[sapporobaby]

Hello fellow Mac-heads(said with love) /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
I have a question concerning mail. I am currently using MS Entourage for my mailing needs, however with the advent of Spotlight, I would like to switch to Mail. My mailing needs are not that robust other than sending, receiving, and setting up a few rules. The good thing about Entourage is that I can relocate the the MS Data folder on another partition and then create a symlnk pointing to the MS Data location so that Entourage can find it. However, I would like to use Mail now, but I am not sure if Mail is as flexible as Entourage in this respect. Can anyone out there please advise if this is possible? Thanks in advance.

[Dr-NiKoN]

It is.
~/Library/Mail/

[sapporobaby]

Thanks for the help however the bigger problem is that I want to move the mail folder to another partition and if possible, create a symlink pointing back to the Mail application. Is this possible? It is with Entourage however and works perfectly.

[Dr-NiKoN]

ln -s /Volumes/Dedicatedpartitionfor_mail /Users/yourusername/Library/Mail

[sapporobaby]

Sorry to appear stupid, but I did not quite understand this. I have two partitions on my Mac. One for the OS and one for data. I want to put the mailboxes for Mail on the Data drive and point to this. Entourage handles this no problem, but I am not sure if Mail needs to have the mailboxes in the same location minus a symlink of course.

[Dr-NiKoN]

In reply to:

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but I am not sure if Mail needs to have the mailboxes in the same location minus a symlink of course.

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Mail.app wants to find a folder called Mail in ~/Library.
ie ~/Library/Mail/
or
/Users/yourusername/Library/Mail
If that folder, ~/Library/Mail, is a symlink doesn't matter as long as it's there.

[sapporobaby]

Thanks for the answer. So how would I go about creating this?
Do I copy "library" and all of its contents on to the second partition and then make a link back? If so, that means that I will move quite a lot of files.
or
Do I create a folder called "library" on to the second partition and then copy "the Mail" folder there and then make a link back to the original library folder?
Sorry to ask so many questions but your answers are not very detailed. If my questions are annoying you, or seem to simple, thanks anyway and I will try to find the answers from someone that can explain things a bit more in detail so that I have a clearer understanding of what I need to do.

[Dr-NiKoN]

I'd recommend that you moved only the Mail folder, and then linked it back to ~/Library.
Or, I wouldn't really recommend it. There is nothing wrong with having your Mails physically in your home-folder. For one thing, you don't have to worry about your backup program following symlinks.
But, yeah, close Mail.app, move your Mail folder, link it back into ~/Library and launch Mail.app.
Here is how a Terminal-session would look:

code:


$ mv ~/Library/Mail /Volumes/foo

$ ln -s /Volumes/foo/Mail ~/Library/Mail

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Edit: If your not comfortable with doing this, as I would suspect, backup your Mail before you try anything. Heck, even if you are comfortable with doing, you should backup your Mail anyway /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[sapporobaby]

Thanks dude. I did the "But, yeah, close Mail.app, move your Mail folder, link it back into ~/Library and launch Mail.app" method and tried to open Mail. It crashed, crashed, crashed. I moved it back and it worked. My only reason for moving it in the first place was because I have two partitions on my Mac. One for the OS and one for Data, so if I have to format my Mac, I only have to format the OS part and leave my data and applications (additionally installed on this partition as well) intact.

[Dr-NiKoN]

Exactly how did you create the symbolic link?
I made sure to try it out before recommending it, and it worked fine here.

[sapporobaby]

I did it as so.
1. I opened two Finder windows.
2. I navigated to ~library/mail
3. I then copied this to my other partition, but moved the original to another location to save it it in case.
4. I then created a link back to the ~library/mail location on the home partition.
5. Opened Mail and it crashed

[Dr-NiKoN]

In reply to:

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4. I then created a link back to the ~library/mail location on the home partition.

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How?
Edit:
If you do a ls -al, your Mail folder in ~/Library should look something like this:

code:


lrwx------  1  username group     32  3 May   10:18  Mail -> /Volumes/foo/Mail

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[sapporobaby]

Dude,
I created a "library" folder on the second partition and then copied the "mail folder" there. Then I made the link back.
Anyway, thanks dude. I am a GSM network designer, not a Mac expert. You lost me. I will live with things as they are or have someone else show me that has the time to sit on my Mac to do it. I appreciate the try.
Cheers.

[Dr-NiKoN]

In reply to:

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Then I made the link back.

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Well, the important part is how you make the link back.
That is what makes or breaks this.