moving mails from 10.2 and 9.1 to 10.4 doesn't work as advised

[Cox Orange]

I use Macs for ten years, but started moving my old mails to my main machine just yet.

If I connect the 10.2/9.1 Mac via firewire with the 10.4 Mac and open mail in 10.4 and choose the migration option a dialogue opens, which wants me to choose the mail program, of which I want to import its mails. They are Mail in 10.2 and Outlook Express in OS 9.1. I choose them and click on "forward" (Fortfahren). Then I would have to choose the actual Application, but Mail and Outlook is "greyed out", I can't choose them.

Any suggestions?

This didn't work as well:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2006032610435751
http://www.procata.com/blog/archive...-mac-os-x-application-data-between-computers/
http://www.wulffeld.org/blog/2007/11/13/manually-migrating-mail-on-os-x

 

[7on]

On the original machines just set up a imap account (gmail is free) and Drag and drop your old mail into gmail. Let it sync, and then setup that new account on your new mac (I recommend POP). Then after the mail downloads drag and drop that into your Account where your current account lies.

 

[Cox Orange]

Thanks!
ok, this will include establishing an Ethernet connection under OS 9.1 to get Outlook Express communicate with the internet. I did not do this since 7 years ago or so, I remember when I tried to do this out of curiosity again a few months ago it failed... but I will try again tomorrow.

 

[Makosuke]

For reference, Mail is offering to import from Outlook, not Outlook Express; they're completely different programs with completely different mailbox formats. Worse, Express is notorious for being hard to get stuff out of on any platform.

Two additional tips:

One, the IMAP shuffle (suggested by 7on) is probably your best bet if you can get the internet connection working, but be SURE to back up the Outlook Express folder first, in case something goes wrong, so you can revert to your non-IMAP configuration without losing any mail.

Two, if you just can't get the network going, there is another option: Download a copy of Eudora for Classic; it has a free version, and should be able to import Outlook Express email (it's also possible that the somewhat newer OSX version of Eudora 6.2.4 can import Outlook Express email; I've never tried).

Once that's done, move Eudora's mail folder over to the OSX Mac, and if you're lucky Mail will be able to import directly from there (Eudora Mac uses a relatively universal mailbox format). If the import fails, you can add in Eudora Mailbox Cleaner, a tool that will help with the import process.