backing up kmail

[Maynard Wright]

There's another current thread dealing (almost) with this topic, but I think 
my question is far enough removed to warrant a new thread.  I don't want to 
hijack the other one.

I'd like to back up my kmail files and it seems that a simple copy would work.  
I'm having trouble, though, in that the directory structure and some of the 
files are copied, but some directories end up empty.  This occurs whether I 
copy from a shell or using Konqueror, whether or not I have root permission, 
and regardless (seemingly) of the permissions assigned to the directories and 
files to be copied.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Maynard