Please help me switch from MM to Gmail IMAP

[badlydrawnboy]

I've been switching back and forth between using MM and Gmail as my primary mail account for a few years. When I had Gmail set up as the primary account, I'd set up MM to forward mail I received at that address to Gmail - and vice versa. I've decided to switch to Gmail again and gradually phase out my MM address over the next year.

I know how to set Gmail IMAP up with Mail.app. My question is how to retain all of my archived messages from both MM and Gmail when I make the switch. I've had Gmail forwarding to MM for the past 1.5 years, and I have a rule set up so that every message I receive at MM is copied to a folder called "Archive". So every message I've received at the Gmail address over the past year should be stored on the MM server. There are also 1.5 years worth of messages I received directly to my MM address, although this is a much smaller number because I don't advertise that address publicly.

If I simply switch to Gmail without dragging any messages from the MM Archive folder, I'll retain all of the Gmail mail for the past 1.5 years. However, I would lose all of the MM mail during that period. BUT, if I drag all of the messages from the MM Archive folder to Gmail, won't I end up with duplicates of all of the Gmail messages (since there is already a copy of the Gmail messages on the Gmail server, and I'd be adding another copy of each Gmail message that was forwarded from Gmail to MM)?

Is this making sense? Any ideas?

 

[swiftaw]

Create a smart mailbox with instructions that the mail is in the archive mailbox and that it does not feature your gmail address. Then, copy the contents of this smart mailbox to your gmail mailbox.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Thanks for your reply.

I see that in the "To" field of the messages sent to my Gmail account that forwarded to MM it actually lists three addresses: myaddress@mac.com, myaddress@me.com and myaddress@gmail.com.

I tried creating a smart mailbox with the following rule: Any Recipient Does Not Contain myaddress@gmail.com. However, that doesn't seem to work. It does pick up messages that don't contain myaddress@gmail.com, but it also includes the Gmail-forwarded messages that have all three addresses (including myaddress@gmail.com) in the "To" field.

It seems like this rule should work, but I don't know why it isn't. I did some research and it seems that smart mailboxes with "negative" conditions (i.e. "Does not contain") are buggy and don't work well.

I could create a smart mailbox with a "positive" condition to capture all of the email that DOES contain the Gmail address, but I don't see how that would help me isolate and then upload the MM email.

 

[swiftaw]

Thanks for your reply.

I see that in the "To" field of the messages sent to my Gmail account that forwarded to MM it actually lists three addresses: myaddress@mac.com, myaddress@me.com and myaddress@gmail.com.

I tried creating a smart mailbox with the following rule: Any Recipient Does Not Contain myaddress@gmail.com. However, that doesn't seem to work. It does pick up messages that don't contain myaddress@gmail.com, but it also includes the Gmail-forwarded messages that have all three addresses (including myaddress@gmail.com) in the "To" field.

It seems like this rule should work, but I don't know why it isn't. I did some research and it seems that smart mailboxes with "negative" conditions (i.e. "Does not contain") are buggy and don't work well.

I could create a smart mailbox with a "positive" condition to capture all of the email that DOES contain the Gmail address, but I don't see how that would help me isolate and then upload the MM email.

Create a smart mailbox that DOES contain the gmail address as you described. Then, create another smart mailbox with the condition that the message is in the archive mailbox, but not in the other smart mailbox you created.

 

[badlydrawnboy]

Great idea, thanks!