Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac.

Newsgroups	comp.sys.mac.apps, comp.sys.mac.hardware.misc, comp.sys.mac.system
From	Kadin2048 <Kadin@address.invalid>
Subject	Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac.
References	(3 earlier) <iakufb909f04oe0b870fl7npoor7ml3kk3@4ax.com> <020420161746211660%YourName@YourISP.com> <i040gbtm1n8qm6fgichs665kahad1dv7kl@4ax.com> <030420161019076244%YourName@YourISP.com> <nds2ce$stv$3@gioia.aioe.org>
Followup-To	comp.sys.mac.apps
Message-ID	<iljMy.6979$7e2.4933@fx25.iad> (permalink)
Organization	Newsgroupdirect
Date	2016-04-04 01:22 +0000

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

Followups directed to: comp.sys.mac.apps

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On 2016-04-03, Happy.Hobo <Happy.Hobo@Spam.Invalid> wrote:
> Last I heard, Mac mail was stored in one of the standard formats.  If 
> Windows can't read them, it's worse than I thought, and Linux CAN rea them.

You're correct; at least up through Yosemite (I don't have any El Cap
machines myself yet), Apple Mail uses one of two reasonably-decent
formats for storing messages on disk.

In recent versions (10.4 and later, I think?), messages are stored
inside ~/Library/Mail, in subfolders named something like
"Foldername.mbox", and then each message is an ".emlx" file inside
that (or maybe in a 'Messages' subfolder).  At any rate, they're
basically just text files once you dig down to the level of actual
messages.  Converting to various other email-storage formats is pretty
straightforward. [1]

Older versions of Mail (from the Public Beta through 10.3, IIRC) used
one-file-per-mailbox formats similar to Unix "mbox" spool files. [2]
Eudora and various other MUAs read them without a problem and without
any conversion necessary.

It wouldn't be a major effort at all to grab all the saved email off
of a hard drive and convert it to mbox files, PSTs, or some other
format of choice.  The HFS disk formatting is likely to be more of a
problem than the email storage format on disk (and it's not that much
of a problem, just an annoyance really).

Although if the system is running, another potentially-easier route is
just to add a new Gmail (or other IMAP-capable mail provider) account,
and copy the messages up via IMAP to the new account, then sync them
down to another machine.  But since it sounds like the system in
question is on its last legs anyway, I wouldn't muck with it.

  Kadin

[1]: I'm partial to "emlxconvert", which converts to standard mbox /
     spoolfile format.  <http://www.cosmicsoft.net/emlxconvert.html>
     From mbox, going to PST or other formats is easy.

[2]: For historical interest, the differences between Apple Mail 1.x
     (10.3 and earlier) and 2.x (10.4+):
     <https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1382793?tstart=0>

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Thread

Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> - 2016-04-01 22:06 -0400
  Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-04-02 03:27 +0000
    Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Savageduck <savageduck1@{REMOVESPAM}me.com> - 2016-04-01 21:25 -0700
      Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> - 2016-04-02 01:05 -0400
        Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2016-04-02 17:46 +1200
          Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> - 2016-04-02 14:42 -0400
            Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2016-04-03 10:19 +1200
              Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. "Happy.Hobo" <Happy.Hobo@Spam.Invalid> - 2016-04-03 16:36 -0500
                Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2016-04-04 13:13 +1200
                Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Kadin2048 <Kadin@address.invalid> - 2016-04-04 01:22 +0000
          Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. "Happy.Hobo" <Happy.Hobo@Spam.Invalid> - 2016-04-03 16:34 -0500
        Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-04-02 07:41 +0000
      Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Lewis <g.kreme@gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> - 2016-04-02 07:39 +0000
    Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> - 2016-04-02 00:56 -0400
    Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. "Happy.Hobo" <Happy.Hobo@Spam.Invalid> - 2016-04-03 16:33 -0500
  Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2016-04-02 15:49 +1200
  Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> - 2016-04-02 00:50 -0400
    Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) - 2016-04-02 18:36 +1300
      Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> - 2016-04-02 14:23 -0400
      Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> - 2016-04-02 16:53 -0400
    Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2016-04-02 17:45 +1200
      Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. micky <NONONOmisc07@bigfoot.com> - 2016-04-02 14:31 -0400
        Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com> - 2016-04-03 09:58 +1200
  Re: Please help PC guy with friend's Imac. Andreas Rutishauser <andreas@macandreas.ch> - 2016-04-02 08:12 +0100

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