Re: [Evolution-hackers] mail migration

[Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam whitemice org>]

On Fri, 2012-12-14 at 23:29 +0100, Sasa Ostrouska wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 9:10 PM, Adam Tauno Williams
> <awilliam whitemice org> wrote:
> > On Fri, 2012-12-14 at 04:54 +0100, Sasa Ostrouska wrote:
> >> Hi I know this is not direclty related to hacking on evolution, but I
> >> would like to ask one advice.
> >> I have about 5Gb of e-mails on my laptop which I use for work, and it
> >> is still on evolution 2.26.3.
> >> I would like to migrate now this stuff to evolution 3.6.x
> >> What is the best way to do that ?
> >> Simply upgrading evolution seems not to work, as it starts the wizard
> >> as if .evolution dir doesnt exist.
> >
> > If all you want to do is mail then it seems like it wouldn't be a bad
> > idea to make an 'external' local account (maildir or mbox [not certain
> > what is available in 2.26]) and then just copy all your mail.  Upgrade.
> > 'Reconnect' the new evolution to that account.
> Ok how can I do that external account ? You mean use something else
> like Thunderbird ?

No, I mean you can make an account in Evolution that stores mail locally
in a 'standard' format like MBOX or MailDir.  You specify a directory
and mail and mailboxes are stored in that format there.  Then you can
just drag the mail from your "On this computer" mailbox (assuming you
are POP'ing into that from somewhere).  Then you have the mail 'outside
of Evolution'.  And the new version of Evolution can look in the same
place for mail; you can either copy it back into on-this-computer
[assuming it doesn't transfer automatically] after you upgrade, or just
continue using the 'external' mail store.

I believe this is an option for 2.26, which I certain could do at least
MBOX, if no MH.  But I don't really remember the 2.x series that well
[it has been a long time].