iMatt :: The Blog of Matt Clare

In Mac OS 10.3 all the messages for each inbox was stored in one file with a .MBOX ending. These files could be backed up and swapped when Mail.app (The geeky name for Apple’s Mail program) wasn’t running. This made creating backups and restoring them very easy.

The most compelling reason to use Mail.app is it’s search features, and in OS 10.4 these features have been expanded, however, to allow for the individual indexing and searching of E-Mails via Spotlight Apple spilt those big .MBOX files into individual .emlx files. So far Apple has not provided any means to import or recover these files, only to import the .MBOX standard that many other mail clients use, including the old version of Mail.app from OS 10.3 and before.

These are the steps I went through to recover my mail after I accidentally allowed a filter to delete all my mail. This might also help for people who use POP E-Mail accounts and had their computer stolen or lost a hard-drive. For most accounts I use IMAP mail boxes, but if you delete the E-Mails on the server IMAP’s ability to keep all your mail clients in sync is lost (and you look like an idiot).

Step 1: Have a backup.

I know that cuts a lot of you out right now, but I’m sure it’s not the first time you’ve been told to backup your files. (Future entries will cover how to backup your files.) If you don’t have a backup of your Mail files you might be able to make a copy of ~/Library/Mail and work from there (~ stands for your home folder).

Step 2: Ways to recover the .emlx files
Try each until it proves fruitless and move to the next strategy:

1. Read the E-Mails: You can double-click these files and read them, that might be enough for you, or at the very least you’ll have an idea of what you have.
2. Convert the .emlx files back into one .MBOX file and then import that into Mail.app.

   Tools like emlx to mbox Converter can do this automatically, but it will often fail if you have a large mailbox. To use this program simply drag all the .emlx and .partial.emlx into it’s main window and press ‘save mailbox’. It might help to remove some of those .partial.emlx files if the conversation fails. You can also attempt to select small chunks and make mail boxes out of them. Once you’ve created these .MBOX files and saved them somewhere (like your desktop) you can go into Mail.app and choose ‘Import Mailboxes’ from the file menu, then import data from ‘Mail for Mac OS X’ or just ‘other’. If that doesn’t work we’ll have to throw more at this problem.

   NOTE: If you are handy with a scripting language you might try to append all these files into one file, as that is all a .MBOX file is.

3. Microsoft is the answer

   I know this is hard for some people, but it’s all we have left. We need to convert these individual emlx files into another format that uses individual E-Mail files: Microsoft’s. Only Microsoft uses .eml files, not, .emlx, so we need to rename all these files. You can do this ‘by hand’ or as one process in the Terminal. here’s how:

   Launch the Terminal and change into the directory in which our backups are in (ie. cd ~/Desktop/Messages/) and execute this command to batch rename all those files:

   for file in *.emlx ; do mv $file `echo $file | sed 's/\(.*\.\)emlx/\1eml/'` ; done    
   

   (I told you this’d be hard)

   Now get your hands on Microsoft Entourage or on a Windows PC with outlook. You can now draq all these .eml files into Entourage/Outlook and either connect to your E-Mail account with IMAP and drag the messages from your local inbox over to the server or if you are Using Entourage, you can import directly from Entourage into Mail.app from Mail.app’s ‘Import Mailboxes’ options found under the file menu.

I hope that got your E-Mails back for you, I know I’d be lost without that record of my life.

UPDATE: Apple has update OS 10.4 and their documentation. Perhaps this article can help: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301239#mail

My new Acura 1.7 EL is all mine!

After my 1997 saturn with 199,450KM on it developed serious slipping issues with it’s automatic transmission I traded it in for $3000 because the Acura dealer didn’t test drive it! Oh happy day!

Apple is getting everyone excited abou their Oct 12 event (Apple stirs product speculation over Oct 12 event, Washington Post).

Given that I was right about the G5 PowerBook never coming I’m going to speculate on this one too, we’ll see how I do.

The ‘One more thing’ will be a second core on the G4 PowerBooks.

The core of a chip is the part of the chip that does the thinking and the rest (the die, etc.) are the parts that get all the information in and out of it.

Others are predicting a video iPod, but that’s my guess. We’ll see next week. For now the best article is over at PC World, Hey, Let’s Speculate Idly on Apple’s Next Announcement!

UPDATE: OK, so I was wrong, but I gave it a try. It should be interesting though, now that Apple is getting ABC TV content into the iTunes music store it should be interesting to see what happens next.

In my first post I mentioned that one of the reasons I started blogging is I had nothing to do with the NHL lockout. Tonight the Leafs faced the Senators to open their seasons and prove why Canadians love this sport and fall asleep during baseball games.

The rule changes were noticeable. The game started with a lot of penalties, as the reff’ing is now very literal and strict and less arbitrary, which in the end is a positive development but one everyone (players and fans) will have to get used to. The removal of the red line WAS GREAT! It sped the game up and made for more scoring chances.

The most important part about tonight’s game was it was the first NHL game to be settled by a shootout. The Leafs lead the game at 1-0 until the third when it was tied at 2-2, from there after 5 minutes of four-on-four overtime the Senators won the first NHL game to be settled by a shutout. Needless to say whomever it was at TSN who responsible for buying the NHL contract this year felt vindicated that their most popular game of the whole season ended in the NHL’s first shutout.

There was a time when Senators fans spent more time booing the Leafs then cheering for their team. Senators fans where just waiting to get their chance to prove their worth to Leafs fans…… and Leafs fans didn’t care. Between 1996 and 2001 Sens fans lived on hatred of the Leafs…… and Leafs fans were pretty sure that Ottawa had an NHL team. Lately the Sens would win more games in the regular season than the Leafs did, a fact that galvanized Ottawa, and was almost unknown in Toronto. But then Sens had some great seasons and overcame serious financial trauma….. and the Leafs defeated them in the playoffs three years running and made money hand over fist.

That all changed tonight: not only did the Sens beat the Leafs, but Leafs fans boooed the whole team, not just Alferdson, but the whole Ottawa Senators team. Leafs fans have bought into this rivalry as much as Sens fans have, and that is how the Sens have really beat the Leafs.

Leafs fans, I implore you, forget about Ottawa, Like any other 13 year old, you shouldn’t reward or acknowledge their aggression.

This weekend I bought an Acura 1.7 EL. Just off lease, this tarted-up civic is a Canada only model that was created to convince us Canadians that we could get a great car without having to buy a large car. My car is a silver (like about 1/4 of the Honda/Acuras out there) 5 speed manual with a 127HP (same as the Saturn) VTEC-E engine, VTEC is Honda’s Variable valve Timing and lift Electronic Contro (more at Wikipedia) which basically improves the combustion efficiency throughout the RPM range by having a set of cams (well just lobes) for slow RPM which needs less air and one set of cams for high RPM, which needs all the air it can get. My EL also has moon roof, leather, power everything and heated seats — I don’t know how I deserved this car but it has something to do with the value they assigned to the Saturn, I guess they haven’t seen the above picture, in fact they never drove it.

I’ll let you know lots more once the deal is done and I’m behind the wheel of my Acura, for now you can read Canadian Driver’s review.