Is there any way to backup/move mail on Mojave?

[nemofish]

Looking to move my OS to Mojave from Sierra (new mac) but I am having trouble getting my emails over from mail.app.

I have about 80GB of email data spread over several folders, many of which have parent and child nested folders.

It used to be that one would simply copy the /user/library/mail folder from one machine to the other but I understand this is no longer the case.

I cannot export the mail folders as Apple recommends because this just exports an empty MBox for every parent folder and ignores all the nested ones.

I also can't use Apple's migration tool as this also moves lots of other unwated data such as previous application preferences, desktop files etc.

 

[fisherking]

when you export, you're not getting the parent folder with a disclosure triangle? (ie "imported mail")? and the nested folders, with content when you click the triangle? works for me...

 

[Fishrrman]

I've got to ask:
How does one accumulate 80gb of email?
Once you have it, what does one DO with it?
You couldn't possibly read all of it again...

 

[rodedwards]

Not sure if this will help ... but i had 20gb of Mail. When i click Export Mailbox - it took a long time to export - something like half an hour. It was a lot of data and the mail folder was just a part filled box if i didn't allow full time to export.

 

[Garsun]

I just re-create my email accounts on the new computer and my Apple email accounts and IMAP accounts repopulate all the sub folders from the mail servers.
It takes a while, but if I click on a particular message that has not been downloaded yet it bumps that message to the head of the queue and downloads it immediately.

 

[NoBoMac]

Shouldn't have to export anything. Bring over the old Mail folder in Library, then in Mail, File > Import Mailboxes. Either "Apple Mail" or "mbox format" option should work as deep down, Apple uses mbox format.

That said, as @Garsun said, if an IMAP account, emails will redownload from server.

 

[rmpbklyn]

Looking to move my OS to Mojave from Sierra (new mac) but I am having trouble getting my emails over from mail.app.

I have about 80GB of email data spread over several folders, many of which have parent and child nested folders.

It used to be that one would simply copy the /user/library/mail folder from one machine to the other but I understand this is no longer the case.

I cannot export the mail folders as Apple recommends because this just exports an empty MBox for every parent folder and ignores all the nested ones.

I also can't use Apple's migration tool as this also moves lots of other unwated data such as previous application preferences, desktop files etc.

you don't state what mail service provider: verion, gmail? yahoo? outLook?, many mail service store the mail on server. If you used IMAP, you won't have to do anything unless you had decided to use POP and option to delete on pull.... If you had used POP then it's best to transfer back to the online service (then turn on IMAP) for the time being, you can then use POP again. However if your machine fails or power outage you can corrupt your mail database if you continue to use POP.