I need advice on transferring 100+ Personal Folders from Apple Mail to Outlook.

Joined
Aug 14, 2011
Messages
216
Reaction score
5
Points
18
Location
Richfield, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2015 iMac 21.5; 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5; 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, Mojave.
Running Apple Mail under Mojave (10.14.6).

My backup system doesn't play nice with Apple Mail's file structure, thus the switch to Outlook for Mac 2019.

I can't make copy/paste give me a clean result, and exporting the individual folders seems to result in a mess of grotesque stuff.

Can somebody tell me how to duplicate the contents of the Apple Mail folders into the Outlook folders so that they look the same?
 
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
17,496
Reaction score
1,541
Points
113
Location
Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2011 27" iMac, 1TB(partitioned) SSD, 20GB, OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,455
Reaction score
3,811
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
My backup system doesn't play nice with Apple Mail's file structure, thus the switch to Outlook for Mac 2019.
What does that mean? Maybe we can fix the backup problem and save the hassle of moving mail.
 
Joined
May 21, 2012
Messages
10,703
Reaction score
1,158
Points
113
Location
Rhode Island
Your Mac's Specs
M1 Mac Studio, 11" iPad Pro 3rdGen, iPhone 13 ProMax, Watch S7, 2018 15" MBP, AirPods Pro
What does that mean? Maybe we can fix the backup problem and save the hassle of moving mail.
Jake, that sounded to me like, " I do it this way, and I'm not changing how I do it".
 
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
17,496
Reaction score
1,541
Points
113
Location
Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2011 27" iMac, 1TB(partitioned) SSD, 20GB, OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
Jake, that sounded to me like, " I do it this way, and I'm not changing how I do it".


I’m not saying that is the problem, but we sure do need an expression or phrase to cover the “problem” and such situations. ;-). :Smirk:



Patrick
————
 
OP
BudVitoff
Joined
Aug 14, 2011
Messages
216
Reaction score
5
Points
18
Location
Richfield, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2015 iMac 21.5; 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5; 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, Mojave.
Jake: Thanks for the offer to help, but I think I’m okay.

Re: the "backup problem".

My backup system is CrashPlan, and I think it’s an excellent system from any standpoint: Design, performance, support, and documentation. Not long ago in a conversation with one of their "champions", the guy told me that CrashPlan won’t work with Apple Mail. I don’t remember exactly what he said but it had something to do with a difference in file structure between the two systems. I got the impression that CrashPlan expects its input to be a more "industry standard format" (my words) while Apple Mail breaks its records apart in a different manner that CrashPlan can’t handle. I know that doesn’t tell me much, but if an employee tells me to not use their product I’m going to listen to him!

I’ve purchased Outlook for Mac 2019 and Emailchemy recommended by Randy in post #2. I’m hoping that they will work together and avoid "the hassle of moving mail".
 
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,455
Reaction score
3,811
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
Curious, but I guess they know what they are talking about, maybe. Mail just uses files to store the messages and attachments, so a good backup system should just see the files and put them where they need to go, but I guess CrashPlan actually opens the mail for some reason. Strange behavior, at least to me, and enough to put me off using CrashPlan. But if it is working for you, great!
 

IWT


Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Messages
10,218
Reaction score
2,175
Points
113
Location
Born Scotland. Worked all over UK. Live in Wales
Your Mac's Specs
M2 Max Studio Extra, 32GB memory, 4TB, Sonoma 14.4 Apple 5K Retina Studio Monitor
OP
BudVitoff
Joined
Aug 14, 2011
Messages
216
Reaction score
5
Points
18
Location
Richfield, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2015 iMac 21.5; 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5; 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, Mojave.
I just corrected my profile from High Sierra to Mojave. I will contact CrashPlan to see if I can get a better explanation for their difficulty with Apple Mail. Frankly, I wouldn't bad-mouth CrashPlan for anything.
 

IWT


Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Messages
10,218
Reaction score
2,175
Points
113
Location
Born Scotland. Worked all over UK. Live in Wales
Your Mac's Specs
M2 Max Studio Extra, 32GB memory, 4TB, Sonoma 14.4 Apple 5K Retina Studio Monitor
Given that you are running Mojave, my post #9 and Link may offer you the solution. You are not alone in this.

Ian
 
OP
BudVitoff
Joined
Aug 14, 2011
Messages
216
Reaction score
5
Points
18
Location
Richfield, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2015 iMac 21.5; 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5; 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, Mojave.
With all due respect, I kinda doubt that they're talking about the same thing that I am. I had all the permissions granted, etc., and it still misbehaves. They're talking about legitimate control features, while I am not. My source was giving me some "below the surface" information about the incompatibility. I've submitted a ticket asking for as much information they will tell me about it, but I know they will not give it much priority when compared to other people with problems, so it will most likely take several days to get what I'm asking for.
 

IWT


Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Messages
10,218
Reaction score
2,175
Points
113
Location
Born Scotland. Worked all over UK. Live in Wales
Your Mac's Specs
M2 Max Studio Extra, 32GB memory, 4TB, Sonoma 14.4 Apple 5K Retina Studio Monitor
You're absolutely right to follow the path you think best.

As long as you get the problem fixed; that's all we want.

Good luck, and please let us know how things go:)

Ian
 
OP
BudVitoff
Joined
Aug 14, 2011
Messages
216
Reaction score
5
Points
18
Location
Richfield, MN
Your Mac's Specs
Late 2015 iMac 21.5; 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5; 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, Mojave.
Okay, CrashPlan replied to the following message that I sent to them:

"Recently, a champion mentioned briefly that CrashPlan does not work with Apple Mail because of a difference in file structure, or something like that. I am currently defending CrashPlan in a forum and I need to be more specific. Please tell me as much as you can about this file structure incompatibility."

The following is their reply (underlined items were links in their message that did not survive the copy/paste to put them here):

Hello Bud,
Thank you for contacting Code42 Support.
If you're talking about CrashPlan backing those files up, then it's possible yes. Apple mail has many small constantly changing parts, this can cause issues because of how our File Manifests work. CrashPlan uses two types of manifests to keep track of both the files in your archive (FMF), and all of the versions of those files (HDF). When these manifests grow in size beyond a certain point, it can lead to multiple issues with both the efficiency of your backups, and your ability to restore files from your archive. It's possible that some may see the symptoms listed below:
• Prolonged File Synchronization and File Verification Scans time
• Prolonged Archive Maintenance duration
• Inability to restore files in the event of migrating to a new device, or a disaster
The best way to prevent this from occurring would be to:
• Adjusting the devices File Selection to potentially remove Apple Mail.
• Adjusting the Versioning and Retention settings and change the remove deleted files setting to something other than never.
• Initiate Archive Maintenance to apply the changes above
Regards,
Segen G.
Code42 Technical Support
Contact us via live chat support

So that’s the story. I didn’t understand most of what they said, and I did not take any of the links; however, one item caught my eye: "Adjusting the devices File Selection to potentially remove Apple Mail." I understand that, because "File Selection" is how the user determines what files get backed up, and typically that value is checked to back up everything in the Users folder.

I’m passing this on to you because I said I would, but I’m not going to pursue this any further. I’ve purchased Outlook for Mac and Emailchemy and I hope that the conversion will be smooth. That remains to be seen.
 
Joined
Feb 1, 2011
Messages
4,409
Reaction score
2,098
Points
113
Location
Sacramento, California
If you're talking about CrashPlan backing those files up, then it's possible yes. Apple mail has many small constantly changing parts, this can cause issues ...
• Inability to restore files in the event of ... a disaster

Well, first, that was a horrible explanation from the CrashPlan folks. However, near as I can tell, their backup service suffers from a common problem with a lot of backup software out there: the inability to backup metadata, or the inability to back up metadata such that it will be useful once restored. This is what originally catapulted SuperDuper! to popularity when OS X was young, because just about no backup programs at the time could handle OS X's metadata correctly, but SuperDuper! did so with aplomb.

For those who don't know what metadata is, a computer has programs, and it has files...most backup programs can backup those easily. Metadata is what is on your computer in addition to apps and files. It is literally "data about data". It's preferences files, and databases, and caches, and stuff like that. If you restore a backup that doesn't handle metadata well, you'll get back all of your apps and files, but it may take weeks to restore everything so that it works properly; and some apps that store data internally may simply have all their data hosed.

In 2020 any backup product that doesn't handle all of your Mac's metadata well is simply unacceptable and inexcusable. The above situation is easily enough for me to warn people far away from CrashPlan.

On the other hand, I already recommended against using cloud-based backup services as part of most backup plans. (Okay, yes, I can think of some situations where cloud-based backup might be worthwhile to have in a multi-tiered backup plan when you have extremely valuable data.) I won't re-hash the security argument about putting your sensitive data on someone else's server (you've all seen the articles about your own government spying on you), or that putting your data in someone else's hands could be a bigger risk than you might think. (Recently LegalWorks, a HUGE cloud-based application for attorneys had their server hit by ransomware, decimating all of the client files for a large number of law firms.)

Mostly I don't recommend online backup services because of what a huge bottleneck the Internet is. Most ISP's these days are capping the amount of data you can transfer daily, and they throttle your access speeds if you transfer too much data all at one time.

Many broadband ISPs have monthly data caps in the 300 GB to 1,000 GB range. Also most ISPs offer much lower upload speeds than download speeds. Typical Comcast 50 megabit/sec service is about 10 megabit/sec upload. To back up a 3TB iMac 27 would take about a month.

When a failure happens and you must recover, time is often of the essence because you need to resume your work. Assuming you patiently waited a month to back up your 3TB iMac 27 to the cloud, if your disk crashed it would take six days to recover over a 50 megabit/sec connection, at best.

I think that it just makes WAY more sense to backup to an external hard drive. It's cheaper in the long run, you can keep your data offline for security, you can have multiple redundant backups for as much safety as you like (some can be stored off-site, if you like), and they can be utilized INSTANTLY in the event of a catastrophe. A clone backup made with a good cloning program will backup all of your metadata so well that you won't even be able to distinguish between booting from your clone backup and your original internal hard drive.
 

IWT


Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Messages
10,218
Reaction score
2,175
Points
113
Location
Born Scotland. Worked all over UK. Live in Wales
Your Mac's Specs
M2 Max Studio Extra, 32GB memory, 4TB, Sonoma 14.4 Apple 5K Retina Studio Monitor
Excellent explanation, Randy. Thank you once again.

And thank you too, Bud, for your courage and decency in posting the response from CrashPlan.

Ian
 
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,455
Reaction score
3,811
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
In 2020 any backup product that doesn't handle all of your Mac's metadata well is simply unacceptable and inexcusable. The above situation is easily enough for me to warn people far away from CrashPlan.
Randy, I'm with you on that. If a product cannot work with the system, it should not claim to be compatible. Clearly CrashPlan is not compatible with Mail. That explanation was pathetic. Basically, it translated to "we don't know how to do it" or "we're too lazy to do it properly." Having to go through the hoops that Bud is doing is really sad.
 
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
17,496
Reaction score
1,541
Points
113
Location
Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
2011 27" iMac, 1TB(partitioned) SSD, 20GB, OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan
Randy, I'm with you on that. If a product cannot work with the system, it should not claim to be compatible.


I'm tempted to include Apple's Time Machine.app here with its inability to copy everything (.apps etc) while claiming to be a full backup method. A full System/app clone Backup it is NOT!!! But at least it collects the User's metadata. :Smirk:

Just saying...



- Patrick
======
 
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,455
Reaction score
3,811
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
Just curious, Patrick. What does TM not backup?
 
Joined
May 21, 2012
Messages
10,703
Reaction score
1,158
Points
113
Location
Rhode Island
Your Mac's Specs
M1 Mac Studio, 11" iPad Pro 3rdGen, iPhone 13 ProMax, Watch S7, 2018 15" MBP, AirPods Pro
With Catalina, there is an option to exclude system files and applications. I never saw that with previous versions?
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top