I have some precious emails in my Hotmail account from someone who is now deceased. I want to move them onto my Macbook and onto some some form of external storage as they are so important to me. I read somewhere it must be done via Apple mail. I have tried this but only emails in my inbox appeared; the other folders didn't. Can anyone help please? I am not an expert where computers are concerned so please keep it simple.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Precious Emails
- Thread starter Sez
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
You could try forwarding them to a separate account?
Of course, if you're really wanting them for long-term storage, the only good solution is to copy the emails into plain text. Plain text files open up just as good today as they did 25 years ago, and EVERY operating system can view plain text files, and likely computer systems 25 years into the future will be able to read plain text as well. There aren't "encoding issues" or version incompatibilities like you'd get from a word document. The text files themselves end up only being a few kilobytes. It's cross platform, too so if you are ever forced to switch from Mac, you can be sure that Linux, Unix, DOS, Solaris, Windows, ChromeOS, iOS, Android, WebOS, Windows Phone, etc, will be able to read the text file.
You can just copy all of the text to a TextEdit (on Mac) or Notepad (on Windows) document and call it "emails from grandma.txt" or whatever. Include dates and times, replies and anything else that you want to have saved (you probably don't need email headers, etc).
If it's that important to you, plain text really is the only solution.
Of course, if you're really wanting them for long-term storage, the only good solution is to copy the emails into plain text. Plain text files open up just as good today as they did 25 years ago, and EVERY operating system can view plain text files, and likely computer systems 25 years into the future will be able to read plain text as well. There aren't "encoding issues" or version incompatibilities like you'd get from a word document. The text files themselves end up only being a few kilobytes. It's cross platform, too so if you are ever forced to switch from Mac, you can be sure that Linux, Unix, DOS, Solaris, Windows, ChromeOS, iOS, Android, WebOS, Windows Phone, etc, will be able to read the text file.
You can just copy all of the text to a TextEdit (on Mac) or Notepad (on Windows) document and call it "emails from grandma.txt" or whatever. Include dates and times, replies and anything else that you want to have saved (you probably don't need email headers, etc).
If it's that important to you, plain text really is the only solution.
Sounds like you are accessing your Hotmail through POP access. I would check if Hotmail is accessible through IMAP. If it is, then the additional folder should show up.
If there is no IMAP access for Hotmail, then:
If there is no IMAP access for Hotmail, then:
- In the web interface, COPY the email to your Inbox.
- In the web interface, find an option to mark the email as Unread.
- Check for mail in Apple Mail.
- Move the email to a local storage folder. You can create a new local mailbox in Apple Mail.
- Try this with a test email first!
If you have hotmail synced to outlook on your mac or PC. You can simply copy and paste the emails into any folder on any drive you like.
As the previous poster said though. Safest option is to copy them into plain text and save them that way. Maybe save the files in a few different locations ie: on your hard drive, external hard drive and somewhere in the cloud just in case your hard drives get destroyed. Its always best to have an off site backup.
As the previous poster said though. Safest option is to copy them into plain text and save them that way. Maybe save the files in a few different locations ie: on your hard drive, external hard drive and somewhere in the cloud just in case your hard drives get destroyed. Its always best to have an off site backup.