Using other Mailbox Files with
offers an import tool for the messages and address books of some other mail clients. You can access it using File Import.... Please make sure that you compact your folders in the other mail client, no matter if you are going to use the import utility or if you are going to copy files manually. You only need to read this chapter if this tool does not work for you.
This section is for all of the users who need to move email messages from their previous email client over to . can store its mail using the mbox format, one of the most widely used mailbox formats on systems. Mbox mailboxes store messages in one file, identifying where messages start and end with a From line (do not mix this up with the From: header that contains the message's sender). For many mail programs, all you must do is move your mailboxes to ~/Mail (or make Mail a symbolic link to the folder containing your mailboxes), make sure they are writable by your user, and launch . The mailboxes should now show up correctly in .
Please have a look at the Download section of 's homepage first, to see if there's a tool that imports your mailbox and maybe even address book.
Do not use a second mail client that accesses the files in ~/Mail while is running or you might lose messages. This section only explains how to import mailboxes to once, it's not useful to you if you're planning to use several mail clients for your mailboxes in the future.
Eudora Lite/Eudora Pro 	 Eudora uses the mbox format in its mail files. To use them with , make sure that your Eudora mailboxes have been compacted, then copy the .mbx files ( Eudora) or Eudora mailbox files ( Eudora) to your ~/Mail directory. You don't need to copy the index files. Once you start , the mailboxes should appear in the Folders pane and the messages should be accessible in the Headers pane.
If messages do not appear in the Headers pane, your mailbox files may still contain or line feed characters. Use your favorite text editor, the recode command or a scripting language to change the or line feeds to line feeds.
MMDF 	 This format is close enough to the mailbox format that should be able to use these mailboxes if you just copy them to your ~/Mail directory. However, MMDF mailboxes have not been tested with , so your results may vary. If you can get this format to work with , please let us know so we can include more specific directions in the next documentation release.
MH mailboxes 	 MH mailboxes are directories containing files that correspond to each message in that mailbox. A shell script to convert MH mailboxes to mbox mailboxes, mh2kmail, is included at least in the source releases of , but maybe not in the packaged releases. Running this script on a MH folder will convert it to an mbox file. We strongly suggest that you back up your MH mail folders before you use this script.
Forte Agent 	 In Agent:
Select the messages to export
Select FILE SAVE MESSAGES AS
Mark the UNIX FORMAT and SAVE RAW boxes
Give File a .txt extension and save.
In :
Move previously saves file to correct ~/Mail folder
Rename file without .txt extension
When you open the new folder with appropriate messages will be there.
Mail 	 If you are using 4.x, the mail files should be found in ~/nsmail. If you are using 6.x, they're buried in a directory deep in the ~/.mozilla subdirectory, something like: /home/user_name/.mozilla/user_name/2ts1ixha.slt/Mail/Mail/server_name (The 2ts1ixha.slt string will probably vary, so check it on your own system.) The [...]/Mail/Mail directory contains one subdirectory for each account from which you receive mail through Netscape (⪚ [...]/Mail/Mail/math.university.edu); you'll need to copy files from each of them if you want everything to be accessible under .
If you have no subfolders, just copy all of the files to ~/Mail, make sure that they are writable (only by your user, of course), and restart : all of the messages will now appear in folders. (Note that if you use a command like cp * ~/Mail, you should follow it with rm -f ~/Mail/*.msf; every 6 folder has a corresponding .msf file, and if you don't get rid of them you'll have a bunch of spurious empty folders.)
If you were using subfolders under (⪚ a main folder called Work with subfolders called Jim and Nancy), there are additional steps required. First, create the main folder (Work) in and create a temporary child folder under it (by right-clicking on the folder name and selecting Create child folder); it doesn't matter what you call this folder -- dummy or the default unnamed, for example. Once a child folder has been requested, creates a hidden directory in ~/Mail called (in this example) .Work.directory. You can then copy your subfolder files (Jim and Nancy) into ~/Mail/.Work.directory, and restart ; the child folders will appear under the main folder Work. Of course, this procedure may be extended for sub-subfolders, to any depth. (You can remove the temporary child folders afterwards, unless it amuses you to have a Work subfolder called dummy.)
Pegasus Mail 	 Pegasus for win32 uses single files for Mail folders similar to . Pegasus mail folder files have the extension .pmm but they are the same format as mbox except the messages do not start with the From header, but with a control character. To work around this, replace each instance of the control character with From aaa@aaa Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 1997. This From line should be the first line of every message, before the Received: and other headers. Make sure to use a text editor that lets you save the files in format or create new folders in Pegasus that are in format and copy your messages there.
Maildir / Outlook Express / xfmail 	 Tools to convert these formats are available at the Download section of 's homepage.
Lotus Notes, BeOS Mail files, cc: Mail, ... 	 First you should have a look at Download section of 's homepage if there are tools to convert your messages.
Mail programs not listed here or on the homepage probably do not work with as they use proprietary mail formats that cannot understand. However, there is no harm in trying! If the mailbox file looks similar to the mbox format, try copying the mailbox file (remember, the index file is not needed) to your ~/Mail directory and see what happens if you start . If you get mailboxes from your favorite mail client to work in , please tell us how you did it so that we can include directions in a future revision of this documentation.