Backup Questions & Issue

Not sure if i should start a new thread but this is back up related - I have always done back up on an external drive.
Will apreciate if anyone can confirm if all my mail on mac mail is also included in this back up.
I am concerned that if my iMac is stolen - will I still have my mail backed up on my external hard drive ?
Thanks so much,
Haz

That depends upon how you are doing the backup. If you are using Time Machine and have not excluded any folders from the backups the email will be there. That is also true if you are using most other backup/cloning software such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. If you can describe the software and steps you're using we can be more specific.

My back up done by connecting external hd - no cloning software - I get regular reminders on imac to back up.
Time machine does a back up as well, I do not recall excluding folders ever - mac mail seems to be there -
however I just need to know if the external hd has a copy of my mac mail.
My main concern is that should i lose my iMac for any reason, I will at least have a copy of my mail comms.
How may I check this on my ext hd ? I assume connect up and view contents on finder - should I be looking for specific folders ?
Thanks Slydude.

I am running Time Machine for backups as well with no folders excluded and my email seems to be there although I did not actually try to do a restore to find out with 100% certainty. Here is how I checked:

1. Launch Mail (or whatever you are using for email) and make sure it is the application you are working in. If it is running but in the background make it active.
2. Go to the Dock and launch Time machine. You should see a window of messages that look like your email program.
3. Find an email you want to restore and click the restore option. You can search this window just as you would search inside the email program.

Yes I am running time machine as well and I do see mac mail folders - the only point of concern is to determine if my external hard drive (which I use for back up only) includes the mac mail folders.
If I search the hard drive itself will I see the mail folders as displayed in time machine ? or will it be in some other format ?
Thanks so much.

@Hazoss

If you have the EHD bearing Time Machine attached; and you followed Moderator Slydude's clear advice in post #97 as you seem to have done — and you've seen the Mail folders and, for testing purposes, restored an email or Mailbox, then case closed. Time Machine has all your emails.

In fact, as you have told us that you made no exclusions when you instituted Time Machine, your emails would definitely have been stored.

If you want double security, get another EHD and do one of two things:

Assuming you are running OS X Mavericks, Yosemite or El Capitan, you can add the EHD and create a second Time Machine backup (BU). The first BU will take for ever, but all future BUs will be incremental. Then you will have 2 Time Machines with everything stored. I have that arrangement.

The second option with the new EHD, is to purchase cloning software (Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper! are the leaders) and clone your iMac's HDD. However, no offence intended I promise you; but I got the distinct impression that you were tending to shy away from cloning things either because of expense or assumed complexity. That is why I suggested the 2 Time Machines option.

By the way, the Time Machine EHD (or Drives, if you go for two) should ideally remain permanently attached to your iMac so that they are left to do their job; namely, BU on the hour seamlessly in the background.

Do you feel more reassured now that Mail is backed up? And how to achieve a second Time Machine BU as well if you're worried?

Ian

Thank you IWT
yes I am using OSX Mavericks and have avoided cloning software because of both expenses and the complexities.
For security reasons (theft of iMac) I only connect up EHD when the a reminder on my mac shows up -
Your views are much appreciated - I will open up EHD to see what details are reflected.

Hazoss, if the worry about theft of your iMac is that great, I would suggest you do a backup into a cloud solution somewhere. And if you are worried about theft of your backup drive as well, then be sure the encrypt both the internal drive AND the backup drive(s). While there is a certain financial loss in the theft of the hardware, the theft of your personal information may exceed the hardware value.

Thanks MacInWin -will explore this avenue as well.
Quite a task but I agree about the value of personal information.
I am hoping that i will be able to BU only personal info like mac mail and documents but excluding photo albums which are very large.

I went to System Preferences - iCloud - and found that the 'mail' box was not ticked.
I ticked that and also included documents and data, contacts,calendars notes, safari, keychain, find my mac and left out 'photos'
That was done a few hours ago. I hope the whole of mac mail is backed up.
iCloud reflects that i have 4.91 of the 5GB available. ------just checked on iCloud and I do not see a mirror of my existing mac mail.
Forgot to mention that I use a different mail box server for mac mail - I guess this is getting complicated.
No sign of documents and data - contacts and notes are visible.
Is it possible to back up to iCloud from mac mail itself?

Just got a nasty surprise, went to finder and opened up EHD - displayed are - applications. library, system folders - on exploring all i see no trace of mac mail anywhere
so it seems my EHD has not backed up mac mail - unless its under some other name.

That is NOT how to see if the Mail is backed up. Mail is stored in a folder in the Library and is not easily found with Finder.

To see if Mail is backed up, open Mail and with Mail open, click on the Time Machine icon on the Dock. Time Machine will open with the mail backups displayed. You can see how far back the backups go FOR MAIL along the right hand edge of the display. To recover an email from the history, go back to the date, select the email and click restore.

Finder is NOT the tool of choice for Time Machine backups.

The actual Mail application will be in your Applications folder just as it is on your hard drive. The actual email messages are inside a folder that Apple has chosen to hide. There is a hidden folder inside your user account called Library. It contains preferences and other support files for almost everything on your Mac including your email data.

Your email data is stored in one of two folders inside this Library folder in either a folder called Application Support Mail or one just called Mail. The files are in a format called .mbox and the contents can't easily be read outside of Mail without a utility.

BTW Mucking about in those hidden folders can cause al sorts of problems. Let's just say I speak from experience.

Gosh I was under the impression that time machine was an internal back up on iMac - I tried looking as you said above and got a message stating 'your time machine cannot be found' and an option to set up time machine.
I then connected up the EHD and opened up time machine and it all appeared - I saw library, v2, and various mail not quite viewable as on mac mail format but seems to be there.
So in the event that I need to restore from EHD (to a new iMac) will the EHD be sufficient to replicate this existing mac mail ?
Thanks for you patience MacInWin

Thanks Slydude, I have read some about hidden folders and am afraid to venture there.

>>Your email data is stored in one of two folders inside this Library folder in either a folder called Application Support Mail or one just called Mail. The files are in a format called .mbox and the contents can't easily be read outside of Mail without a utility.>>

may I assume then that, this folder above is copied on my EHD when back up is performed and that i can use the EHD to start afresh on a new mac ?

Just an FYI. Moved this discussion into it's own thread. Discussion getting long/involved within the Sticky thread.

Continue with the great conversation.

- Nick

You don't have to assume. You can check to see it. Just open Mail, then Time machine and you can see it. As I said in post #12. With Mail open, TM will open up to the mail backups it has made.

Thanks again MacInWin
Yes it does show up just as you say.
So, in the event that I get a new iMac, can I use the EHD to retrieve all my mail ?
After reading so many posts on back ups I think I will consider a second EHD as well.

Hazoss said:

Thanks again MacInWin

So, in the event that I get a new iMac, can I use the EHD to retrieve all my mail ?
After reading so many posts on back ups I think I will consider a second EHD as well.

Click to expand...

Yes, if/when you get a new Mac, Time Machine will copy all your files, folders, settings, email and so forth to the new Mac. That's one of its functions.

A second EHD is a good idea. On that you could create a different kind of backup; namely, a clone, using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! It would have the added advantage of being bootable.

Post if you want more details.

Ian

Hazoss said:

Gosh I was under the impression that time machine was an internal back up on iMac - I tried looking as you said above and got a message stating 'your time machine cannot be found' and an option to set up time machine.
I then connected up the EHD and opened up time machine and it all appeared - I saw library, v2, and various mail not quite viewable as on mac mail format but seems to be there.
So in the event that I need to restore from EHD (to a new iMac) will the EHD be sufficient to replicate this existing mac mail ?
Thanks for you patience MacInWin

Click to expand...

Time Machine backups are stored on an external hard drive or some type of network storage not internally on the Mac. This is something of a safety measure. If the backups were stored internally and that drive fails then the backup can be lost as well as the initial data.

I can only think of two instances where Time Machine backups are stored internally:
1. On Mac notebooks Time Machine backups are stored internally if the regular external Time Machine is unavailable. As the external drive becomes available backups are moved off of the internal drives.
2. Some users have partitioned their internal drive and chosen to store their main drive/contents on one partition and Time machine backups on the other partition. I don't not recommend this because a drive failure can take out your data and the backup in one fell swoop.