How to Archive Mail From VERY Old Mac

I'm helping my MIL to move her data from a 10-year-old Mac to a new Macbook Pro.  Her email on the old computer was set up in such a way as to delete the items from the server (ATT/Yahoo) once downloaded to the computer.  So the only copy of her email is on that old computer.  She has been advised not to update the Mac OS given the age of the computer.  It is on OS X 10.8.5.  Is there a way to archive the mail into a file that I can then put on her new Mac and be readable by the Mail program there?  (If I was doing this on my Windows computer, I would archive from Outlook to a PST file and then open the PST file on a different Windows computer.  Looking for some analogous capability.)

Note - the new computer is properly configured for mail and she can see her mail on it as well as her iPhone and iPad ... but only back to November 16th of this year, which was apparently the last time she opened the mail on her old computer.


Can you connect the two Macs with Target Disk Mode and move the files?

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH10725?locale=en_US


dave said:
Can you connect the two Macs with Target Disk Mode and move the files?
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH10725?locale=en_US

 I don’t know, but if I can figure out what files to copy, I think I could do it via a thumb drive, couldn’t I?


Yes.  Assuming Apple Mail is being used, the mail files are in a hidden directory.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4855909


I (Windows person, not very good with Macs) see that in the mail app you can create/select multiple mailboxes, but I'm not sure if that applies or not??  The files of interest on the old machine (which I am now copying to my thumbdrive) are inbox.mbox and sent.mbox.  Should I copy them into a separate subfolder in the mail folder (named V4) on the new machine or should I rename those two files - e.g. oldinbox.mbox and oldsent.mbox - and copy into the same folder with the new inbox and sent mbox files which are in a subfolder with a completely cryptic (to me) name?  I notice that there are two such cryptically named folders and inbox and sent and drafts and a few others are in one of them, but outbox and some others are in the other subfolder (both within V4.)


i would export the mailbox by right clicking on it in the sidebar, export it to the desktop then email that to the new computer, open it in mail on the new computer.


It's been a while for me, so I don't know any more. I'm only weighing in here because you sent me a private message.


The most straightforward way to just get those files on the new computer (other than transferring the data from a backup when setting up the new computer, which I guess is what you were saying you were trying to avoid?) is to import the mbox files into Apple Mail using the options in Apple Mail.

https://support.apple.com/kb/ph22318?locale=en_US




I was able to find those hidden mbox files and copy them and then import. Thx all!!



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