Moving mail from one user to another

I am moving from my old iMac to a newer eMac. The eMac had been used by a housemate for Mail, and I have now set up a separate user account for them so they can access this older Mail. However, I am having trouble getting the "Mail" folder into the new user account.
I found it in the first user ~/Library/ and dragged it to the "Shared" user folder. Then I switched to the second user; where I can see it but not open it.
I then tried putting it directly in the MacHD directory, with the same result.
How do I move the info from one user to another?

How does one change ownership of a file?
The only way to do it in the Finder is doing File > Get Info (⌘I), changing the Ownership & Permissions settings, then clicking Apply to enclosed items. Problem is, this changes more than is needed and is not the most appropriate way of doing it.
Alternatively, Terminal can be used to issue a command that changes what must be changed and only that. The exact command to use would depend on what the situation exactly is and what exactly do you want to do, though, which I don’t know yet...
I want to move this out.
(I will later move mine in from another computer).
Not sure what you mean.

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Move Mail from one user to another user on same iMac?

How do I move my Mail (library and preferences) from one user to another user on the same Imac? This way I want to split afterwards the mailaccounts that now sit in one user over the old and the new user by deleting those mailaccounts that I do not want to have in one or the other user account. Appreciate the help.

How do I move my Mail (library and preferences) from one user to another user on the same Imac? This way I want to split afterwards the mailaccounts that now sit in one user over the old and the new user by deleting those mailaccounts that I do not want to have in one or the other user account. Appreciate the help.

Moving files from one user to another

Good afternoon all!
In short I need to create a new user on a MacBook Pro running 10.7 (latest updates available as of this posting). However in the past when I have done this, when I moved the needed files (Photoshop actions, images, etc) over to the new user I kept getting permission errors which makes sense.
So my question is simply, how do I migrate data from one user account to another while either modifying or fixing permission issues?
Thanks!

Copy all the data files into /Users/Share as the old user then log in as the new user and copy the files from /Users/Share to the home folder.

Problems importing mail from one user to another on same computer

Hi,
I work from home so I created a new account on my computer so I could have a personal user and a business user. That way maybe I won't always end up working when I'm trying to relax. So I want to bring all my old work emails over the the new work account. But when I copy the mail files to the new user account and then try to import, the folders all have red circles with minus signs. I gather that this has something to do with permissions, but when I change the owner to the new user, they still have the red circles. I also tried just moving the whole mail folder over to the new user, but it's "read only".
Both users are administrators. I'm running OS 10.4.4.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

Hi Andrew.
What you tried to transfer the Mail folder from one user to the other should have worked, except I believe you didn't properly change ownership of the files and folders involved.
7. open new user Mail
8. Mail asks me to set up an email account
This probably happened because you didn't change ownership of the com.apple.mail.plist file. If Mail doesn't have access permission to write to that file, it just deletes the file and creates a new one (Mail can delete the file because doing that requires write permissions for the directory the file is in, which it has). As a result of re-creating the preferences file, Mail asks you to set up your accounts from scratch all over again.
14. change the ownership of the mail folder to the
new user, but I still can't look inside the folder
and it has the red circle with the minus sign.
It looks like you tried changing ownership of the enclosing Mail folder only. Ownership of all the items within it must be changed as well. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this properly in the Finder, as the Apply to enclosed items button in the Get Info window also overwrites access permissions, not just the changes you make to ownership. Usually, this is wrong, as a different set of permissions may be appropriate for each item. In the particular case of the Mail folder, however, you can come close to doing the right thing as follows:
1. In the Finder, go to HOME/Library/. Locate the Mail folder, select it and choose File > Get Info (⌘I). Under Ownership & Permissions, expand Details by clicking on it.
2. Change the settings as follows (you may need to click on the lock icon to authenticate first). Owner: username, with "Read & "Write" access permissions; Group: username, with "Read only" access permissions; Others: "No Access".
3. Click on the Apply to enclosed items button at the bottom of the Get Info window.
4. Change Group access back to "No Access", which probably was (or should be) the initial setting when you opened the Info window.
5. Close the Get Info window.
The right way to (recursively) change ownership of the Mail folder without altering access permissions would be issuing the following command in Terminal:
sudo chown -R username:username ~/Library/Mail
And while you're at it, you may as well use Terminal to change ownership of the preferences file:
sudo chown username:username ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

Problem moving mail from one computer to another...

Hello.
I'm trying to move a specific mailbox from one computer to another computer. I'm doing this to 2 pairs of machines and with the first pair I had no issues. But, then second pair I get errors.
On the first computer I just copied the .mbox folder (which contains the sub "Messages" folder & info.plist file) from the one computer to the other. Then, in mail.app I "import" the messages via the Import option (importing mail from Mac OS X). No problem and all messages are imported.
On the second pair of computers, I did the same thing, but when I try and Import the messages onto the second machine, it says it can't find any OS X mail messages to import.
I really need to get these messages from one machine to another. "Forwarding" or "Redirecting" all the messages from one machine to another isn't an option.
Can anyone suggest what might be wrong, or another way of migrating the single folder of messages (not the entire account) from one machine to another?
Thanks,
Kristin.

Hi Kristin,
I stay away from mbox files because it has never worked for me, but I may have a solution. This may not be THE award winning answer, but you could consider it when the other options don't work:
I assume you want to import a mailbox that is NOT part of an IMAP account, because otherwise you would not have this problem (right?) (otherwise just open that IMAP account on the computer you want the messages on).
But if you have an IMAP account, besides the POP account that contains the mailbox in question, you can use that account to fix your problem:
Go to the compu that has the desired mailbox, make a new folder in the IMAP account called 'backup' or whatever. Copy all messages from the desired mailbox to that new IMAP folder (depending on size this may take a while, because you are uploading via your internet connection). Now go to the other compu, make a new 'local folder' in mail.app. Open the IMAP account in mail.app and open the 'back up folder'. Now copy all messages to the new, local folder.
If you don't have an IMAP account, you can always open a free one with gmail.
I know, it's not very elegant, but this will work guaranteed.
Good luck,
Feddeg

Having trouble moving mail messages from one user to another

I am trying to move mail messages from one user to another on my Macbook, and I cannot seem to do it. I've tried archive, but I don't think I'm doing it right. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Noreen
Message was edited by: reensjp

I had to go to the Mac store to get the answer to this one... i was archiving correctly, but you need to save the mbox files to your desktop, then move them to the shared folder, that way all users have access. I also had to edit the permissions on the files, as the user i wanted to have the emails didn't have permission to even look at the files.
Noreen

How can I move my iPad's iTunes backup from one user to another?

Is it possible to move my iPad's iTunes backup from one user to another, so as to change which user the iPad is syncing to without deleting any app data? Currently the iPad is synced to one user on my iMac, and I would like to transfer it so that it will sync with a different user on the same iMac (using iTunes, of course). I'd like to replace content from the old user's iTunes library with my user (eg. music, movies), but I don't want to loose app data in the process if I can avoid it.
I have tried to use the pathway /Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup but my iMac doesn't seem to have a MoblieSync folder. I wouldn't know what to do with the backup anyway though.
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The Apple Document covers this. See the footnotes of my google docs
I've done this, it is easy, but takes time and patience.
On the existing mac with OSX and Configurator:
========================================
- run disk utility and verify your disks are ok, a must
- make note of the user logged in when using configurator such as "bob"
- connect a new or newly reformatted USB formatted for Apple
- run time machine and backup to the USB
- Take the mac off the network,
- Buy a new mac
- setup the mac with a new logon account like Paul or "bob2" do not use BOB !!
- finish the new purchase setup, get to your desktop
- now run the migraiton assistant moving bob from the USB to the new mac
- reboot, logon as bob, launch configurator and connect just one ipad. Test
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SMBgyzONxcx6_FswgkW9XYLpA4oCt_2y1uw9ceMZ9F4/ edit?usp=sharing

Migrate Mail from one account to another

Hi People,
I was wondering how I can migrate all my mail data from one user to another.
I want to consolidate two users into one (the user to which i want to migrate to, does not have mail set up) then delete the old user account.
Is there a process for this? Or is it a case of just copying the mail data folder between users?
Thanks.

quit mail on both accounts and copy the file /users/username1/library/preferences/com.apple.mail.plist and the entire folder /users/username1/library/mail to the corresponding locations for user2. start Mail on user2 and it will look like it did on user1.

Is there a way to automatically move mail from one folder to another?

Is there a way to periodically, automatically, move mail from one folder to another?
For example, I'd like to move mail from one of my IMAP/Archives folders to my MyMac/Archive folder and I'd like this to happen without intervention.
Can this be done?

I'll try to be more specific.
When I'm done with an email, I archive it.
Because I have multiple email accounts, this results in emails in multiple Archive folders (one per account).
I'd like to have these automatically all moved into one (on my Mac).

How can I migrate from one user to another within the same computer?

My main user account in my desktop is becoming buggy after to many migrations from different computers and long time usage. I would like to migrate from one user to another user within the same computer to see if this improves my current problems.
How can I do it in a reasonably safe and quick way?
Thank you very much, cheers, Rui
iMAC, OS 10.6.8... and yes, I love Snow Leopard light and handy... and all my programs work on it...

Move small groups of files to the /Users/Shared/ folder or another location and see if the problems disappear. Moving everything to a new user account will in all probability transfer the problems.
(119885)

Move mailbox from one user to another?

Greets -
Running Mail on OS X Server 10.5.8, and I'm trying to move a folder from one user to another. I thought this would do it:
cp -pPR /var/spool/imap/user/user1/folder /var/spool/imap/user/user2
It does copy, of course, and appears to have the same ownership and permissions as the other folders, but it doesn't show up. Is there some other kind of blessing required, or probably a better way to copy it than that cp command? Forgive me essentially weak unix skills....
Many thanks,
z

you need to set the cyrus acl, using cyradm or easier is with SirAdmin
-or take the simple route-
setup your mail program with both imap accounts and drag the folder from one account to the other.

Moving personalization from one instance to another.

Hi All,
Could anyone guide me with the steps of moving personalizations from one istance to another..
I tried this syntax..
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what could be the filename.ldt location,
should i execute this from putty on unix box...
Regards, Ashish
Edited by: Ashish on Aug 30, 2010 9:59 AM

Ashish,
I am followin that document, but it does not tell me where do i execute the script.. Please if you could..Run the command on the server as applmgr user and after sourcing the application env file. You can run the command anywhere provided that the directory is writable by applmgr user.
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Hussein

When exporting and then importing Apple Mail from one mac to another I get "Some messages could not be imported. Partially imported mailbox will be labeled IMPORT" . That mailbox does not appear.

When exporting and then importing Apple Mail from one mac to another I get "Some messages could not be imported. Partially imported mailbox will be labeled IMPORT" . That mailbox does not appear.
Any help would be welcome

This is a bug in Mail. The mailbox archiving function does not include attachments, which gives the error with the import. To workaround this you can create a mailbox in Mail and copy to it all emails you want to export. Then go in Finder to [user]/Library/Mail/Mailboxes en select the created mailbox. Copy this to the public directory of your other mac. Then start Mail on that other mac and import the mailbox from the public directory. Should work now.

How can i move settings from one user to another?

How do I move all settings and permiions from one user to another?

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11320719&#11320719
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=12317222
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6331229

Can I move applications from one user to another on the same computer?

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Moving mail from one user to another

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