.app. The re-opened file will even contain images, attachments, etc.

 

[Halcyon]

Sorry, that was an important piece of info...this account is POP, and I don't need to download any more messages from the server (or keep them there).

Like you said, all messages kept in a Mailbox inside "On My Mac" section are safe and kept for good. Everything on: Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Trash and Reminders, does get deleted with the account.

So I guess I can create a Rule or two to move everything from these locations into a new folder within "On My Mac" and then go ahead and delete the account.

Sounds safe?

Thanks SumoHamster,
JC