[Mail] Separating messages from their account

[Dimwhit]

While I like Mail, some of the things it does drives me crazy. Here's my problem. I'm switching email addresses. I have a ton of old email in the program. If I disable my old account, I disable access to all the email sent to and from that account, which I don't want to do. I could export all the messages and reimport them, but that's a significant pain.

Anyone know of a way that I can disable an email account in Mail but still have access to all my messages?

 

[kkat69]

While I like Mail, some of the things it does drives me crazy. Here's my problem. I'm switching email addresses. I have a ton of old email in the program. If I disable my old account, I disable access to all the email sent to and from that account, which I don't want to do. I could export all the messages and reimport them, but that's a significant pain.

Anyone know of a way that I can disable an email account in Mail but still have access to all my messages?

You mean having multiple emails in iMail but only being able to "send" via the new email and not the old?

If this is what you mean I would be interested as well knowing a solution. I don't have my Mac with me (silly company gave me a windows laptop) or else I'd play with it. Once Leopard hits I think I'm ditching Office for 2 of my email accounts and merging everything with iMail.

 

[mkrishnan]

How are the e-mail stored, AFAIK, disabling the account doesn't effect mail from that account in your saved mail folders.

You could also use this to make the "re-importing them" very easy -- just create one saved folder for each of your network folders (inbox, sent, etc) and move everything into the folder on your Mac. Then you can either leave them there or you can move them back into the network folders of the new e-mail address. That whole process should literally take 3-5 minutes.

 

[arkitect]

That bugs me as well. All received and sent mail linked to an account you disable disappears.
When you enable the account the mail is back, so it doesn't get deleted… it just becomes invisible.

 

[MisterMe]

That bugs me as well. All received and sent mail linked to an account you disable disappears. ...

I think that it has been clearly established that this comment is simply untrue. If your account is POP3, then all of your messages remain on your computer. I have had ISPs change under me, but have never lost a single message because of it. If your account is IMAP, then you have to do a little work before disabling it. Just move your messages to your computer and you are golden.

 

[Dimwhit]

I think that it has been clearly established that this comment is simply untrue. If your account is POP3, then all of your messages remain on your computer.

But if you disable the email account in the Mail prefs, all those message disappear. They're still on your computer, but you can no longer access them in Mail until you re-enable the account.

 

[Dimwhit]

How are the e-mail stored, AFAIK, disabling the account doesn't effect mail from that account in your saved mail folders.

Hmm, that's actually something I didn't notice. If I disable the account, I can still see all the mail in my saved folders. It's just in the Inbox, Trash and Sent mail that it disappears. I might be able to work with that.