[Evolution] Re: Evolution Import/Export

[Andrew Greig <algreig bigpond net au>]

> From: Mike Meyer <mjmeyer gendesign com>
> To: evolution lists ximian com
> Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 15:29:49 -0600
> Subject: [Evolution] Evolution Import/Export
>
> All,
>
>       I'm currently moving to a new PC and want to bring my local inbox,
> saved email folders, tasks, calandar and contacts with me. I am moving
> to a newer version of evolution (ximian 1.4.5 to 2.0.2 novell groupware)
> under fedora linux.
>
>       The problem that I have found is that is it very cumbersome to do.
> Especially in the case that I have many folders which have subfolders of
> saved email. I like to keep them organized based on topic.
>
>  First I archived (using file roller), ftp'ed, and extracted the
> evolution folder from my original PC to the new PC. In order to bring
> these across I have to explicitly import each mbox for each folder. Does
> anyone know if there is a better and more automated way?
>
> There aught to be an easy way to migrate from one version of evol to
> another. Why is there not an export function? That would help a great
> deal.
>
> Thanks in advance for any direction.
> Mike Meyer

Hi Mike,

My experience of this process is that I moved my 1.4.6 ~/evolution file
over to the new box and when I had installed Evolution 2.0 and then
fired it up, it informed me that Evo 2 did not store data the same way
as before and it would migrate the data without deleting the original
source.  It did an excellent job of this (round of applause for all Evo
developers). I am very impressed with the new Evo.

Now, having said all that, I did strike trouble when I needed to make
some alterations to the partitioning on my notebook.  I copied my
~/evolution file and other data directories to my Desktop machine via
NFS, but as there was plenty of space, I did not take the "tar" route.
Evo2 .x stores ALL of your data in the ~/.evolution folder, and I did
not copy this over. My problems arose because I was thinking in 1.4.x
terms, and I was sloppy, but I got some great help from Michael Zucchi,
and I was able to sort out my data, I had around 100 client subfolders
in Evo 1.4.6 mail. I am through it all now, but much wiser.

Do not discard your 1.4.x data until ... ( no, make that never)

Andrew Greig
Melbourne, Australia