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Backing up local folders

I use Mail on my Mac. I file emails which I want to keep under relevant local folders but I need to have some way of ensuring that these are backed up.


I subscribe to iCloud and back up to a hard disk also but I'm not sure that these are backing up my local folders.


Can anyone help please?


Regards,


Gordon.

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 13.4

Posted on Jul 6, 2023 9:39 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 6, 2023 9:56 AM

Apple's iCloud is not a backup solution. Remember that, even though Apple does provide a 30-day (only) sliding window for deleted file recovery on iCloud.


Apple's Time Machine, on the hour, will back up your entire changed local drive contents, your Mail folder and any contents within, including custom Mail folders to a local Time Machine drive. It is doing this with mine on macOS 13.4.1.

12 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 6, 2023 9:56 AM in response to Gordondow

Apple's iCloud is not a backup solution. Remember that, even though Apple does provide a 30-day (only) sliding window for deleted file recovery on iCloud.


Apple's Time Machine, on the hour, will back up your entire changed local drive contents, your Mail folder and any contents within, including custom Mail folders to a local Time Machine drive. It is doing this with mine on macOS 13.4.1.

Jul 8, 2023 6:17 AM in response to Gordondow

You don't need to dive into a TM backup and even if you do you may not get the results you want.


All your Mail, including your local folders, are stored in a hidden, default location: /users/<yourusername>/Library/Mail. You can use the Finder (or any backup application) to copy/backup the Mail folder to an external drive. However, due to the internal structure of the Mail database you should not use the Finder to copy individual mail folders that are contained in the /Mail folder itself.


If you want to manually back up an individual, local Mail folder, just follow the instructions I posted earlier.

Jul 8, 2023 6:39 AM in response to MartinR

MartinR, thank you so much once again. I've gone into my backed up files on the hard disk (Macintosh HD - Data), gone into Users but there's no Library there. There is a Library in the first menu but there's no Mail there. Is it maybe hidden in some way and if so, how do I find it?


On a supplementary point, are my Local Folders also in iCloud and if so, how do I find them?


Regards,


Gordon.


Jul 8, 2023 6:46 AM in response to Gordondow

The user Library is normally hidden. To navigate to it, in the Finder, do Go > Go to Folder and enter ~/Library.


Keep in mind that the Library is hidden for good reasons. It is not advisable for users to manage or modify anything in the Library on their own.


Local mail folders are local on your Mac. They are not in the cloud.

Jul 8, 2023 11:18 AM in response to Gordondow

All your mail is copied onto TM but it is very difficult to find a specific email. You can restore an entire mailbox by following the steps below. However, a better backup program would be MailSteward or MailBackupX.


To restore mailbox:

Open Finder

Click “GO” in top menu bar then click option key

Click on Library

Open mail folder

Open V9 or V10 (or similar) folder

Then find the folders labeled with cryptic titles (at this point you could open TM if you want to go back in time)

Look down through those folders to find a mailbox (note: there may be more than one with same label).


If it contains email you want you can copy the entire folder to your desktop

Go back into mail and import that folder from your desktop



Jul 9, 2023 4:42 AM in response to tbirdvet

tbirdvet - thank you for your response. I though that you'd solved my problem but when I tested by deleting one of the local folders I no longer needed, then selecting an old back-up, then clicking through to V10, then clicking through to where the folder Local Folders.mbox is stored, the date against it is today's date and time, so of course the deleted folder isn't there - what am I doing wrong?


Regards,


Gordon.

Jul 9, 2023 5:23 AM in response to tbirdvet

Sorry tbirdvet, I obviously didn't explain myself properly!


I've deleted a folder today in my Local Folders. If I open Finder, go to Passport drive which is where my TM back-ups are stored, and select one dated 18.03.23, then click though eventually to the V10 folder, all the folders within the are dated today.


I'm clearly doing something wrong!

Backing up local folders

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