Deleting account will delete your emails?

Question

I change my email account settings and after trying to update the informations in preference / account, the provider told me to delete the account and to create a new one with the same email address. I'm able to send and receive again but all my old emails inbox / draft / sent are gone. Can I find them somewhere? Thanks

Answer 1

I can assure you a warning message was provided before deleting the account.
As a test to confirm, quit Mail first and using the Finder go to Home > Library > Mail. Copy the Mail folder and place the copy on the Desktop for backup purposes.
Launch Mail and go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts.
Select an account in the accounts window and below the account's window, select the sign.
In the Remove Account warning message window provided, select the Cancel button. Afterwards, you can delete the copy of the Mail folder placed on the Desktop.
You have 6 years worth of important emails and don't maintain a backup of this data and/or maintain a backup of all important data?
If not, now is a good time to start.
Not understanding or ignoring a warning message provided and/or accidentally deleting data has happened to just about every computer user but regardless, it isn't a matter of if but when your hard drive has a partial or complete failure since none last forever which is why maintaining a backup of all important electronic data is so important regardless the platform.
Good luck with that law suit.