{"id":47984,"date":"2019-04-25T14:18:35","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T19:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=47984"},"modified":"2019-05-10T10:14:52","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T15:14:52","slug":"backup-month-backing-up-apple-mail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/47984-backup-month-backing-up-apple-mail\/","title":{"rendered":"Backup Month: Backing Up Apple Mail"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s still April, which means it is still Backup Month. Today we\u2019re going to look at a backup strategy that might be important to you: backing up Apple Mail on macOS.<\/p>\n

A Bit of Background on Apple Mail<\/b><\/p>\n

Apple Mail<\/strong> (commonly known as “Mail”) is an email client that can handle both older POP3 (Post Office Protocol) and more widely-used IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) mail servers, as well as the more proprietary Microsoft Exchange servers. In other words, it\u2019s quite easy to use Apple Mail as a single client to connect to a variety of email servers, so many Mac users find themselves with multiple email accounts that all work with a single inbox.<\/p>\n

For IMAP and Exchange mail servers, the email messages you receive are all stored on the mail server, meaning that if you delete them in Apple Mail, they\u2019re deleted from the server and from all of your other Apple devices connected to the same account. With POP3 accounts, individual messages are downloaded from the server to the device \u2014 deleting a message from one device doesn\u2019t delete it from the server, so it can still appear on your other Apple devices. <\/span><\/p>\n

Is Backing Up Apple Mail Necessary?<\/b><\/p>\n

Backing up Mail messages on your Mac isn\u2019t really necessary, as for most modern email servers the messages are always stored on the server. If you get a new Mac and want to load all of the messages that you\u2019ve received and sent, all you need to do is add accounts in Mail > Add Account and the messages are synchronized with your Mac.<\/p>\n

However, there are certain cases where keeping copies of mail databases locally is a good idea. Most lawyers that I\u2019ve worked with over the years don\u2019t trust mail servers implicitly, so they want to have a local copy that they can have access to at any time. In a worst-case scenario \u2014 server is down or destroyed and the hard drive in the computer crashes \u2014 all it takes is to regain access to the mail archive is replacing the hard drive or computer, then reloading the email backup.<\/p>\n

\"Time<\/a>
In this image, Time Machine displays a history of the files in the Safari folder.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Doesn\u2019t Time Machine Back Up Apple Mail?<\/b><\/p>\n

Yes, it does. But it\u2019s not the best possible way to restore emails should that worst-case scenario occur. A much better idea \u2014 if you absolutely need to back up your mail messages \u2014 is to specifically back up just the Mail folders that are critical.<\/p>\n

Automating Mail Folder Backups for Apple Mail<\/b><\/p>\n

To automate mail folder backups for Apple Mail, it\u2019s best to use a dedicated backup app like SuperDuper<\/a> or Carbon Copy Cloner<\/a> that can make a scheduled backup of just one folder or group of folders. We won\u2019t tell you how to use one of those applications to create a backup or do a restore, but they\u2019re both quite easy to use to set up a schedule for backing up the mail folders.<\/p>\n

So, how do you find where the Mail folders are on a Mac? It all depends on what version of macOS or Mac OS X you\u2019re using. Apple has created different versions of Mail for OS X and macOS, some of which save messages in a Mail folder in the system Library folder, and some of which save those messages in a Mail\/V(x) folder, where (x) is a number from 2 through 6.<\/p>\n

For macOS 10.14 Mojave<\/b><\/p>\n

To find the folder where macOS 10.14 Mojave stores messages:<\/p>\n

1 – Open a new Finder window by right-clicking on the Finder icon at the left end of the Dock, then selecting \u201cNew Finder Window\u201d<\/p>\n

2 – From the Finder menu, select Go > Go To Folder\u2026<\/p>\n

3 – Type in the path name ~\/Library\/Mail\/V6 (see image below)<\/p>\n

\"Type<\/a>
Type ~\/Library\/Mail\/V6 to find the folders containing email messages<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

4 – A series of folders with cryptic alphanumeric names appears. \u2014 these folders contain all of the messages that are currently in Apple Mail (see image below).<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The ~\/Library\/Mail folder contains the subfolders for each mail account<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

5 – Looking at some of the messages in a folder can give you an idea of which email server that folder is connected to. If you just need to back up a single account, set up your backup app to back up everything inside the folder that is specific to that account. To back up ALL email messages in all accounts, back up the ~\/Library\/<\/i>Mail\/V6 folder.<\/p>\n

For previous versions of macOS or Mac OS X<\/b><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re running an earlier version of macOS or Mac OS X, then it\u2019s a better idea to replace step 3 in the instructions above with a different path \u2014 ~\/Library\/<\/i>Mail\/ <\/span>. Inside that folder, you\u2019ll see a V2, V3, V4, V5, or V6 folder that contains all of the mail messages. <\/span><\/p>\n

The original four versions of Mac OS X simply stored the email messages in  <\/span>~\/Library\/<\/i>Mail\/, with no intervening V(x) folder. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Now you know where to find all of those mail messages. Whether you decide to just leave it up to the administrators of your email servers to back up those messages or want to keep a locally backed up copy, these instructions can be a useful part of your backup strategy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s still April, which means it is still Backup Month. Today we\u2019re going to look at a backup strategy that might be important to you: backing up Apple Mail on macOS. A Bit of Background on Apple Mail Apple Mail (commonly known as “Mail”) is an email client that can handle both older POP3 (Post Office […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":41822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"class_list":["post-47984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nBacking Up Apple Email<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"t\u2019s still April, which means it is still Backup Month. 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