Import Mail accounts without Migration Assistant?

Question

Migration Assistant won't let me migrate because the source account is much larger than the space on the target Mac's HDD.
Two Leopard Macs, connected via Firewire.
So I copied over the Mail folder in ~/Library. Then I imported the mailboxes (Mail.app -> File -> Import Mailboxes).
But that just puts a mishmash of Sent/Deleted/etc. folders in Mail's sidebar, it doesn't actually create the accounts. I have 5 mail accounts containing 6GB worth of mail, if that matters.
Any thoughts?

Answer 1

In addition to the /Home/Library/Mail/ folder you also must copy the /Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist preference file.
Now, because you've done all this mailbox importing (not necessary) you should delete the /Home/Library/Mail/ folder on your new computer and re-copy the folder from your old machine along with the above preference file. Then when you open Mail everything should be present.
Of course if your mail accounts are all IMAP and you leave mail on the server, then all you have to do is recreate the accounts in Mail (no need to copy your mail folder if everything is stored on the mail servers.)
If you need to move other data:
Folders You Can Move to Your new Mac
From the Home folder copy the contents of Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites.
In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
If you want cookies:
/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
For Entourage users:
Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
For FireFox:
/Home/Library/Applications Support/FireFox
/Home/Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist
Credit goes to another forum user for this information.
Message was edited by: Kappy