Mac Mail doesn't import ALL email from Netscape 7.2

[BCDrums]

I need help with a Netscape-to-Mac Mail import

I must move from Mac OS Snow Leopard to OS Lion. My lovely bride is using Netscape 7.2. She has over 10 years of email messages. Netscape 7.2 won't work in Lion.

I tried to import her old email into a Mac Mail account. Mail has a wizard to do this, but it only imports the first four years of email. It doesn't import the rest of it. SO...how to get ALL of this email into Mac Mail? I tried compacting folders, no change. Also, if I open the mail file in her profile with TextEdit, I can see that the mail runs from 1999 to the present.

To be clear, ALL of her mail loads into Netscape.

Thanks!
BC

[DanRaisch]

You might try chunking down the folder in Netscape. That is, move messages from the folder being imported to storage folder created for the purpose, to reduce the total number of messages in that source folder. If that initial import is successful, delete from the source folder the messages already imported to Mac Mail, then move messages back from the storage folder to the source folder and repeat the import process.

[BCDrums]

Dan,

Thanks for the reply. How do I chunk down the folder? Is there a way to do it from within Netscape? Do I have to open the source folder in TextEdit and edit it there? It's a 1.5gb folder– it's a lot of text.

BC

[DanRaisch]

No, move the messages around within Netscape. You should be able to select a group of messages using regular Mac keyboard commands and drag and drop them to the target folder.

[BCDrums]

Dan,

I am familiar with dragging and dropping on the Mac. I created a folder named "Old Email 2004" in my home folder, and I selected and dragged a chunk of email from the Netscape window to the new folder. It did not work– the emails snapped back into the Netscape window. Is this what you were suggesting?

Thanks.
BC

[DanRaisch]

What is Mac Mail importing? Messages from all Netscape folders or just the Inbox folder?

[Philip Chee]

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned SeaMonkey since SeaMonkey is a direct descendant of Mozilla Suite. Netscape 7.2 is a just OEM build of Mozilla 1.7 plus loads of Netscape (R.I.P.) bloatware. SeaMonkey until v1.1 will directly use your old Netscape 7 profiles (because underneath the branding they are both the same program) and all your mail will automatically show up.

SeaMonkey 2.0 uses a more modern backend so nowadays we run on exactly the same core code as Firefox and Thunderbird. But SeaMonkey 2.0 will/can import ALL your mail into a new SeaMonkey profile.

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

SeaMonkey has inherited the successful all-in-one concept of the original Netscape Communicator and continues that product line based on the modern, cross-platform architecture provided by the Mozilla project.

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/doc/system-requirements

* Mac OS X 10.5
* Mac OS X 10.6
* Mac OS X 10.7 (starting with SeaMonkey 2.3)

SeaMonkey Download & Releases:
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/

Phil

[BCDrums]

What is Mac Mail importing? Messages from all Netscape folders or just the Inbox folder?

I had been trying to import just the Inbox. Spurred by you question, I tried importing everything using the Mac Mail import function, which has a choice of Netscape/Mozilla. The import took a long time. As messages are imported, I could see their subject lines, and I know it pulled in all messages from 1999 to present. When I looked at the Import mailbox in Mail, it seemed to have all the messages, as indicated by the Unread Mail number. But when I click on the imported Inbox to look at the messages, it has the same bunch I have been seeing all along, from 1999 to 2003.

Interestingly, every time I have tried to import to mail (5 or 6 times now), the progress bar stops for a while at one particular message before continuing. When I open the import it's THAT message, from 2003 that is the last one available in the mailbox.

BC

[BCDrums]

At your suggestion I downloaded SeaMonkey 1.1 in hopes that it would find the Netscape Profile and pull in all the email messages I am trying to save.

When I launch SeaMonkey for the first time, it puts up a browser window which I ignore. I select the Mail window, and it puts up a window to create an email account. I click cancel. I was hoping that, without my doing anything, SeaMonkey would find the Profile and set the whole thing up for me, but it did not.

So I select Import from the Tools menu. A wizard appears, asking what type of material to import. I select Mail.

The wizard gives me two choices of programs to import from, Communicator 4.x and Eudora. I select Communicator, and click Next. The Next button and the Back button gray out. After 12 minutes, nothing has happened, so I select Cancel.

What is happening, or not happening? Maybe SM can’t find the Profile? It is in User>Library>Mozilla>Profiles. Is that the right place?

Thanks for the help.
BC