migrate / transfer Evolution to a new machine

trying to restore an evolution installation from a backup. started by just copying the dot-evolution folder (ie, .evolution) and starting evolution, a method that used to work back in 2005. evolution doesn't seem to recognize the dot-dir, starts the "evolution setup assistant", and prints a warning:

(evolution:6898): camel-WARNING **: Cannot load summary file: `/home/lytles/.evolution/mail/local/Outbox.ev-summary': No such file or directory

i posted to the evolution mailing list, and was referred to the faq

Exit gnome, and then
gconftool-2 --shutdown
evolution --force-shutdown
cp $OLDHOME/.evolution $OLDHOME/.camel_certs ~
# if the old Evolution version is 2.12 or earlier
cp $OLDHOME/.gnome2_private/Evolution ~/.gnome2_private
cp -R $OLDHOME/.gconf/apps/evolution ~/.gconf/apps


where OLDHOME is the path to the previous home directory (or a backup of it).





keywords: transfer, evolution, data, new computer, migrate