Mail never finishes "Preparing to import messages"

I just upgraded from OSX 10.2.8 to 10.4.5. Mail was
working fine under 10.2.8 but now after upgrading that
system it just sits on "±Preparing to import messages".
It sat that way for about 3 hours.

The conversion from Mail 1.x to Mail 2.0 is broken. Take a look at this thread to better understand the problem:
Help! "You need to take this account online in order to download it."
Although it talks about Panther, the conversion issues are likely the same. Since you haven't started using Mail on Tiger yet, your best bet IMO would be to tidy up your mailboxes in Mac OS X 10.2.8 first, using a copy of your mail database that Mail 2.0 hasn't touched yet, if that's still an option.

Similar Messages

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    I  performed an update some weeks back which seemingly included an upgrade from mail 4.5 to 4.6.... Since then each time I try and launch mail i get the "welcome to mail" where i have to click to import messages to benefit from all these new features.....  Needless to say mail never opens as the preparing to import messages window just sits there. And the messages never import which is now really annoying!
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    I found this on the forum which did the trick..
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    Hello,
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      0   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff972c264c __exceptionPreprocess + 172
      1   libobjc.A.dylib                     0x00007fff8d1966de objc_exception_throw + 43
      2   CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff972c242a +[NSException raise:format:arguments:] + 106
      3   Foundation                          0x00007fff92f485b9 -[NSAssertionHandler handleFailureInMethod:object:file:lineNumber:description:] + 195
      4   Mail                                0x00007fff9760147e -[MFIMAPAccount _IMAPMailboxForMailbox:name:createIfNeeded:] + 219
      5   Mail                                0x00007fff97601350 -[MFIMAPAccount IMAPMailboxForMailbox:createIfNeeded:] + 91
      6   Mail                                0x00007fff97662699 -[MFLibraryIMAPStore initWithCriterion:mailbox:readOnly:] + 569
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      9   Mail                                0x000000010d3d8624 Mail + 1857060
      10  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff9719b33c __invoking___ + 140
      11  CoreFoundation                      0x00007fff9719b192 -[NSInvocation invoke] + 290
      12  MailCore                            0x00007fff952a30cc -[MCMonitoredInvocation invoke] + 242
      13  MailCore                            0x00007fff952cd1d4 -[MCThrowingInvocationOperation main] + 48
      14  MailCore                            0x00007fff9525571d -[_MCInvocationOperation main] + 426
      15  Foundation                          0x00007fff92e5d59c -[__NSOperationInternal _start:] + 653
      16  Foundation                          0x00007fff92e5d1a3 __NSOQSchedule_f + 184
      17  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff937b6c13 _dispatch_client_callout + 8
      18  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff937ba365 _dispatch_queue_drain + 1100
      19  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff937bbecc _dispatch_queue_invoke + 202
      20  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff937b96b7 _dispatch_root_queue_drain + 463
      21  libdispatch.dylib                   0x00007fff937c7fe4 _dispatch_worker_thread3 + 91
      22  libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x00007fff92e4e6cb _pthread_wqthread + 729
      23  libsystem_pthread.dylib             0x00007fff92e4c4a1 start_wqthread + 13
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  • Mail is stuck at Preparing to Import Messages

    Mail is stuck at Preparing to Import Messages

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    Best Regards
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  • Upgrade from Panther: Mail - "Preparing to import messages", 10 minutes now

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  • "Preparing to Import Messages"

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