Member Avatar for penthicilea

OK it's a bit more tricky than that.
We had our G4powerbook repaired and backed up mail onto another mac. In the last 2 week we have recieved more mail on that mac from 3 different accounts.

now I need to transfer the new (last 2 weeks worth) of mail, back to the powerbook.

I don't want to take it all back since the old mail is already there.

How do I go about this?

Thanks

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If the backup Mac has only the recent messages you want and the PowerBook already has the older mail, there are three reliable ways to move just the new items back. Each is safe if you first make a full copy of the Mail data on both machines (copy ~/Library/Mail and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist to an external drive).

Method 1 — IMAP sync (best when available)
Create a server-side mailbox on the IMAP account on the backup Mac, copy the two weeks of messages into that IMAP folder, let Mail finish uploading, then open Mail on the PowerBook and let it sync — the messages will appear without touching local mailbox files.

Method 2 — Export/import via Mail.app (works for POP or local mail)
On the backup Mac, filter those recent messages (use search or make a Smart Mailbox for “received in the last 14 days”), select them, then create a mailbox “On My Mac” and drag the selection into it. Choose Mailbox > Export Mailbox... to write an mbox to an external drive. On the PowerBook use File > Import Mailboxes... and import the exported mbox into a temporary mailbox, verify, then move the messages into the real Inbox. Importing into a temporary mailbox first makes it easy to spot and remove duplicates before merging.

Method 3 — Raw mailbox copy (advanced, use with care)
Copying files under ~/Library/Mail can work but is version-sensitive; only use this if Mail versions match and after full backups. Prefer export/import if you’re unsure.

Note about ’s “redirect” suggestion: Redirect/forwarding re-sends messages via SMTP and changes delivery headers — it’s not a clean mailbox migration and can create duplicates or confusion. Test the chosen workflow with a small batch first.

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Member Avatar for penthicilea

All the new mail is in the inbox. the old mail in seperate folders. is there a way to copy the whole inbox aqmd the integrate it with the origional inbox on the laptop?

Member Avatar for Lomoco

You might be able to use the redirect button and redirect it to your mac that you want it on.

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