[MlMt] Getting started with MailMate

[Bill Cole]

On 22 Nov 2020, at 15:46, Andrew Buc wrote:

> Thanks for your response. The fact that we both use Fastmail puts us 
> on the same page.
>
>> On Nov 22, 2020, at 11:05 AM, Martin S Taylor 
>> <mailmate at martinstaylor.com> wrote:
>>
>> The snag you're likely to hit is that MailMate doesn't support 
>> mailboxes held 'On My Mac' as Apple Mail names it. It can only access 
>> mailboxes held on an IMAP server such as FastMail. The FastMail 
>> server will have a fair amount of space set aside for you: the exact 
>> amount depends on which scheme you pay for. However, if you have 
>> masses of old mail archived 'On My Mac', you should check that 
>> there's room on the FastMail server.
>
> I think I’ll need to upgrade from my current 2GB plan to the 30GB 
> plan.
>
> I noodled around with MailMate a few years ago, and ISTR that there 
> was an option to import my entire Apple Mail database into MailMate, 
> although I didn’t actually do it. I take it that that doesn’t 
> address the issue you mention above, even if the database can be 
> imported?

Right. The imported mail has to be stored in an IMAP account. Some 
people set up a local IMAP server for this (Dovecot being the simplest 
choice of software.) It is also possible to import mail into a fake 
never-online account, as long as you're willing to accept that it will 
be an essentially static archive. Because MM considers the online 
(server) version of an account's mail to be the authoritative truth, any 
changes you try to make to the contents of mail imported into a fake 
account will actually be pending until you (never) connect to the 
(non-existent) server.

What I did is a variation on the import into a fake account. I used 
Emailchemy (https://weirdkid.com/emailchemy/) to bring ~20 years worth 
of Eudora mail in to MM by using its limited IMAP server functionality. 
That's less justifiable with Apple Mail (which is less arcane about its 
stored mail than Eudora was) so it is probably not worth the $30 license 
cost.


-- 
Bill Cole
bill at scconsult.com or billcole at apache.org
(AKA @grumpybozo and many *@billmail.scconsult.com addresses)
Not Currently Available For Hire