Mail messages from a backup

[jenic]

Not sure if this is the right section, but here goes.

For a while now I've wanted to upgrade to an SSD, and now seems the perfect time with Yosemite on the horizon so I can complete a fresh install.

However I have a lot of messages in mail, I want to keep these but don't want to restore them to my new build as I rarely need the information contained.

Is there any way to export the messages so I can still search through and access them on an external HDD? So I don't have to import them all onto my nice shiny new SSD.

 

[Weaselboy]

How many messages are we talking about? If it is not too many, you can just select the message then hit command-p to bring up the print dialogue then at the lower left click save as PDF, and that will export the selected messages into one, large PDF file that can be read on any device.

 

[jenic]

Unfortunately it's almost 1000, if it was only a few I'd be happy to have them on my new build.

 

[Weaselboy]

Unfortunately it's almost 1000, if it was only a few I'd be happy to have them on my new build.

It is not a perfect solution, but what you could do is export (Mailbox menu) the folder(s) to a MBOX file using the export option. Then if you need access to those messages, you could import them into Mail for access.