Importing mail into EagleFiler speeds up your mail program and backups, creates
an efficient and secure archive of your mail, and lets you organize and search
mail messages alongside related files. The recommended way to import mail varies
depending on which mail program you’re using:
- Apple Mail
- Select some messages and press the capture key. EagleFiler will
preserve the message status and flagged indicators from Mail, as well as
any keywords, projects, and notes from MailTags. EagleFiler is able to
import messages from IMAP mailboxes, however it will only import the
parts of the messages that have been downloaded from the server. Thus,
it is recommended that you select the option in Mail’s preferences to
keep All messages and their attachments for offline viewing. Another
way to import from Apple Mail is to drag and drop folders or mailboxes
from the Finder. This makes it possible to import whole hierarchies of
mail.
- Entourage
- Select a mailbox or some messages and press the capture key.
EagleFiler will preserve the message flags, categories, and projects.
EagleFiler skips messages that have been assigned the
“OmitFromArchive” category in Entourage.
- Eudora
- Mailboxes for Eudora 6 are stored in the Mail Folder folder inside
the Eudora Folder folder, and they can be dragged from the Finder
into EagleFiler. They are not actually in mbox format (for example, the
attachments are removed), but the format is close enough that EagleFiler
will be able to read most of the messages. Running the mailboxes through
Eudora Mailbox Cleaner before importing them into EagleFiler may
produce better results. The .toc files are not mailboxes and should
not be imported.
- GyazMail
- Select some mailboxes and choose File ‣ Export ‣ Unix mbox….
Then drag the exported files into EagleFiler.
- Mailsmith
- Select some mailboxes or messages and press the capture key.
EagleFiler will preserve the message status, label, and notes. You may
find it helpful to use Email Archiver to separate messages by age
before importing them into EagleFiler.
- Outspring Mail
The messages are stored in the folder:
/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Outspring Mail/
as individual .eml files. They can be imported into EagleFiler via
drag and drop or by pressing the capture key in the Finder.
- Postbox
Before importing into EagleFiler, use Postbox’s Compact
Folders command. The mailboxes are stored in the folder:
/Users/<username>/Library/Postbox/Profiles/<profile>/Mail/Local Folders/
and can be dragged from the Finder to EagleFiler. The .msf files
are not mailboxes and be ignored or deleted from EagleFiler’s library.
- PowerMail
- Select some folders or messages and press the capture key.
EagleFiler will preserve the message status and label.
- Thunderbird and Eudora 8
To import an individual message from Thunderbird, select the message and
choose File ‣ Save As ‣ File. Save the .eml file into
EagleFiler’s To Import folder.
To import whole mailboxes from Thunderbird, first use Thunderbird’s
Compact Folders command. The mailboxes are stored in the folder:
/Users/<username>/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<profile>/Mail/Local Folders/
and can be dragged from the Finder to EagleFiler. The .msf files
are not mailboxes and be ignored or deleted from EagleFiler’s library.
- Webmail
- Web-based mail services do not store mail files on disk, so
there is nothing for EagleFiler to read. The best way to
import Webmail is to connect to the mail account using one of
the above mail programs. If your Webmail does not support this,
you can drag and drop text from your Web browser, use File ‣
Save to save messages into EagleFiler’s To Import folder,
or print and choose Save PDF to EagleFiler.
EagleFiler has native support for viewing e-mail messages. There are two options
in the The View Menu for controlling how messages are displayed: Message ‣
Plain Text and Message ‣ Raw Source. The plain text font and size can be
set in the Preferences. You can use the Quick Look command in the The
Record Menu to preview attached images. The Reply to Message command lets
you resume a conversation by opening a new message in your e-mail program. You
can also double-click a message to open it in your e-mail program (e.g. to
forward it or to access the attachments). EagleFiler opens messages using Mac OS
X’s default viewer for .eml files, which is normally Apple Mail. To change
the default viewer, use the Reveal in Finder command, then choose Get
Info from the Finder’s File menu and look in the Open with section of
the info window.
When importing mail:
- EagleFiler imports the entire raw source of the message, including
the attachments and headers. In other words, all the information is
preserved; if desired, the messages can be imported back into the
mail program with full fidelity. (Exceptions: When importing from
Eudora, EagleFiler imports the message text as processed and stored
by Eudora, and it does not import the attachments, which Eudora
stores separately. Webmail messages imported as PDFs do not include
the full source or attachments.)
- As with other types of imports, EagleFiler copies the messages into
its library. When it’s done, you can delete the messages from your
mail program. It’s simpler to have each message stored in only one
place (the mail program or EagleFiler), and this way you won’t
accidentally import multiple copies of the same messages into
EagleFiler.
- EagleFiler stores messages in mailbox (“mbox”) files. This is both
for efficiency (one file rather than thousands for a mailbox
containing thousands of messages) and for compatibility with other
software that can read the standard mbox format.
- If you prefer to store your messages as individual .eml files
rather than mailboxes, you can drag and drop the messages out of the
mailboxes once they’re in EagleFiler. You can also import an
individual message directly from Apple Mail via drag and drop.
- Each time you import from a mailbox, a new mailbox file is
created in EagleFiler, using the same name as in your mail
program. If you had previously imported from that mailbox,
you may already have a mailbox file in EagleFiler with that
name.
- Some people like to leave each import as a separate
mailbox, e.g. so that for each mailbox there’s one file
per month or per year.
- Others prefer to have a single file that holds all the
messages imported from that mailbox over time. To do
this, select the Records source and sort by title.
This will group the related mailboxes together. You can
then select the related mailboxes and use the Merge
Mailboxes command to combine them into a single
mailbox. The combined mailbox will be stored in the
folder that contained the oldest of the selected
mailboxes, so your organizational structure is preserved
even though the newly imported mailbox might have been
imported at the top level.
- As described in the Basics section, you should not modify or
delete the mail while EagleFiler is in the midst of importing it.