One of the most significant changes in Tiger’s Apple Mail 2.0 was the shift from storing messages together in mbox files to storing them as individual emlx files. This is done primarily so that Spotlight could search your messages easily.

Each email is now stored as an XML document in a subfolder of your Mail folder.

However, if you take a peek inside your Mail folder, you will see that in fact Mail.app is using three different types of files to manage your messages. Some details about each type follow after the jump.

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Macworld has found a way to export Mail 2.0 emlx files into Thunderbird.

It follows exactly the method suggested in a Hawk Wings tip on 23rd October.

Isn’t that sweet?

Both macOSXHints and mozillaZine carry the same tip for importing email messages into Mail.app from Thunderbird. It involves copying the relevant mailboxes to the Desktop, adding the “.mbox” extension to the files and then importing them via Apple Mail‘s Import feature.

Contacts can be exported from Thunderbird‘s Address Book in either CSV (Comma Separated Value) or tab delimited format.

You can then import them into OS X’s Address Book using its native import feature or using a third-party app like Address Book Importer (which is free for a “one-off” use).

UPDATE: In the comments to this entry, Andreas Amann points out some problems with the tip on masOSXHints and MozillaZine. He notes that Eudora Mailbox Cleaner now handles the importing of Thunderbird mailboxes as well (and better). Thanks.

Going the other way? (Shame on you!) CosmicSoft’s emlx to mbox converter looks promising for Mail 2.0 users on the way out. Use it, then follow the second half of the instructions for importing emails from kmail in the Thunderbird FAQ.thunderbird, emlx, mbox, converter, switching, address book

CosmicSoft has written an app that will convert emails in Mail 2.0′s new emlx format back into the standard mbox format.

The app’s readme file claims that,

…if you need to recover from a hard drive crash, it’s almost impossible to recover your mail messages easily since Mail won’t import emlx files and you can’t add them to your mailboxes any other way.

It is true that importing emlx messages is not one of the default options in Mail.app’s “Import” menu, but there is a simple work-around that will import your emlx emails without the trouble of converting them into the mbox first.

Still, this app could be useful if you are thinking of abandoning Apple Mail for some other email client. Perish the thought!

You can download it from CosmicSoft’s website.

UPDATE: New version (1.0.3) released, 23 December 2005.emlx, mbox, converting, mail.app, apple mail, utilities, switching, mailboxes

There is no easy way to import messages in the new 10.4 format (individual XML documents with the emlx extension) into Mail.app. It is not one of the options in Mail 2.0′s “Import” menu.

But you can put deleted messages back (if you have them in a backup) or add news ones and force Mail to reindex them. Here’s how:

1. Quit Mail.
2. Make a backup of your complete ~/Library/Mail folder just in case, by Option-Dragging it out of the Finder window onto the Desktop.
3. Create a new directory in your ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes folder called – for example – “backup.mbox”.
4. Create a sub-folder in the new folder called “Messages”.
5. Copy all the messages (emlx files) that you want to restore from your backup into that sub-folder.
6. Launch Apple Mail. The mailbox you created will be in the list of mailboxes on the left. Highlight it (it will appear empty but isn’t really) and choose “Rebuild” from Mail’s Mailbox menu.
7. Mail.app will rebuild and re-index the messages.
8. When the process is complete you will see the messages you added in the new mailbox. You can then move them to wherever they really belong.

This has worked for me. And I double-checked it again this morning.mail.app, apple mail, emlx, import, messages, tip, mailboxes