Store mail (on mac) using external hard drive

[truz]

I have not explored the Mail client on macos, my questions is.. Can you store your incoming mail (inbox) on an external hard drive? Does Mail allow you to save email to folders and link folders to another location such as an external hard drive?

 

[mad jew]

There is an option to change the location of an account's messages in Mail's Preferences however it is greyed out for me. I think this is because it is an IMAP account, but I could be wrong. 🙂

 

[truz]

My account is pop3 and it's the same way.

 

[mad jew]

Interesting. I've been having a look around the 'net and can't figure out how to ungrey (if that's a word) this option. 😱

 

[jsw]

For the brave:

(0) Close Mail if it's running.

(1) Go to to your Library folder (~/Library, not the main system Library).

(2) Archive the Mail folder. Move Mail.zip somewhere safe.

(3) Copy ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist to somewhere safe as well.

(4) Open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist (it'll open in Property List Editor).

(5) Change all occurrences of ~/Library/Mail (anything that starts with that) to wherever you're going to move your Mail folder (like "/Volumes/External\ HD/NewMailLocation") and save.

(6) Move your Mail folder to that location you specified.

(7) Start up Mail again.

If it doesn't work, unzip the Mail.zip file back into ~/Library and copy back the previous com.apple.mail.plist file (copy, not move, so you'll still have a backup, just in case).

 

[mad jew]

So jsw, do you know why the option is there to move it from within the Preferences but it's greyed out? 😕

 

[jsw]

So jsw, do you know why the option is there to move it from within the Preferences but it's greyed out? 😕

I have no idea. Seems odd. I just know the info's buried in the .plist file, but I wonder why it's exposed to the user but grayed out.

 

[imacintel]

I just make a new folder, copy+paste all mail messages to that folder and copy that folder to where you want it including a burn folder or external disk.🙂

 

[n-abounds]

Couldn't you just do the same thing like some people do with iTunes- as in move the files to an external harddrive, and make an alias of it. Then put that alias in the Mail folder, and remove the "alias" part of the filename?