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I have two OS X machines running Snow Leopard, a laptop and a desktop. I have saved mail messages on my laptop that I'd like to move to my desktop. However, the obvious method—copying ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/Saved Items/ and …Saved Items.mbox to ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes—doesn't work right. After I did this, I can see the folders on the left side of Mail.app, but none of the messages show up at all in the message list at the top of Mail.

Funny thing is, I can see these messages just fine if I enter relevant search terms into Spotlight.

What's the minimum amount of files that I need to copy from my laptop to my desktop if I want these e-mails to show up in Mail.app? I'd rather avoid obliterating copying over other settings if at all possible.

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  • Did you just copy it or did you import it? Spotlight will index it because it's just text with some Base64 thrown in.
    – user10547
    Oct 1, 2009 at 1:18
  • Copy via Finder.
    – user1744
    Oct 1, 2009 at 1:36

2 Answers 2

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For backing up Mail, and your mail configuration, the simplest thing is:

  1. Copy ~/Library/Mail to the new computer, and place it in the same location
  2. Copy ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist to the new computer, and place it in the same location
  3. Start Mail.app

If you just want to backup a particular mail folder, just right click on the mailbox, and choose "Archive Mailbox". Choose a destination, and probably you'll want to click on "Archive Subfolders".

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    +1 for Archive Mailbox. Just to complete the process, at the new machine do File / Import Mailboxes Oct 1, 2009 at 5:25
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    You might also want to copy ~/Library/Mail Downloads/ Jan 11, 2010 at 21:24
  • ~/Library/Mail Downloads/, is only used for temporary files. For example, you open an attachment in MS Word. The attachment is copied to ~/Library/Mail Downloads, and then opened... So only a small fraction of your attachments will be in there... Jan 12, 2010 at 0:30
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You could try selecting the new (empty) Saved Items mailbox and do Mailbox > Rebuild

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