Mail and back up

gulliver

Registered
Perhaps I missed something in the Apple Mail help files, but...

How do I easily save my mail and prefs for easy re-install or move to another machine? With Outlook Express on OS9 it was simple to dive into the 'documents' folder and extract 'identities' - anything similar on Mail?

UPDATE... Can I just do User>Library>Mail and drag that whole folder - or are there additional prefs etc?

ANOTHER UPDATE...

I found this:

Backing Up Mailboxes
Copy the Mail folder in your Library folder or create a .mbox file.
To restore the Mail folder, choose File > Import Mailboxes. Select Mail for Mac OS X, and locate the Mail folder that you backed up.

Creating a .Mbox File
To create a .mbox file with only some of your messages, select the messages, and choose File > Save As. In the Format pop-up menu, choose Raw Message Source. Then enter a name and save the file.
To restore your mail, choose File > Import Mailboxes. Select Other, and locate the folder containing the .mbox files.

Backing Up Mail Account Settings and Addresses
To back up your addresses and account settings locate and make copies of:
1)The com.apple.mail.plist file in ~/Library/Preferences. This file stores the preferences you set in Mail Preferences.
2) Open Address Book and choose File > Back up Database. Enter a name and save the file.
 
The last part you posted will take care of your account settings and contacts, but in addition, back up the ~/Library/Main folder as well and all your mailboxes and messages will be backed up as well.

If you ever need to reformat your hard drive and restore the Mail settings, it will make things MUCH easier to restore if you use the same long username, short username and password when you reconfigure OS X.
 
If you have .Mac, you can sync your desktop mail with the webmail. And you can backup using Backup.
 
Thanks for the help, all. Appreciated.
In the process of swapping things, I also switched to Thunderbird - wonder if that's good or not.
 
Back
Top