Transfer email from one Mac to another

29.05.2012
On-the-go reader Wally Bock would like to move his email from here to there. He writes:

I need to move all my messages in Mail from my iMac to my MacBook Pro. How do I do this and be sure I get all my recent messages on to the new computer?

There are a couple of ways you could go about this. If you're specifically interested in your recent email and not the stuff you've been hoarding since 2002, it makes sense to create an archive of just those messages you want and then move them. Like so:

Launch Mail on your iMac and from the Mailboxes menu choose New Smart Mailbox. In the sheet that appears create a smart mailbox with a condition that reads Date Received Is in the Last 6 Months. If you'd also like to include messages you've sent, enable the Include Messages From Sent option. Give the mailbox an intuitive name such as Recent Email and click OK. A Recent Email mailbox will appear under the Smart Mailboxes heading in Mail's Mailboxes pane.

Now Control (Right) click on that smart mailbox and choose Archive Mailbox from the resulting menu. Choose to save the mailbox archive to the desktop and click Choose. A Recent Email.mbox item will appear on your Mac's desktop. Copy this item to your MacBook Pro.

On the MacBook Pro, launch Mail and from the File menu choose Import Mailboxes. In the window that appears be sure that Apple Mail is selected and then click the Continue button. Navigate to the Recent Email.mbox item and click Choose. Your messages will be imported into an aptly named "Import" folder that appears under the On My Mac heading in Mail's Mailboxes pane.