Can't see .Mac mail

Question

Hello,
I can't see the messages from my .Mac account in Mac Mail. I used to receive them, a few weeks ago, but it no longer works. The messages are there when I log in to my .Mac account online, but they don't get sucked down to my machine. I think it's a configuration problem, but for the life of me I can't figure it out. Here are the features of the problem. Hope someone has a solution. Thanks.
--Using Mail 1.2, OS 10.4.8
--2 accounts: one university POP account + .Mac. No probs w/ university account.
--.Mac account can send mail & I receive it on the univ. account. But the other way, the message shows up in my online mailbox but does not download.
--I tried trashing the account and recreating it in Mail. Weirdly, the Mail sidebar for that account now shows the number of messages it contains--but when I click on that mailbox the number disappears and the box is empty! It takes several minutes for the number to reappear.
G5 Dual 2.0 GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   Mail 1.2

Answer 1

Hello Nathaniel.
Let's check whether the rules could have a bearing on this:
1. Quit Mail.
2. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/.
3. Locate MessageRules.plist and move it to the Desktop. If there is a file called MessageRules.plist.backup, move it to the Desktop too. You may also see MessageSorting.plist files there; this is where Mail 1.x stored the rules, and they are no longer used by Mail 2.x, so just move them to the Trash if you see them.
4. Open Mail. As a result of removing the rules file, the junk filter will be disabled now. You may want to either tell Mail to go offline immediately after opening it, or shut down the Internet connection before opening Mail, to prevent it from downloading anything until the junk mail filter has been enabled again.
5. Go to Mail > Preferences > Junk Mail, enable junk filtering, and configure it however you wish.
6. Go online again if you went offline in step 4.
7. Rebuild the mailbox, i.e. select it and do Mailbox > Rebuild.
If the problem persists after doing this, then you know the rules have no bearing on it, and you may move the files on the Desktop back to the ~/Library/Mail/ folder, overwriting any files Mail may have created anew there (quit Mail first).
BTW, I guess you meant Mail 2.1, not Mail 1.2, right?
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user's home folder, i.e. ~/Library is the Library folder within the user's home folder.