How to backup Mail and Contacts?

[KiwiJenn]

Hi

I want to do a regular backup of my Mail which will include all my mail folders and any emails in those folders. How can this be done?

I also want to backup my Address Book contacts, how is this done?

Please give me step-by-step guide as I'm still learning where everything is on my iMac.

thanks

[Tri_X_Troll]

The only way that I've found is to use time machine with my external hard drive.

[bubba]

Mail - all you should have to do is copy the ~/Library/Mail folder (the ~ is your home directory). You will also have to save the ~/Library/Preferences com.apple.mail.plist file. When you go to restore, just copy the Mail folder back to the ~/Library directory and place the plist file in ~/Library/Preferences.


For Address book - From the Address Book app, select File, then Export, then Address Book Archive. When prompted, tell it the name and path to save the file.

For more info - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301239 tells you how to back-up all your important "stuff"

[KiwiJenn]

Thank you, that's great info

Mail - all you should have to do is copy the ~/Library/Mail folder (the ~ is your home directory). You will also have to save the ~/Library/Preferences com.apple.mail.plist file. When you go to restore, just copy the Mail folder back to the ~/Library directory and place the plist file in ~/Library/Preferences.


For Address book - From the Address Book app, select File, then Export, then Address Book Archive. When prompted, tell it the name and path to save the file.

For more info - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301239 tells you how to back-up all your important "stuff"

[kfordham281]

If you're using IMAP mail accounts the mail is kept on the mail server so you should not have to back it up at all.

You an also use a product called Mozy. It will back up Address Book and more onto their encrypted servers. They give you 2GB of space for free. Here's a little guide to get you started with Mozy: http://applemachq.com/2008/02/14/mak...asy-with-mozy/