Best way to back up all email in Mail.app?

[SW3029]

I want to back up all the email that I have in the macOS Mail app–and free up some room in my iCloud account. I have dozens of subfolders in the Mail app that I use to sort emails I've gotten over the years. In total, I have about 7GB of emails going back almost a decade.

But I'm not sure how to best go about backing up my email (after I do, I'll delete any emails older than a year from the iCloud server to free up space).

1) Is it necessary to right-click on each folder in the Mail.app and choose "Export Mailbox"?

2) Or can I just copy the entire ~Library/Mail folder to an external hard drive?

3) Will either way save all of my attachments included with any emails?

Is one more advantageous than the other? Will both let me restore all my emails to a new Mac when I get it?

 

[posguy99]

Apple applies a limit to the amount of email in iCloud? What is that limit? I like reliable email, so I've never bothered with iCloud hosting.

 

[26139]

How much space are you looking to save? Feels like 7 gigs of important documents is pretty trivial.

I've always just copied over the entire folder to an HD before Time Machine or knowing about CCC.

Has always worked okay.

 

[BrianBaughn]

If you're not worried about the space on your Mac you could just create an account at another provider, add it to Mail, and move the email to folders at the new account.

 

[26139]

I've also created Gmail accounts, added them to Mail, moved all the mail over by making duplicate folders, then removed the account from my computer.

 

[jpn]

I want to back up all the email that I have in the macOS Mail app–and free up some room in my iCloud account. I have dozens of subfolders in the Mail app that I use to sort emails I've gotten over the years. In total, I have about 7GB of emails going back almost a decade.

But I'm not sure how to best go about backing up my email (after I do, I'll delete any emails older than a year from the iCloud server to free up space).

1) Is it necessary to right-click on each folder in the Mail.app and choose "Export Mailbox"?

2) Or can I just copy the entire ~Library/Mail folder to an external hard drive?

3) Will either way save all of my attachments included with any emails?

Is one more advantageous than the other? Will both let me restore all my emails to a new Mac when I get it?

during the past 7 years i have used the following way to ensure i have macOS Mail backed up.
best to use a two-pronged strategy.

1 Mail backed up to an off line USB-C device by dragging entire macOS Catalina Mail folder found in your Library, the entire V7 folder as is. This preserves the entire structure and Rules etc etc. This is a long term strategy. Requires
regularly doing the same thing (every couple of months; every time a major macOS Mail release is done) to ensure compatibility.

2 Time Machine is often a better mid-term - short term strategy to get back any recent mail or group of mail somehow lost.

The combination of above has allowed me to have 7 years of Mail without any being lost. I only have around 80GB of Mail with attachments, however. Mail is able to handle this amount with ease.

 

[SW3029]

during the past 7 years i have used the following way to ensure i have macOS Mail backed up.
best to use a two-pronged strategy.

1 Mail backed up to an off line USB-C device by dragging entire macOS Catalina Mail folder found in your Library, the entire V7 folder as is. This preserves the entire structure and Rules etc etc. This is a long term strategy. Requires
regularly doing the same thing (every couple of months; every time a major macOS Mail release is done) to ensure compatibility.

2 Time Machine is often a better mid-term - short term strategy to get back any recent mail or group of mail somehow lost.

The combination of above has allowed me to have 7 years of Mail without any being lost. I only have around 80GB of Mail with attachments, however. Mail is able to handle this amount with ease.

Niji, do you know if saving the Mail folder saves all the online (like iCloud, Gmail) and "On My Mac" folders and emails in Mail.app? Basically I'm asking if you save the Mail folder you mentioned, it saves emails from ALL acounts you can access in Mail.app.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

The Apple support article on this topic: https://support.apple.com/HT202736