[MlMt] Migrating MM

[Bill Cole]

On 2023-05-03 at 10:08:50 UTC-0400 (Wed, 3 May 2023 07:08:50 -0700)
davecc0000 <mailmate at lists.freron.com>
is rumored to have said:

> I’m creating a new boot volume (Catalina) and doing a minimal, 
> manual migration of needed apps.
>
> I downloaded MM from thr Freron server.
>
> I copied
> ~/Library/Application Support/MailMate
>
> from the old boot volume (Sierra) to the new boot volume (Catalina).
>
> After launching MM and providing all the email account passwords, MM 
> put up this message:
>
> “MailMate failed to save a file to disk”
> < https://imgur.com/a/jdBs3iI >
>
> Apparently there is an alias to the messages in the MailMate folder 
> which can’t be resolved. I navigated to the old Sierra boot disk 
> (while still booted into Catalina) and double-clicked on the alias. A 
> System error message was displayed saying the original item couldn’t 
> be located.
>
> Suggestions?

Short answer:

Finder:File->Get Info on the old alias, look for "Original" field. That 
directory is the REAL Messages folder, in the context where the Sierra 
volume is mounted at the root. Find that directory on the Sierra volume 
and copy it to the analogous place on the new disk.


Long answer:

True Finder Aliases should not break like that, but the Finder will 
present "symbolic link" files (part of the Unix heritage, a.k.a. 
'symlinks') as aliases despite the fact that they technically aren't the 
same. Symlinks are fragile because they hold only a pathname, which can 
be absolute and hence dependent on where a volume is mounted, or 
relative and so dependent on the current working directory when 
resolved. They are generally NOT followed when copying, as they are 
frequently used as a tactic for disk space management.

At some point, you set your Messages to live somewhere accessible 
(Preferences->General) and MailMate created a symlink in 
~/Library/Application Support/MailMate/ to the absolute pathname of 
wherever you set the real folder to live. Copying broke the link, which 
is most likely rooted in /Users/yourusername/ (which is now your home 
dir on the Catalina volume.)

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