10.5: Mail.app now exports to mbox format

Dec 03, '07 07:30:02AM

Contributed by: zecompadre

Not sure how much of a "hint" this is, more like hidden thing. It might just not be obvious from Apple's terminology, but the mailbox "Archive" functionality mentioned in the 300+ features...

Archive Mailbox
Create an archive of your mailbox to back up important messages or to transfer your mail to another computer.
... is in fact an export to plain-old mbox format! From Mail's own help topic on "Archiving mailboxes:"
Mail archives the mailboxes as .mbox packages. If you've already archived a mailbox, Mail does not overwrite the existing file but appends a number to the filename to create a new version of it.

If you need to restore messages, you can import an archived .mbox file as "Mail for Mac OS X."
I've "tested" it successfully, and it also works with RSS feeds with the "Archive Feed" item (in both the contextual and Mailbox menus).

[robg adds: So now there's another method of mbox export, in addition to this one.]

Comments (5)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20071117063331802