Importing old Mail from old Mac and Contacts from iPhone

[buzzsmith]

Getting closer to back to normal...

1. I have access to my old primary internal HD, and would like to import all the old mail back into Mail on the new Mac. Can't seem to figure this one out. I don't know which option to select (doesn't seem to make any difference, anyway) and then where to direct new Mail to go "look" for the older mail.

2. I also would like to import the contacts from the iPhone back into the new Mac's Address Book, but in the 2 or 3 times I've tried, the Mac seems to want to overwrite the existing contacts in the iPhone! I did try to enter a "dummy" contact hoping that I'd get the merge option.

(Fortunately, iTunes backs up the iPhone prior to this procedure, so I was able to restore the phone back to where it was.)

Any procedures or links to external docs would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Buzzy

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Over a million hits Googling your thread title. LOL!

Surely one link has the info!

[buzzsmith]

I did Google, MLC, which I always do before posting here.

I did the search individually, and was finding (especially with the iPhone) conflicting procedures.

Some said, "Do this, but be careful of that!" and some said "Do that but be careful of this!"

(I already have had to restore the iPhone 3 times, 'cause the almost empty Mac Address Book wants to overwrite the iPhone contacts.)

And since I'm near brain dead, from all of the re-installs and re-authorizations, etc. what's left of my noggin is just spinning...data overload...Warning!...Warning!

So I come to where the trusted experts are...MotuNation!

Thanks for the link, though. When I clicked on it, I could see that I had already visited a couple that were displayed on page one.

I'll keep looking as time permits. These issues were at the bottom of my getting back to studio-ready list!

Buzzy

[carrythebanner]

2. I also would like to import the contacts from the iPhone back into the new Mac's Address Book, but in the 2 or 3 times I've tried, the Mac seems to want to overwrite the existing contacts in the iPhone! I did try to enter a "dummy" contact hoping that I'd get the merge option.

When the iPhone is connected, select it in iTunes, then go to its Info tab. Scroll to the bottom and make sure that Contacts is _not_ selected under "Replace information on this iPhone".

[buzzsmith]

When the iPhone is connected, select it in iTunes, then go to its Info tab. Scroll to the bottom and make sure that Contacts is _not_ selected under "Replace information on this iPhone".

It wasn't selected.

Still having difficulties...it seems like even though I uncheck the sync contacts button and then Apply, whenever I plug the iPhone in to the Mac, it syncs and overwrites the existing contacts. It appears that the Mac rechecks the "Sync Contacts"?!

Within iTunes under Advanced, I also have checked "Prevent iPods and iPhones from syncing automatically."

Thanks...

Buzzy

[Dave Bourke]

Mail:

1. Open Mail on the new Mac and choose File > Import Mailboxes...
2. Select Mail for Mac OS X.
3. In the dialog, navigate to <Old HD>/Users/<Your User Name>/Library/Mail

Note that you may have some tidying up to do in Mail when the import is finished, including duplicated mailboxes, etc.


Address Book:

Tricky. If the iPhone's set of contacts originally came from the old Mac and had been synced to your MobileMe account, it would be a breeze to do this. However, if you've been using the iPhone as a Contacts "standalone," it's more troublesome, since (as far as I can tell) the iPhone always syncs FROM MobileMe, not TO it (with PUSH turned on for MobileMe).

One way might be to open each contact on the iPhone, then hit the Share Contact button - this allows you to email the info. To yourself, naturally! Not exactly plug&play, but should make it a bit easier to get the data into the new Mac's Address Book.

Then, when you've finally got it how you want it, sync it up to MobileMe, and keep an archive database backed up locally as well (File > Export > Address Book Archive...

Probably not the answer you're looking for (and I'm still getting the hang of syncing myself), but I hope it helps a bit.

Kind regards.

[buzzsmith]

Thanks, Dave.

I found an address book backup from a couple of months ago so that won't require much more than entering a few names, etc. manually, so I'm gonna settle for that.

Since I have access to the old internal primary HD, I think, for now, if I need to look at an old email, I'll just mount that drive, and Spotlight search for the sender, subject, whatever which I can open in my current Mail.

Too many other things to do than worry about this!

Thanks, again.

I'm gonna print out your response, and some rainy day, I may follow through.

Maybe I should get a Mobileme account?

Buzzy