146 MACWORLD DECEMBER 2019
HELPDESK MAC 911com/mlrc].)
Mail uses long sequences of
hexadecimal (base 16) numbers and
dashes to identify accounts uniquely in the
hidden Mail folder, which helps avoid
overwriting and other problems. To figure
out which folder corresponds to your
account in the below instructions, open
each folder in turn to see which mailboxes
it contains.
In some cases, you’ll see all your
mailboxes as separately named items with
mailbox icons next to each. In my case
(and possibly whenever an email account
is disabled), you’ll only see INBOX or
INBOX.mbox and need to open it—it acts
like a folder—to see if it’s the account in
question.
Here are the steps to follow:
- In the Finder, select Go → Go To
Folder and enter exactly ~/Library/
Mail - In the folder that appears, you’ll see
several folders. You’re looking for one
called V6, although
you may see older
V plus number
combinations for
previous versions of
Mail. Open the V6
folder.- Hold down
Option and drag all
the mailboxes in the
hexadecimally named folder you want to
copy or the entire INBOX container
somewhere else on your drive, so you’re
not interacting with the originals. - In Mail, select File → Import
Mailboxes. - Choose Apple Mail in the first Import
screen and click Continue. - Navigate to the location at which
you copied the mailbox or mailboxes you
want to import, and select one or more,
then click Choose. - Mail will import the messages and
create a new entry under the On My Mac
section called Imported Mail with the
nested mailboxes.
You can leave the messages there,
although they are now only accessible
from that one Mac. If you want to make
them available via IMAP in Mail for iOS or
on other Macs, you can copy the
messages are folders to an active email
account elsewhere in the sidebar.
Note that you might be told my Mail
The V6 folder contains all the current email account’s mailboxes,
including the one you just deleted.