I’m trying to copy my Em account from a PC to a Mac. I’ve copied over the Backup Zip file, and Installed the client on the Mac. I cannot follow the Instructions given on the Em ‘help’ because there was no options to “skip initial set-up”. Nor, when I got to the Restore options, does it give me a chance to tell it where the Backup is to be found. So I have a mess and none of my correct folders or contacts. Help please!!!
You can skip the initial set-up by clicking cancel. See if that helps.
Where, at what point…? not an option I saw, have you tried this?
When eM Client starts for the first time.
Well, it just seems to open up, with my account, but not as I know it… ;) I guess that means I have to uninstall it again and start over, and then you think there will be an option to cancel during set-up… ?
If you have your account already in eM Client, then either you have added it through the Automatic Setup (clicking Next in the above screenshot) or you have restored a previous backup.
When you start out on a computer where it has not been installed before, it comes up with that welcome screen above. If you just click Cancel, you end up with a blank database, with no accounts etc.
You can then go to Menu > File > Restore and if you have not copied the zip file to the default backup location (which you will find in Menu > Tools > Settings > General > Backup), it will prompt for where you have saved it. If you have copied it to the default location, and there is only one backup file there, it will restore it. If there are more than one, it will prompt for which one you want to use.
There is no need to uninstall eM Client. If you go to Menu > Tools > Settings > General > Storage, you will find the location of the database directory. Close eM Client and delete that directory, then when you restart the application, it will be back to square one with no data, and you will get the welcome window as in the above screenshot.
Or just do the restore and it will completely overwrite any data and settings already there.
Many thanks for the more detailed tips Gary. All those menu options are quite different for the eM client for Macs but I did eventually find the Database directory and deleted it.
So now I have the ‘blank’ eM client and am trying to restore my settings and data from the back up file I copied over from my PC. However, eM doesn’t seem to be happy with the Zip file so I unzipped it. It then shows a folder full of greyed out filenames, and the only options are Open or Cancel. It will open the folder but nothing more happens and all other options are greyed out. Which file or folder exactly does eM need to begin the restore process?
All the eM Client restore does is unpack the zip file to the database directory.
I’ve tried copying both the zipped and unzipped folders into every likely location I can find but same result. I even copied it into the Application Support folder (where the eM database folder I deleted was) and renamed it to ‘eM client’ but no difference. So after a day wasted, it’s worse than before now, I guess I have to reinstall to at least get my e-mails back… 
and then switch to another mail client I suppose :(
One option is to use the online sync facilities of your email provider. I have all my messages, contacts and events synced with my provider, that means just setting up the same account on a different computer results in everything being there. Most free providers like GMail, Outlook.com and GMX offer these facilities, and they are automatically setup in eM Client when adding the account.
The other option is to export your data from the PC version and import it into the Mac version.
The second option is exactly what I have trying to do and I don’t understand why it’s so hard! My impression is that eM is simply not set up for use on a Mac (and the Help files certainly arem’t!) despite the fact that they supposedly supply a Mac version. But, I’m not used to Macs either so maybe I missed something.
Anyone here manage to do the switch?
Hello Graham,
The database files are the same for both Win and Mac versions.
If you have your data in IMAP accounts and you don’t use the Local folders, the easiest way is to export settings from Win machine (Menu > File > Export > Export settings incl. accounts setup).
Then just import these settings in eM Client on your Mac machine in File > Import > Import settings.
Then all your data should sync with the mail server.
Russel
Thanks Russel. Yes it is the Database I am trying to export, as I have done many times in my life from machine to machine eg with Outlook and Thunderbird.
However following the instructions above only creates an .xml file with a few account details and signatures, it does not include the all important file structure, contacts lists or of course the actual e-mails, so not what I call a database really. 
OK I looked again, not signatures, mostly lay out and fonts and stuff, e-mail addresses, 3 pages in total, no contacts, no actual mails
I said export your data, but you are exporting settings to an xml file. There is a difference between settings and data. Look a bit higher in the list and you will see export options for messages, contacts and events.
If you are not sure what you are doing, please use the Help File (F1) for instructions on basic functions.
Dear Gary, thank you for trying to help me. I’m a rather experienced computer user, but I’m following your instructions in a previous post to ‘export settings’, and I’m pointing out that ‘settings’ in this case does not include the all-important database, which we agreed was what I’m after.
Are you now saying (please be specific if possible!) that I should export all the contacts, settings, messages, mails (5 actions in total) separately? If so I guess I will also need a procedure for importing them (I cannot really look at that until I have the exported files, just flagging up that this sounds complicated).
I am here because the Help Files were unhelpful since they only referred to previous versions of eM and did not match what I was seeing on the screen or the results I got.
Yes, as I already said, there is a difference between settings and data , I would expect an experienced computer user to know that.
But your best solution is to backup eM Client on the PC and restore that on the Mac. Easy peasy. Do that using the built-in backup/restore feature of eM Client, and yes, it works the same on both PC and Mac.
You can follow the instructions in the knowledge-base. Very straightforward.
https://support.emclient.com/index.php?/default_import/Knowledgebase/Article/View/91/9/how-to-move-my-data-to-a-new-computer
So we are back at the beginning, where I explained why the Backup Restore method wasn’t working for me on a Mac. I’m not familiar with Macs and I guess you aren’t either. There may be some extra steps needed that are not obvious to a Windows user…
I wonder if you have any idea hyow annoying it could be to be told something is easy-peasy when one has been struggling for 2 days without success to accomplish it!?
The link you kindly sent me is a 404 not found by the way. But don’t worry because I already found that page and tried to follow that procedure before I asked for help. It’s for PCS not Macs.
No, the page is working just fine.
It amazes me that someone with your self-proclaimed computer experience is unable to follow some simple instructions.
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On the PC, use (in eM Client) Menu > File > Backup.
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Copy the backup.zip file to a USB device and transfer the file to the Mac.
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On the Mac, use (in eM Client) Menu > File > Restore, and select the location where you saved the zip file when asked for the file to restore.
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Done. No extra steps necessary.
Where is the difficulty?
I am trying to do the same thing and when I go on the Mac and try to restore the backed up PC file, all the choices off my USB device are grayed out. I can’t select the backup file to restore. Is there a solution for this?