Duplicate “Import” folder in Mail

[SpeQ]

After I updated to Monterey, I now have a duplicate of my Import mail folder, labeled as “Import 2” in the sidebar. My Import folder is mail I imported from my previous Mini. The duplicate folder was apparently created during the Monterey installation.

The only difference between the two folders is my original Import folder is comprised of 4 sub-folders: Drafts, Inbox, Junk, and Sent Messages. In the duplicate folder, the Inbox and Sent are combined into one display.

When setting up this M1 Mini last year, I transferred the mail manually using the instructions in the link below. It’s been working fine until now, and actually it still seems to work fine.

How to Move Your Apple Mail to a New Mac

Transferring Apple Mail data to a new Mac or a new clean install of the OS is not difficult, but the process requires following these directions carefully.

www.lifewire.com

There’s like over 8,000 messages in each folder with many attachments - a total of 4 GB. Seems like a waste of space. Why was the duplicate created? Am I supposed to delete the old folder?

 

[shorton2]

Similar problem, but I now have 6 import folders named Import, Import-2, Import-3.... any idea what is going on? I'm clueless at this point and I hope that I accurately presume that I can delete them.

 

[SpeQ]

Similar problem, but I now have 6 import folders named Import, Import-2, Import-3.... any idea what is going on? I'm clueless at this point and I hope that I accurately presume that I can delete them.

I totally forgot about this problem until you posted. I still have the second import folder. I never did anything about it. Please reply if you find an answer somewhere.

 

[shorton2]

Well, I just deleted the 6 import folders several hours ago from within the mail application itself, and so far they have not reappeared and my Apple mail application (v. 15.0) continues to work normally. We shall see if it lasts. Each import folder had 7,000-9,000 messages.

 

[SpeQ]

Well, I just deleted the 6 import folders several hours ago from within the mail application itself, and so far they have not reappeared and my Apple mail application (v. 15.0) continues to work normally. We shall see if it lasts. Each import folder had 7,000-9,000 messages.

So did you import your old email from another computer by copying the Mail folder, as I mentioned in my original post? Or did you use a different method, like using Migration Assistant?

Did the duplicate folders appear after you updated from Big Sur to Monterey?

The reason I hesitated to delete the duplicate folder is because I thought it may have been created because there was a problem with the original. I would suggest to you to do some searches for things you know are in the import mail, to make sure that still works. It may take a while for your indexing to get straightened out, I'm guessing.

 

[shorton2]

I originally imported my mail when I "upgraded" to BigSur. Frankly, and I'm sorry that I don't remember when, I'm not sure when the repeated imports began to appear. That is, whether it was in BigSur or in Monterey although I'm leaning toward Monterey. (Not very objective, sorry.) I've done some searching and so far have not seen a problem with "lost" email. Also I noticed that the vast majority of re-import mail messages were quite old but at least a year and often much more. Key word here is vast majority, not all. Good luck and I hope that I'm in the clear. It's still a very weird thing and perhaps there is a but in Apple mail?

 

[Fishrrman]

Sometimes, you just have to cull and delete stuff (even large amounts of stuff) "by hand"...