Archive older mail on a external drive, while keeping them available on Apple Mail.

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Archive older mail on a external drive, while keeping them available on Apple Mail.

Hello, in many years of work I have mails for about 300 Gb. These mails are stored locally in two mailboxes called ARCHIVE-OUT.mbox ARCHIVE-IN.mbox in MacOs/user/library/mail/v10

I would like to archive them to an external drive in order to free MacOs drive space but I would like them to remain available in Apple Mail search.

I searched a solution for long but didn't found it.

Any suggestions ??

Thanx !!

MacBook Pro (2021)

Posted on Mar 15, 2023 12:53 PM

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Answer 1

Eric--F

Community Specialist

Mar 16, 2023 6:28 PM in response to GGEECC

Hello GGEECC,

Thank you for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. You can either export or move the mailboxes for your emails on a Mac to an external hard drive. Here are the steps that can help:

Move or copy mailboxes in Mail on Mac

You can easily move or copy mailboxes in the Mail sidebar.

1. In the Mail app on your Mac, select a mailbox in the Mail sidebar.

2. Do any of the following:

* Move the mailbox: Drag the mailbox to a new location in the sidebar.

* Copy the mailbox: Press and hold the Option key while you drag it to a new location.

If you use the Finder to move or copy mailboxes, the changes may not appear in Mail.

Export mailboxes

1. In the Mail app on your Mac, select one or more mailboxes, then choose Mailbox > Export Mailbox.

2. Choose a folder or create a new folder, then click Choose.

Mail exports the mailboxes as .mbox packages. If you previously exported a mailbox, Mail doesn’t overwrite the existing .mbox file; it creates a new .mbox file, such as My Mailbox 3.mbox.

Following these steps can help and is outlined in this article: Import or export mailboxes in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

Kind regards.

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Answer 2

GGEECC Author

Level 1

7 points

Mar 17, 2023 2:53 AM in response to Eric--F

Hello Eric, thank for your reply. Maybe I didn't got your point but :

1) Moving/dragging/copying mailboxes in the Mail Sidebar only allows to move them between online server and mail library in main MacOs drive. Cannot see how to move them in an external drive in this way.

2)Exporting mail boxes can be useful for archiving mails... but this do not allows Apple Mail client to search in it... so if I export a mail box to an external drive and delete the same mail box on Apple Mail library, these mail will not be accessible trough Apple Mail anymore ... If I import the same mail box I exported this will transfer mail box in MacOs/user/library/mail/v10 occupying space...

Am I wrong ??

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Archive older mail on a external drive, while keeping them available on Apple Mail.

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