How to Move Apple Mail Settings and Email on a Mac

Moving email settings from one Apple Macintosh computer to another requires a bit of legwork. Since Mail (also called Mail.app or Apple Mail) doesn't have a built-in export feature, you'll have to locate two separate files to copy over to the other Mac. Here is how.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Two Apple Macintosh computers running Mac OS X
• A USB thumb drive, a blank CD-R or a network connection

1. 

   Click the Finder icon on the dock to launch a new Finder window.

2. 

   Navigate to your account's "Library" folder in Mac OS X's Finder. Under "Places" click your username (the one with the house icon) and then click "Library." You can also do this by selecting "Go" from the Finder's top menu and then "Go to Folder." Type in "~/Library" (without the quotes) and it will open up the Library folder.

3. 

   Find the "Mail" folder.

4. Copy the entire "Mail" folder onto a storage device (USB thumb drive, CD-R) or transfer it over the network to the same place (User:Library) on the other Macintosh computer.

5. 

   Go to the "Preferences" folder in the "Library" and locate the "com.apple.mail.plist" file. You can navigate there using the Finder window or select "Go" from the top menu of the Finder, click on "Go to Folder" and type in "~/Library/Preferences/" (without the quotes) in the prompt.

6. Copy the "com.apple.mail.plist" file onto your storage device (USB thumb drive, CD-R) or copy it directly to the User:Library:Preferences folder on the other computer over the network. "User" is your user account name.

7. Plug in the USB thumb drive or insert the CD-R into the optical drive on the other Macintosh computer if you haven't transferred the files over the network.

8. Move the "com.apple.mail.plist" file to the User:Library:Preferences folder of the other Mac. "User" is your user account name.

9. Move the Mail folder to the User:Library folder on the other Mac.

10. Launch Mail.app. Now your settings and email should be the same as the old Mac. If not, make sure both the Mail folder and the "com.apple.mail.plist" file are in the correct places.

Tips & Warnings

• You can also use these steps to back up your email and settings. Instead of transferring and moving the files, just back them up to a disk or another portable hard drive.

[alexiapetrakos]

on 12/20/2008 @thered2001 - nope, this was only for Mail settings. Address book is a completely separate program :)

[thered2001]

on 12/17/2008 Unfortunately, the above doesn't move the address book entries (at least in 10.5.6).

[gilbz]

on 6/5/2008 did every step as per instruction above. it worked, and i now started receiving emails in my new mac. however, when i try to compose new messages, i can send it out because the "send" button is inactive. any advise re this problem?

[momandpopoften]

on 5/31/2008 Very helpful article. Thanks!