Trouble syncing Mail folders/subfolders

Question

Hi to anyone who reads this.
Not sure where to turn for help right now. Apple Tech Support says this is a .Mac problem; .Mac says it's an Apple Tech Support issue. I'm in the inferno.
Like a lot of people, I download a lot of e-mails from the server and put them into folders and subfolders (and sometimes sub-subfolders). Some folders are important; others are not. It is critical that I have access to these important folders over the holidays when I'm not at my iMac. I have a .Mac account, so I should be able to do that. But when I try to sync, the folders don't show up (or...worse...only a few of them show up). For those of you who want to read on, please do.
I initially tried this sync with my folders about two months ago. It didn't work -- it wasn't critical to me then, so I didn't pursue it. What happened then was that I dragged the main folder(s) with several subfolders (and lots of e-mails) from where they sat in my mail program to below the globe icon for my .Mac account. The colorful ball whirled for quite a while. Then I went to the .Mac site, opened my mail and found only a few of the folders and subfolders had transferred. I was frustrated, but I stopped worrying about it.
Fast forward to today. I have a very strong need to have access to those e-mails while I'm away. I have tried to sync many times in the last day. Most recently, I have manually sync'd everything, so I know the sync works for my iCal and address book (although strangely, the automatic one looked like it worked, but it didn't). Nevertheless, the calendar and address books are completely up-to-date. I double-checked that the memory wasn't a problem. It's not. I even increased the storage allotment for mail to 700.
Trying everything I could think of, I went to the .Mac site, opened my folders, deleted the old (incompletely transferred and NEVER effectively synchronized despite autosyncing) folders from a few months ago and started over. (By the way, not that it matters, but the main folders under the globe icon are white, not blue, and the subs are blue...not sure what that means.) I have tried in many ways to get the folders I created in my Mail program to transfer to .Mac by placing them under the globe icon and then pressing the sync button. Nothing seems to work.
Help. Do you know what is wrong? Do you know what department at Mac should be helping me? What else do you need to know to help answer this one? I really need those e-mails -- far, far too many to resend to myself to put on the server over the holidays. Hundreds!! All very important for a conference I am planning.
Thanks so much!!! By the way, I'm a 10.4.3 user. I wish I could tell you whether this happened before or after the upgrade this fall, but honestly, I just don't remember.

Answer 1

Richard Eitel wrote:
I have an iMac with many mail folders containing many emails. I just purchased a MacBook. Is there a way to transfer the mail folders and all the existing emails onto the MacBook
the easiest is to use Migration Adssistant (it's in Applications/Utilities). It lets you transfer all your user settings, not just Mail. If you are interested in Mail ONLY, copy the entire folder /users/username/library/mail and the file /users/username/library/preferences/com.apple.mail.plist. when you start Mail after that it will look just as it did on the old computer.
and once that is accomplished is there a way I can keep both mail accounts in sync?
if you use an IMAP email account, this is automatic. if you use POP, it's impossible.
I would like to be able to file or delete an email on one computer and have the same action take place on the other computer.