234536 - Moz 1.x mbox files transfer cross-platform (from WinXProSP1 to OSX.3), but are not recognized by Apple's Mail client (OSX.3, HFS+)

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(MailNews Core :: Import, defect)

Description

[Stephen Koermer]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113

Transferring Mozilla mail files cross-platform (from WinXProSP1 to MacOSX) using
an external drive appears only possible if the target mail client is Mozilla
Mail, and not another mail client.

For instance, for all "mbox" files interpreted as Unix Executable File[s] by
OSX's Finder, changing the Open With file association from "Not applicable" to
"Mozilla" using the directions cited below yields mail file recognition for
Mozilla Mail.

However, changing the Open With file association from "Not applicable" to "Mail"
(Apple's email client) does not yield mail file recognition for Mail; that is,
those files are not automatically recognized when copied to Mail's default
Mailboxes directory, nor can they be imported using Mail's File > Import
Mailboxes function.

This means that I presently know of no way to properly transfer mail files from
Mozilla's mail client for WinXPro to Apple's Mail client. And no person has
offered a viable solution to this problem which I deem significant.

Sincerely,

Stephen Koermer
Lake Geneva, WI, USA
[e-mail]


Directions to transferring Mozilla mail files cross-platform -- from WinXPro to
MacOSX:

1) Create a new email account after downloading and installing Mozilla. Then
close Mozilla.

2) Copy the Mozilla user profile from the external drive to a directory on the
PowerBook's internal drive (like the desktop).

3) For each Mozilla mbox file you wish to import, control-click (or right-click
if you have a two-button mouse) on it to invoke the Finder's context sensitive
menu. Then select 'Open With' to change the program association to
Mozilla用rovided this mail application is listed.

If Mozilla is not listed, select 'Get Info' from the context sensitive menu to
open the 'FileXYZ' Info dialog box. In the 'Open with' drop down list box,
select Other, and then navigate to Mozilla, which should be located under
Macintosh HD > Applications, to change the program association.

4) Copy each mbox file for which you changed the program association to Mozilla,
to the corresponding directory under the new user profile established by Mozilla
after creating a new email account.

5) Launch Mozilla, click on Mail, then the respective mail boxes to see results.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
See Details section above.

Actual Results:  
See Details section above.

Expected Results:  
See Details section above.

OSX.3 Finder Preferences set to "Show all file extensions."

Comment 1

[Christian :Biesinger (don't email me, ping me on IRC)]

presumably this is because the mozilla mbox files do not use mac line-endings (\r)

why is it a mozilla bug if apple can't read mozilla's files?

Comment 2

[Stephen Koermer]

Am I being informed that the Apple Mail client uses a different mbox file
format? I thought this was a universal, open-standards-based format? If Mail
cannot recognize the Moz mbox files, and hence not import them using any of the
choices under File > Import, then how does the average user get Moz files into
Mail? 

(In reply to comment #1)
> presumably this is because the mozilla mbox files do not use mac line-endings (\r)
> 
> why is it a mozilla bug if apple can't read mozilla's files?

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

> I thought this was a universal, open-standards-based format?

It is.  Just like plaintext is.  Ever tried creating a plaintext file on a mac
and then opening it on a different system, or vice versa, without doing proper
newline conversions?  The mbox format just talks about newlines as they would
appear in text files, without defining what a "newline" is (partly because mbox
was originally created for Unix systems, where this was not an issue because
there was only one newline representation).

The fact is, Mozilla goes to great lengths to be compatible with all three of
the common newline representations (Unix, Mac, and Windows).  I assume Mail is
not doing that.

All that said, _have_ you tried opening the mbox file in a text editor and
seeing whether newlines are the problem?

Comment 4

[Stephen Koermer]

If I copy a Mozilla Profile from C:\Documents and Settings\userxyz\Application
Data\Mozilla\Profiles on WinXPro and then transfer the profile to OSX.3, OSX.3's
Finder recognizes the non-.msf Mozilla mail files as Unix Executable File(s). If
I double-click on a primary mail file (one that contains mail content, such as
the Received file), OSX invokes TextEdit. For each mail message displayed, the
only line encoding I see is the greater-than ('>') sign which precedes each line
of message text.


(In reply to comment #3)
> > I thought this was a universal, open-standards-based format?
> 
> It is.  Just like plaintext is.  Ever tried creating a plaintext file on a mac
> and then opening it on a different system, or vice versa, without doing proper
> newline conversions?  The mbox format just talks about newlines as they would
> appear in text files, without defining what a "newline" is (partly because mbox
> was originally created for Unix systems, where this was not an issue because
> there was only one newline representation).
> 
> The fact is, Mozilla goes to great lengths to be compatible with all three of
> the common newline representations (Unix, Mac, and Windows).  I assume Mail is
> not doing that.
> 
> All that said, _have_ you tried opening the mbox file in a text editor and
> seeing whether newlines are the problem?

Comment 5

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

And textedit doesn't do newline conversions?   (Some text editors do... in fact,
most reasonanble software that works with plaintext does unless you explicitly
ask it not to.)

Comment 6

[Stephen Koermer]

Hi Boris. I want to thank you for your feedback with respect to this issue. I
think what I will do is bring my Apple PowerBook to a local (as in Madison, WI)
Linux user group meeting, and ask one or more people what they think about this
issue. 

Thanks for your kind help. Wishing you and all the other Mozilla coders a great
year. Here's to the open source, open standards movement!

Sincerely,

Stephen Koermer


(In reply to comment #5)
> And textedit doesn't do newline conversions?   (Some text editors do... in fact,
> most reasonanble software that works with plaintext does unless you explicitly
> ask it not to.)

Comment 7

[Frankie]

Mail.app needs to handle importing better. (It also needs stationery and several
other features, which is why I just switched to Moz Mail, blah blah blah)

Small tidbit for you: the FOO.mbox files in ~/Library/Mail are actually NOT mbox
files, they are OSX packages (which contain a plaintext mbox and several other
files). Therefore, dropping a plain mbox into that folder will not work, but
opening an existing package and inserting your imported mbox into it might.