How to import email in Mail from Time Machine to Lion

My laptop, which had Leopard OS, was stolen. Fortunately, I have a Time Machine backup. I used that to install on my new laptop which has Lion (10.7.4). In Mail, my folders show up, but not the email in them. How do I get the email from Time Machine? (Current email is working. That is, email since I got the new laptop.)

Don't try to restore the file; restore the Note. Go in Mail to the mailbox where the note belongs. Enter Time Machine from there and step back until you find the Note.

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How to restore Emails to Mail from Time Machine?

Does anyone know how I restore my Mail contents?
I have restored my User to a Mac mini from Time Machine.
But my Mail contents were not restored.
I have not been able to find any intructions to restore my Mail contents.

Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.
Back up all data. That means you know you can restore the Mail database, no matter what happens.
Triple-click the text on the line below to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope Index
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder
from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens (command-V), then press return.
A Finder window will open with a file selected. Move the selected file to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have names that begin with "Envelope Index". Move those files, if any, to the Trash.
Log out and log back in. Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is corrupt and that Mail has to quit. Click OK.
Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the file you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

How restore aol sent mac mail from time machine?

I am using mac mail and an imap connection to aol. I also have a time capsule and use time machine for backing up. Yesterday I stopped receiving incoming mail in mac mail and tried deleting the aol account in mac mail and then setting it up fresh. I was shocked to find that my 25,000 AOL sent emails did not restore! I was told by an apple genius bar rep several months ago that once mail was on my machine that the emails would NEVER be lost. Apparently this is not true. When I open mac mail and go into my time capsule using time machine, however, do not see the SENT mail icon under AOL--it goes away? When I try to restore the aol mail from the day before the incident the only thing that comes up is the one Sent Mail mssg that I sent AFTER the deleting and restoring of my AOL account in mac mail. The only relevant post I have found is the one below which was posted in 2008. Please let me know there is a way to get back my sent messages. I can't get them directly from the aol server because the server does not save messages that are sent from any client but AOL. Thanks.
http://raffyjohn.com/2008/01/29/restoring-apple-mail-and-your-emails-from-time-m achine/
Restoring Apple Mail and Your Emails from Time Machine
filed under: How-To tags: mail, timemachine Tuesday, January 29, 2008, 11:31 am
UPDATE (25 August 2010): Please note that this post is well over 2 years old and as Tim pointed out in the comments below, this method may not be the best solution for restoring emails. According to his restore efforts, changes where made to the timestamp from the date in which they were received to the date in which they were restored. I have not tested this myself.
The hard drive on my PowerBook completely died the other day, but I luckily had been running Time Machine backups since upgrading to Leopard. (I wasn’t all that ****** off seeing as I was eager for an excuse to replace my wimpy 40Gb hard drive with a new 160Gb drive). I fumbled a bit, looking for a specific Apple Mail restore tool. I knew where all my emails lived, but I thought that Apple would have a specific means for restoring apps like Mail. So I created this mini-tutorial on how to restore Apple Mail from Time Machine simply because I could not find this method elsewhere.
Supposedly, If you attach your Time Machine backup drive, open Apple Mail then launch the Time Machine application, you are presented with historical views of Apple Mail. This did not work for me, the historical views were just blank, so the steps below do not take this approach.
Restoring Your Emails from a Time Machine Backup
Warning: If you have already setup Apple Mail with your accounts and preferences, this will negate ALL your doings.
Note: This process will restore all your email accounts, preferences, passwords, smart mailboxes, etc.
The How-To
Before loading Time Machine, open the Finder and navigate to Home Folder (username) -> Library. In there will be a folder name “Mail”. Rename it to “Mail (default)” (Select the folder then hit the Return key to rename).
Mount your Time Machine Backup Drive (ahem, plug it in).
Control + Click the Time Machine Application and chose “Browse Other Time Machine disks…”. This, of course, brings up the historical view of your backups.
Go back to your most recent backup (2nd window back) and navigate to Home Folder (username) -> Library. Select the “Mail” folder and click the restore button (bottom right).
Once the restore is completed, open Apple Mail and you will be presented with an import wizard (below). Simply follow through the prompts and you will be good to go.
That’s it!UPDATE (20-January-2009): After step 4., also restore ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plistThanks Jon C.
If you have multiple mail accounts, you should also restore the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file as well. This will ensure all of your account settings are imported. – Jon C.
Follow me on Twitter here.
40 Comments
Chucho
May 13th, 2008 at 11:11 amThanks it’s a great hint, you should post it in macosxhints.com
Westin
May 19th, 2008 at 3:28 amAwesome content and great instructions even for stupid people like me. Thank you so much for posting this. It worked like a charm and really is appreciated at 2:30 a.m. after hours of reinstalling junk.
Slippery Snake
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 amThis worked. However, I had three email accounts, and it only imported one. My Smart Mailboxes were not imported either.
Jon C
July 30th, 2008 at 2:50 pmIf you have multiple mail accounts, you should also restore the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file as well. This will ensure all of your account settings are imported.
Joseph Hurtado
August 26th, 2008 at 11:23 amRaffy,This tip is worth it’s weight in gold! Thanks so much for posting such a well though out recipe for a Mail Rescue operation.Just put Jon’s advice on the article, that is also very valuable!Take care,Joseph Hurtado
from Toronto
Cory
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:25 amYou saved my life! Thanks!
Drew
January 19th, 2009 at 12:08 amCheers Great tip! Thank you very much for your time!
Lizart
May 23rd, 2012 at 2:00 pmStill working in May of 2012! Thanks so much!
source
May 29th, 2012 at 11:11 amIm getting a teeny problem. I cant get my reader to pick up your feed, Im using bing reader by the way.
Bruno Zysman
May 31st, 2012 at 4:56 pmThanks so much for this tips
I could get back my 170 000 mails in 5 hours thanks to this post, after having tried for few hours without success…Bruno

Don't try to restore the file; restore the Note. Go in Mail to the mailbox where the note belongs. Enter Time Machine from there and step back until you find the Note.

How to remove old backup files from time machine? Lion OSx

Hi everyone,
I am just wondering how to efficiently and safely remove the old backup files from time machine? I tried once with command, but it damaged my extra-disk... Does Lion OSx have fixed that?
Many thanks
Hong

Blue-
Time Machine will automatically delete back-ups as the need for space arises. If you want to delete a certain file (application, document, whatever) and have it gone for good you can do that as well.
The best place on the web for information about Time Machine is...
http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html
...it covers everything!
Clinton

Restore iPhone from Time Machine in Lion

I did a clean install of Lion with only restoring my user settings from Time Machine (Snow Leopard). Now I want to sync my iPhone, but it deletes everything.
So I want to sync it with a backup from Time Machine. I found the files in user/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
But this location doesn't exist at all in Lion! Even worse, user/Library doesn't exist!
So does anybody know how I can restore my iPhone from Time Machine in Lion? Many thanks in advance!

I just restored my desktop calendar by unhiding the library. Then opened another window and put Time Machine in the dock. That way when I started Time Machine the hidden folder stayed open. Then it was just a matter of going back far enough before iCloud deleted stuff. But lots of things were duplicated because they are on both calendars.

HT201250 How can I exclude mail from Time Machine backups?

How can I exclude mail from Time Machine backups?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Mails are stored on ~/Library/Mail, being ~ your user folder. As you are running Snow Leopard, it's easy to exclude your mails from your Time Machine backup.
Open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and add ~/Library/Mail to excluded items, so the next backup won't include mails. Note that you have to go to your user folder, in order to access to this directory

Restore Archived Lion Mail from Time Machine

I deleted a mailbox, thinking I could add it back, and synch with the server. That worked fine, but I forgot that I had archived a whole bunch of mail on that account. Now I want to retrieve the old mail. I have a fresh Time Machine backup. How do I retrieve my archived mail from Time Machine for a deleted account?

If Time Machine was backing up before you deleted the account, you can try to enter Time Machine from
~/Library/Mail. See if the deleted account is in there.

Restore Apple mail from time machine

The configuration of account information accidentally deleted for Apple Mail 4.6. How to retrieve/update this information from Time Machine?

I'm not exactly sure what you are getting at so if my answer doesn't help you progress, I am sorry.
If you first go to Mail and then to that part of mail you wish to review. With the page on your screen, go to dock > Time machine (if that is where you hold it) wait a moment and when the screen activates put your cursor on the date line (to the right). Then scroll upwards to a point in time prior to when your problem appeared.
Clicking on restore should bring the screen to the front and the mail page at that time and date will be available to you.

How to bring my files back from time machine

I just got a new hard drive as the old one broke down .. I installed the snow leopard and then the Lion as i was running before ....
How can i restore the computer from time machine back ups ? i have lots of data in time machine that needs to came back !

To be clear, the Time Machine drive has all your up-to-date data and has OS X Lion on it? Your iMac currently has a new drive with Snow Leopard on it? If so, yes Lion and all your data will end up back on the iMac.
The best instructions, with images to guide you, are Pondini's from point
b) To use an install disk in this link: http://pondini.org/TM/14.html

How do I restore a calendar from time machine?

how do I restore a calendar from time machine?

You can find the solution already discussed here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3944847.
1- restore ~/Library/Calendars from time machine
2- restart in safe mode to clean the caches.

How do I restore printer preferences from time machine in Mountain Lion?

Yesterday I deleted all the printers and and after reinstalling the printer drivers from the printer disc, the printer cannot find the software, so how do retore the printer preferences from time machine?

The printer is a Samsung CLX-3180 series. I have downloaded the printer drivers from Apple:
Samsung Printer Drivers v2.5 for OS X
Then when I go into System preferences to Add the Samsung printer, I get the following message:
"Can't install the software for the Samsung CLX-3180 Series because it is not currently available from the Software Update server." Which I don't understand as i have downloaded the new drivers and the CLX-3180 is listed as a covered printer.

How to recover mail from time machine

I need to recover all my emails - thousands of messages in numerous mailboxes - from Time Machine. What is the best way to do this?

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Open
from the contextual menu.* A folder should open. Inside it are subfolders representing your Mail accounts. The names refer to the email addresses you use.
Enter Time Machine and scroll back to the snapshot you want. Select the account folders you want and then select Restore ... to... from the action menu (gear icon) in the toolbar of the snapshot window. Restore the folders to the Desktop, not to their original location.
From the Mail menu bar, select
File ▹ Import Mailboxes...
Import from the mailboxes in the folders you restored to the Desktop. The imported messages will appear in a new mailbox. Move the ones you want to keep wherever you like and delete the rest. Then delete the folders on the Desktop.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

How to manually retrieve mail messages from time machine in Lion?

I just did a clean reinstall on Lion and want to import things from time machine piecemeal. As far as I know, in order to access the mail documents on the computer's hard drive, in the Finder I need to go to Go-->Go to Folder... and then type ~/Library. Then I have access to the "Mail" folder with the data. How can I access this folder that's on my external harddrive? I don't have the "Go" function and I don't know how to get there manually. My hidden files are shown.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
The best way to restore mails is to use Time Machine.
1. Open System Preferences > Time Machine > Select Disk, select the external disk and see > http://pondini.org/TM/E3.html
2. Open Mail and open Time Machine. Navigate and restore the mails you want

How can I input mails from time machine to my new Mac?

I recently change to a new Apply Air, but having a hard time to find all my mails from the time machine where it usually backup all my files. I also changed from Entourage to Outloook. Please advice how I can input all my old mails.
Thanks,
Ivy

06/2014 ChrisCA post: Restore iTunes library from Time Machine backup - https://discussions.apple.com/message/26104480

How to restore a Note in Mail from Time Machine

I have accidentally deleted some text in a note that I had in Mail (Notes).
Trying to undo didn't work, and I can't find the file to restore it back from Time Machine.
I've tried searching with spotlight but couldn't find anything.
Any ideas of where the saved note would be stored?
Thanks in advance and Happy Thanksgiving

Don't try to restore the file; restore the Note. Go in Mail to the mailbox where the note belongs. Enter Time Machine from there and step back until you find the Note.

How to import email in Mail from Time Machine to Lion

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