Migrating Email From Apple Mail to Windows Live Mail

Yes, some people really do leave Apple for Microsoft...

This applies only to Apple Mail found in Leopard and Snow Leopard - earlier versions store and handle mail differently.

1. create mbox2eml.pl, and put it on your $PATH

2. #!/usr/bin/perl -w
   
   # Copyright (C) 2009 Josh A. Beam
   #
   # Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
   # purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
   # copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
   #
   # THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
   # WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
   # MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
   # ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
   # WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
   # ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
   # OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
   
   # mbox2eml.pl (last modified July 14, 2009)
   # This Perl script creates separate .eml files for each email message in
   # a given mbox file. The .eml files are created in the directory that the
   # script is run from and each file is named according to the position of
   # the message in the mbox file (for example, "1.eml" for the first message).
   
   use strict;
   
   # make sure an mbox filename was given
   if($#ARGV != 0) {
   print STDERR "Usage: $0 \n";
   exit(1);
   }
   
   # open mbox file
   open MBOX, $ARGV[0] or die "Unable to open mbox file\n";
   
   # loop through each line from mbox file
   my $fileCount = 0;
   my $blankLineCount = 2;
   while(my $line = )
   {
   chomp($line);
   $line =~ s/\r//g;
   
   # check for the start of a new message
   if($blankLineCount >= 1 && $line =~ /^From /) {
   # open new eml file
   close EML;
   open EML, ">" . ++$fileCount . ".eml";
   
   print "Saving " . $fileCount . ".eml\r";
   } else {
   # write line to file
   print EML $line . "\n";
   }
   
   # check for blank lines
   if($line eq "") {
   ++$blankLineCount;
   } else {
   $blankLineCount = 0;
   }
   }
   
   # close files
   close EML;
   close MBOX;
   
   print "Saved " . $fileCount . " files\n";
   
   

3. mkdir ~/someFolder
4. cd ~/Library/Mail
5. find . -type d -iname '*.mbox' -exec cp -R "{}" ~/someFolder/ \;
6. cd ~/someFolder
7. for directory in *.mbox ; do mkdir "${directory}-email" ; done
8. for directory in *.mbox ; do mbox2eml.pl "${directory}/mbox" ; mv -v *.eml "${directory}-email" ; done
9. rm -rf *.mbox
10. Copy someFolder to the Windows computer
11. Run File -> Import from Windows Live Mail - choose Live Mail format when asked