Timeline for How can I do an actual clone of the Mail app and data to a new Mac?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
15 events
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| Dec 3, 2023 at 15:23 | comment | added | Tango | @nohillside I tried it on two different migrations over the past several months and one issue was that I did not want my entire user folder copied. Migration Assistant does not provide fine control over what to transfer. (On one Mac, I had VPN issues from a bad VPN package I had installed then uninstalled by their own directions - I never could find all the files from that and had continued issues for 6 months after it was supposedly 100% removed.) I had to result to copying by hand, as you indicate, and that took ours of copying and there were issues updating the data from an older version. | |
| Dec 1, 2023 at 19:17 | comment | added | nohillside♦ | Migration Assistant allows to restrict transfer to your user folder, which will copy ~/Library/Mail and any related preferences to the new Mac and also takes care of any format conversions between older and newer version of Mail.app. The other approach I would try is to temporarily copy all local/POP3 folders into one of the IMAP accounts, set everything up on the new Mac, wait for the IMAP sync to complete and move the folders back to local. | |
| Dec 1, 2023 at 18:53 | comment | added | Tango | @nohillside Did you read the post? I addressed that and how there are issues with it. | |
| Nov 30, 2023 at 6:37 | comment | added | nohillside♦ | Did you try with Migration Assistant? | |
| Sep 27, 2023 at 16:20 | comment | added | Tango | @Barmar No, tried rsync. It copies everything over, but when I run the new Mail program, the mail may be there, but all in just one folder. That's why I didn't rely on just ~/Library/Application Support/Mail. I found one article reference, I think, ~/Library/PRefereneces/com.apple.mail. So I used find to get a list of ANY file in the tree under ~/Library that had "com.apple.mail" in it and used rsync to copy each of those files and directories to the new system. So even when I copy a file that appears to have the folder structure, and copied all the emails, the structure just isn't there. | |
| Sep 26, 2023 at 14:49 | comment | added | Barmar |
@Tango rsync should preserve the folder hierarchy. Or if use file sharing, drag and drop in Finder should work.
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| Sep 26, 2023 at 14:47 | comment | added | Barmar | @MikeScott I also wouldn't advise it. Since Mail.app is not installable separately from the OS, it's very likely to have OS version dependencies. | |
| Sep 26, 2023 at 12:29 | comment | added | Mike Scott | @Barmar The Macs may be running different MacOS versions, which means they’ll have different Mail programs. While I wouldn’t advise copying the Mail program from a different MacOS version, that seems to be what is being requested. | |
| Sep 26, 2023 at 12:24 | history | edited | Tango | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 512 characters in body
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| Sep 26, 2023 at 12:20 | comment | added | Tango | @Barmar: I mention that, but I can also see someone copying it if they deleted it or messed it up. Also, I found the folder structure, but could not find a way to copy it, along with all the folders, in one shot. At this point, I can export one or more folders, but on import, they are not kept in the same order or organizational hierarchy. | |
| Sep 25, 2023 at 18:58 | comment | added | Barmar |
I think the folder structure is all in ~/Library/Mail/
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| Sep 25, 2023 at 18:55 | comment | added | Barmar | Why would you need to copy the "actual Mail program". It's already installed on all Macs. | |
| Sep 23, 2023 at 17:40 | comment | added | Tango | @mmmmmm I address that under point #2. For IMAP, that works, but for POP, it's a major pain. | |
| Sep 23, 2023 at 12:25 | comment | added | mmmmmm | If all the mail is on IMAP then the folders will be there as well. You can check that if the mail server also has a web front end and use that to see the structure. If on POP then copy to IMAP servers in your original Mail.app | |
| Sep 22, 2023 at 23:56 | history | asked | Tango | CC BY-SA 4.0 |