How do i backup e-mails?

[timmillwood]

I use Apple's Mail program for my e-mails and i want to back them up to move to a new Mac and also to copy them incase i loose them all.

Any ideas?

 

[jsw]

The Library folder under your home folder contains a "Mail" folder - that contains all of your emails. If you copy that elsewhere, you'll have saved a copy of all of your emails. There might be a "Mail Downloads" folder as well, which you can also copy.

In that same Library folder (again, the one in your home account, not the "Library" folder right under "Macintosh HD") is a Preferences folder. In that folder is a file named "com.apple.mail.plist" which contains, I think, some settings as well.

 

[Eraserhead]

I've just done this earlier today, simply load mail, select the messages you wish to copy, and choose save as from the file menu, when the box comes up choose "Raw Message Source" and save the messages somewhere on your Hard Drive, then to import them back into mail choose Import from the file menu and choose the option "Other" and select the folder with the saved mail files from before.

EDIT when copying it to a new machine first I tried what jsw suggested but it didn't seem to work.

 

[decksnap]

JSW's method is the best way to go. Just backup the entire mail folder. Then you'll have all your boxes and stuff.

The .plist is going to have your account settings and stuf in it if you want to carry them over, though I've never done this because I don't know if it's a good idea when switching to a newer version of mail.

 

[mad jew]

EDIT when copying it to a new machine first I tried what jsw suggested but it didn't seem to work.

Were they the same version of Mail? This method won't work across OS upgrades (Panther to Tiger and so on). 😱

 

[koswo]

Also an easy way of backing up your mails is using BackityMac, it's freeware and universal.

 

[decksnap]

Were they the same version of Mail? This method won't work across OS upgrades (Panther to Tiger and so on). 😱

I didn't mention the part of imprting them into the new program as oppposed to placing the old mail folder on top of the new folder.

 

[Eraserhead]

I didn't mention the part of imprting them into the new program as oppposed to placing the old mail folder on top of the new folder.

Oh, I didn't import, just overwrote when following jsw's method 😱, but they were both running Tiger...

 

[IlluminatedSage]

how can i locate my home folder? i dont know how, i hate to say.

 

[zero2dash]

It's under the Mac HD, with the icon of a house with your username on it. 🙂 Go into that folder (the home folder) then click on Library and find and copy the Mail folder.

 

[IlluminatedSage]

mail program wont work, says home dir full

ok right now my mail program wont work. it says my home directory is full.

i have moved stuff to another hard drive but it still wont work.

is there a special area only effecting mail?

 

[mad jew]

Hmm, how much free space do you have on your boot hard drive? Do you have any Parental Controls active? Have you tried restarting? 🙂