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Forwarding all Apple Mail messages individually?

4K views 11 replies 2 participants last post by  krs 
#1 · (Edited)
How can I forward all Apple Mail messages individually?

If I select all messages and go to forward, they all get forwarded in one huge email.

I just want to forward each message individually to my gmail account, but not do it one message at a time.

Next snag seems to be importing the address book from the Mac to Gmail. Gmail only supports importing CSV files, the Mac doesn't export the address book in that file format. So now I have to convert the mac address book information into a CSV file........oh boy!!
 
#2 ·
Address Book to CSV Exporter 1.3a

This one-trick-pony is what you need. Address Book to CSV Exporter 1.3a listed at Apple Downloads.... :D Link given here is direct to author (no Macupdate/Versiontracker inflation.... ;) )...

EDIT: You might want to check out HawkWings which is quite a repository of info, tips and tricks for Mail (also iCal and AddressBook and their integration) for another answer to your issue.
 
#3 ·
Thanks, however, I found HawkWings very unorganized. Didn't find any hints how to upload or forward all my messages to Gmail and the serach function didn't help either.

But................
With a bit of searching and a comment from somebody on the apple web site I came across this:

A capability to import mbox files into Gmail:

FON Gmail Uploader

And an easy way to create mbox files:

Mail for Mac OS X 10.4 stores messages in individual elmx files instead of a single mbox file. This allows Spotlight to index individual messages, but makes it harder to move your mail to other mail clients.

Apple Mail does know how to create mbox files -- it just doesn't use the term Export.

1. Select the messages you want in the mbox file. (Press Command-A to export the whole folder.)
2. Go to the File menu and select Save As...
3. Enter a filename for your mbox file. The default filename is the Subject of the first message, but this doesn't mean you'll be saving each message individually.
4. Select where you want the file saved.
5. Select Format: Raw Message Source
6. Save.

The result is a file in mbox format, complete with MIME attachments, that you can import into other mail clients.

The only drawback is that Mail stores message status (Read, Unread) separate from the elmx files, and it won't create X-Status headers when exporting to mbox. This means that all messages appear to be unread when you import them into another mail application.


I'm just in the process to try that with my 2007 Inbox which has over 1500 messages in it.
 
#5 ·
Turns out that way of creating mbox files doesn't really work.
You do get an mbox file you can upload to Gmail, but all your mail messages end up in one gigantic email which is no different than if you just select all mailbox files and forward them.
That also gives you only one single email with all the messages in it.

I'm just trying another approach using an application to convert the mail messages to mbox. The conversion seems to have worked but my upload now is stuck at 12.2 MB.
Since with this GMail upload tool you have to authorize the upload through a link sent to your Gmail account and since this link is not sent until the upload is complete, a partial upload gives you absolutely nothing.
So I'm still experimenting trying to get something to work.
 
#6 ·
That mbox file is not a single email.
All messages in an mbox mailbox are concatenated and stored as plain text in a single file. The beginning of each message is indicated by a line whose first five characters are "From " (the so-called "From_ line" or "'From ' line") and a blank line is appended to the end of each message.
See mbox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

An email reader program parses out the individual messages when the "Mailbox" is opened.

Perhaps you could split up the original mailbox, generate a series of mbox files, transfer the splits, reassemble in Gmail...
 
#7 ·
For my second try, I used an emlx to mbox converter to create the mbox file.
http://www.cosmicsoft.net/emlxconvert.html

Uploaded that using GMail uploader, but that didn't work at all. The file looked as if it was uploading and completed (I'm just doing a small test file of about 20 emails), then it gave me the authorization link to complete the upload which I clicked. the message came back ' file uploading' and there it sat.

I looked at both of the mbox files that were generated, the one that was generated by Apple mail directly (per post #3) and the one that was generated using the application - to me they look the same in text edit: One big file with each email starting with "From " and a blank line at the end of the message. I assume the "five" characters they refer to are F r o m and a space.

So in the first case, the file did upload and show up in the Gmail inbox, but as a single email, not as individual emais; and using the second method to create the mbox file, the upload never completed and I ended up with nothing in my Gmail inbox (other than the authorization email).

I emailed the developers of the Gmail Uploader, but I don't really expect to hear anything back until Monday.
 
#8 ·
Interesting, if frustrating. mbox is a pretty standard format, Possibilities include

  • the created files are not true vanilla mbox formatted - unlikely since you have inspected them (tho' if saved out of TextEdit before sending there could be problems, but it doesn't sound as if you did that)
  • the Gmail parser doesn't work properly, which is also unlikely as Google generally does their homework
  • Gmail may require some non=standard variant of mbox, which seems unlikely

I'd be very interested in hearing the solution.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Interesting, if frustrating. mbox is a pretty standard format,
maybe too simple - I don't really see how just the term "From " and a blank line can always delineate an email message.
There were actually a couple of posts on the net I came across where people clain emails were split because the word 'from' was in the message.
However, that's not a problem with my attempts yet - I'm not even at the point where individual messages get saved.
  • the created files are not true vanilla mbox formatted - unlikely since you have inspected them (tho' if saved out of TextEdit before sending there could be problems, but it doesn't sound as if you did that)
  • the Gmail parser doesn't work properly, which is also unlikely as Google generally does their homework
  • Gmail may require some non=standard variant of mbox, which seems unlikely
To your points:
1. I looked at the mbox files after you posted the quote from the Wiki to see if I could spot something obviously wrong or different between the two mbox files. That was after I had already tried the uploads. And I just used TextEdit to look at the file.
2. The Gmail uploader is not a Google product, it was developed by a third party and I don't believe is the final version. I'm not sure where the Gmail parser comes in.
However, one thing I just thought about. Is Gmail still in Beta? Since I registered my Gmail account more than two years ago (but never used it), perhaps I should try to find if there is a later version.

What I was going to do (if a later version of Gmail doesn't solve the problem), is to take 20 messages out of my email trash, spam basically, and try to convert that group to mbox using the two methods to see if the resulting files are the same, and then try the upload again.
I can also post these mbox files here if anyone is familiar with mbox type files (I'm certainly not) and wants to take a look.

PS: Just looked at the Gmail discussion group. This question has come up there; the answer so far is that it can't be done.
I really don't see why not if these applications work the way they should.
Convert Apple mail to mbox, then upload mbox file. Sounds straight forward to me.
 
#11 ·
I just started on this issue again.
Made up a test mailbox with 15 random messages in it.
Converted to mbox using Apple mail - the steps I described above (which seem to be OK contrary to what I posted subsequently)
Then opened FONUploader - in there I saw the following error message which I believe is from an upload I tried yesterday that I thought didn't go anywhere.
Well - I guess it really went nowhere, none of the six messages uploaded.


OK, so I uploaded my new 15 message mbox file, got the authentication link message, went to my gmail account, authorized the upload and am now sitting at this point with the uploader


Now, interestingly enough, I had a message in my gmail about new problems people posted since yesterday evening. 80 messages in 33 topics.
I got that because I asked for email notification if someone replied on the gmail discussion group about this uploading issue.
Must have clicked on the wrong button and am getting all problem posts.
What's interesting is that there seem to be two big problems that have come up numerous times.
1. People complain that all their mail has disappeared and are asking how to get it back.
2. People are complaining that they get into other people's gmail accounts
Both pretty major items IMHO
 
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