New M1MAX set up as new - migrate mail options

[likegadgets]

I set up a brand new M1 MAX MBP with a clean install. I did not do migration assistant - after many years there is too much garbage and some corruption that transfers that prevents the proper functioning of some apps (that reinstalling does not solve)

I managed to reinstall the apps I need. I moved all the Data I need - except for years of emails(thousands). Other than migration assistance, there does not appear to be a procedure to move the mail manually. (I wish migration assistant would have a module to move only the email)

I have dozens of mailboxes, and several mail accounts that are POP3. I can recreate the POP 3 accounts but it is my historical email and the mailboxes that contain it that I am trying to migrate. I tried the export all mailboxes via a USB drive. The import fails after partial import. Does not say why. The mailboxes imported to "On My Mac" section do not have the names correct. I called Apple, as helpful as the rep was, he knew much less than me. I searched all over - there are some ideas but none recent or convincing. I do not need the settings for the accounts - those I can easily add manually - but the emails, attachments I need to import. I would also like to migrate the rules (in the good all days they would sync with iCloud, but no more). Migration assistance is out of the question. I suspect there must be a method to achieve migrating email from a MAC to a MAC. The older MAC is fairly new, both are running the latest OS version on Monterey. Anyone has some ideas or links to a process? Thanks

 

[Mike Boreham]

You could try exporting archives of the old mailboxes, then importing the archives to new mac?

You could also use a third party app like Mailsteward to create a searchable portable archive of all your mail on your old Mac and move it the new one.

I moved all my old POP mail onto iCloud/IMAP some years ago, and now when I get a new computer I sign in and it all downloads. I have backup archives as well.

IMHO fresh install and manual transfer of data is more risky that letting Migration Assistant do it properly.

Have you seen this article ?

Welcome to your new M1/M1 Pro/ M1 Max Mac

 

[BrianBaughn]

The first thing I'll mention is that if you have any "corrupted" emails in those archive mail folders it may cause an issue during any process you use. There have been times when I had to move that stuff in groups to pinpoint a single, corrupted email that would stall the process.

Do you have an idea of how many GB this unsynced email uses? These days I like the idea of NO email that resides only on the Mac…so what you might be able to do is create a new, free email account somewhere and, on the old machine, move the archived email to the new account. Once it uploads, all you have to do is add the account to the new Mac.

 

[likegadgets]

You could try exporting archives of the old mailboxes, then importing the archives to new mac?

You could also use a third party app like Mailsteward to create a searchable portable archive of all your mail on your old Mac and move it the new one.

I moved all my old POP mail onto iCloud/IMAP some years ago, and now when I get a new computer I sign in and it all downloads. I have backup archives as well.

IMHO fresh install and manual transfer of data is more risky that letting Migration Assistant do it properly.

Have you seen this article ?

Welcome to your new M1/M1 Pro/ M1 Max Mac

 

[likegadgets]

You could try exporting archives of the old mailboxes, then importing the archives to new mac?

You could also use a third party app like Mailsteward to create a searchable portable archive of all your mail on your old Mac and move it the new one.

I moved all my old POP mail onto iCloud/IMAP some years ago, and now when I get a new computer I sign in and it all downloads. I have backup archives as well.

IMHO fresh install and manual transfer of data is more risky that letting Migration Assistant do it properly.

Have you seen this article ?

Welcome to your new M1/M1 Pro/ M1 Max Mac

Thanks for the links and suggestions

 

[likegadgets]

The first thing I'll mention is that if you have any "corrupted" emails in those archive mail folders it may cause an issue during any process you use. There have been times when I had to move that stuff in groups to pinpoint a single, corrupted email that would stall the process.

Do you have an idea of how many GB this unsynced email uses? These days I like the idea of NO email that resides only on the Mac…so what you might be able to do is create a new, free email account somewhere and, on the old machine, move the archived email to the new account. Once it uploads, all you have to do is add the account to the new Mac.

Thanks for the tips

 

[likegadgets]

You could try exporting archives of the old mailboxes, then importing the archives to new mac?

You could also use a third party app like Mailsteward to create a searchable portable archive of all your mail on your old Mac and move it the new one.

I moved all my old POP mail onto iCloud/IMAP some years ago, and now when I get a new computer I sign in and it all downloads. I have backup archives as well.

IMHO fresh install and manual transfer of data is more risky that letting Migration Assistant do it properly.

Have you seen this article ?

Welcome to your new M1/M1 Pro/ M1 Max Mac

I ended up recreating the POP accounts - and though it took time, I exported and then imported each of the mailboxes, one by one, so I could keep track of these. Thanks for your suggestion. After migration assistant updates through several Macs and OS releases, I had a couple of corrupted apps that could no longer be repaired. Even deleting these and reinstalling would not fix the issue - both their support and Apple suggested a clean install on a new OS installation. The migration assistant was the 1st thing I did, but the problems transferred to the new Mac, which I the erased and started clean. I also had a lot of stuff that was un-needed. The old system had more than 1TB of stuff and the new one with everything I need, is less than half. After reading similar frustrations transferring mail from Mac to Mac, I don't know why Apple would not just a have a setting in migration assistant or a tool to just transfer mail. I looked at Mailsteward and looks like a good tool and not too expensive, I just do not want to have my historical email on a proprietary tool that will likely require upgrade after upgrade with each OS upgrade release. Again thanks for the tips - they were very helpful

 

[BrianBaughn]

That's great…and I still recommend moving any mail that's not in an IMAP or Exchange account to one of those…a new one if necessary. That would eliminate the necessity of going through this again.

 

[MacGizmo]

I just move the Mail folder from within the ~/Library folder to the new install. It contains everything in Mail (you will likely still have to enter passwords for the account when you launch though).

 

[likegadgets]

I just move the Mail folder from within the ~/Library folder to the new install. It contains everything in Mail (you will likely still have to enter passwords for the account when you launch though).

What sou say makes sense. However, when researching the issue I read some postings with the process you describe and also discussed with Apple support. There were some warnings of incomplete transfers and corruption by just moving the library folder. But I guess with a proper backup it would have been worth trying this. Thanks.

 

[MacGizmo]

Not the Library folder itself... that's bad. Go into the Library folder and only move the Mail folder. I've been doing this since 2001 with a lot of Macs and never had a single issue.

 

[likegadgets]

Not the Library folder itself... that's bad. Go into the Library folder and only move the Mail folder. I've been doing this since 2001 with a lot of Macs and never had a single issue.

Thanks