Where does Apple Mail store its mail?

[davidlv]

Switched to Apple Mail, concerned about backing up the mail folder or database, whatever format it's in. Where is this data stored?
I managed to import all my mail from Powermail, now I just have to make sure I can back it up.

 

[waynep]

Mine is in ~/Library/Mail . . Since I am using gmail and IMAP, I don't back it up. It's all sync'd to gmail.

 

[davidlv]

Mine is in ~/Library/Mail . . Since I am using gmail and IMAP, I don't back it up. It's all sync'd to gmail.

Thanks! That's the same here, but as I use POP and like to keep the mail backed up on an external drive. I would also like to sync my MBP and a new 2011 Mac Mini. I will try copying the folder over to the Mini and see if that works (the Mini is running Lion, and the MBP is on SL, so it may or may not work).

 

[monokakata]

Before I got tired of synching and switched all my mail accounts to IMAP, I used Chronosync to keep my Mac Pro and MBP mail stores synched.

It worked well enough but sometimes (as when returning from a long trip) it was tedious. I like Chronosynch, but it's not free.

If you do the synching manually, don't forget to duplicate the mail preferences in Preferences (com.apple.mail.plist) because some of your account material is stored there.

 

[davidlv]

Before I got tired of synching and switched all my mail accounts to IMAP, I used Chronosync to keep my Mac Pro and MBP mail stores synched.

It worked well enough but sometimes (as when returning from a long trip) it was tedious. I like Chronosynch, but it's not free.

If you do the synching manually, don't forget to duplicate the mail preferences in Preferences (com.apple.mail.plist) because some of your account material is stored there.

Thanks for the reminder, will do.
I just tried to sync from the SL MBP to the Lion Mac Mini and everything seems OK (copied the preferences file and the ~/Library/Mail folder over and it worked).
Mail looks a lot better on Lion, at least for my old eyes.
Unfortunately can't change to IMAP, my ISP only has POP, and I don't really like Google mail. However, the internet (fiber optics) is really fast (100Mbits down and up), more than offsetting the limited mail settings. The internet infrastructure here in Japan is very good, and not really expensive either, about 60-70 USA$/month for unlimited data transfers. Real data transfer speed varies from time to time, usually 65Mbit down and 40-50Mbits/sec up.
That is within Japan, connections to other countries vary widely.