Disappearing Smart Folders in Mail

When I close Mail and then reopen later, I find that all my Smart Folders disappear including the Smart Mailboxes I have placed inside them. Is there someplace I can find them? Or is there a setting I need to make to prevent them from disappearing?

Found the solution on this thread

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Disappearing Sub Folders in Mail on my MAC

Upgraded to X10 last night. Today while filing email into sub folders, they disappeared from my view and I have not been able to find them again. I have read all the postings but they have simply gone from view from any perspective on the computer. I need these files, I use them to organize and they are critical to me.
How can I get them back in the view pane and ensure they are always available to use???
Very frustrated here.

You should create your mail folders on the iCloud server (under ICLOUD in Mail), not locally on your Mac (under ON MY MAC) for them to show up on other devices and at iCloud.com.
Anything stored locally on your Mac only exists on that specific Mac so leave all your mail on the server and organise it there.

Mail Smart Folders lost on every restart

This is a last-ditch effort to resolve an issue that I've long given up on resolving: My smart folders in mail disappear every time I restart the computer. It is limited to my user account. I honestly cannot remember what I've tried to fix it, as I've had this problem since one of the early point releases of Leopard, and have tried many many things.
Has anyone had this before? Any ideas of how to fix?
Thanks.

Greetings,
Maybe your Mail preferences file is corrupted. Try this:
1. Quit Mail.
2. Go to Home/Library/Preferences and remove the com.apple.mail.plist file.
3. Restart Mail and setup your account(s) again, then setup your Smart Folders again.
4. Quit and restart Mail again to see if your preferences stick. If so, delete the old com.apple.mai.plist file that you previously removed.

Why the mail smart folders don't show the email?

Suddenly (as it looks to me) any smart folders of Mail show their email; someone does have anything to suggest?

Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts and use the minus sign "-" at the bottom to remove any and all accounts that you don't want in Mail.

Nested smart folders, Mail 2.0.5

Can I put Smart Folders inside of other Smart Folders in Mail or must I put them all at root level?

Yes you can. You need to create a "Smart Mailbox Folder". You will find this under the "Mailbox" menu.
You can then drag/drop Smart Mailboxes into this folder.
Paul

Smart Folders and Spotlight

Previous discussions on this forum regarding Spotlight's inconsistent ability to find files caused me to disable Spotlight (using Spotless) and use Easy Find to find things.
No one warned me that disabling Spotlight would interfere with smart folders. I use smart folders in Mail, iTunes and elsewhwere. At first I couldn't figure out why they weren't working right.
It is not intuitively obvious that smart folders are basically saved Spotlight searches. Participants on this forum should know.
I've re-enabled Spotlight, I force a re-index now and then, and have Easy Find ready for backup use, if Spotlight can't find something.
That way, most of the time, smart folders are correct, or nearly so.
Just my .00000002 cents worth.
Tim
533 mhz dual CPU G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I have never had any need to "save my searches". Why on earth would I want to do that?
Consider the fllowing scenario: a disabled person to be cared for, rich and varied sources of information via articles, emails and even images. Literally thousands of documents. Few are about a single subject, such as, say a particular medication, but many refer and discuss the medication inter alia. Do a search based on the name of the medicine. Save it. Everytime the medicine is mentioned in a new article or email, that gets added to that folder. Now search for Physiotherapy. Many of the same articles and emails, but in a different folder.
That's why on earth I would want to save a search. And have many such. Invaluable.
I realise that Spotlight is not for you, but for some of us it's a boon.
Regards
TD

Feature Request: Tagging coupled with Smart Folders

Would love to see the next version of Safari add tagging, as has been mentioned here before, but more importantly I'd like to see Smart Folder capability added as well.
I'm a big fan of Smart Folders in Mail; makes it easy to file -- I just drop everything in my "Saved Mail" folder, then set up the Smart Folders as needed (e.g., "Client Mail", "Mom", "Amazon - Sold, Ship Now", etc.
Applying the same process to Safari bookmarks would be wonderful. For instance, let's say I have a bookmark for the plastic modeling website Starship Modeler (starshipmodeler.com); I could tag it with "Modeling" (obvious), "Shopping" (since it has a store), "Sci-Fi", and then even more specific tags like "Star Wars" or "2001 A Space Odyssey". I could then make a smart folder that would find bookmarks tagged only with "shopping" and "Star Wars", and it'd show up there. But it would also show up in my smart folder just for "modeling", etc.
Right now I have hundreds of bookmarks if not more. I've tried a number of tagging programs but none really fit the bill. Native tagging, along with smart folders, would make Safari far and ahead my favorite browser (which it already is, but more so, eh?).

Hi,
Put a bug in Apple's ear by providing feedback here.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
Carolyn

Why do my Mac Mail smart folders keep disappearing

Each time I shutdown and restart my computer there seem to be a different listing of smart folders that are available. I've moved and stored important emails in these folders and when they appear at random, it is hard to perform normal business functions.
Thank you!
Jason

Each time I shutdown and restart my computer there seem to be a different listing of smart folders that are available. I've moved and stored important emails in these folders and when they appear at random, it is hard to perform normal business functions.
Thank you!
Jason

List view status of flagged messages in Yosemite Mail Smart Folders

I'm using Mail in Yosemite with an Exchange server. Before Yosemite, everything was fine, now I have an issue with message flag status in Smart Folders. I have a Smart Folder which is my "ongoing" mail folder; it is set to only show unread and/or flagged messages. In the latest version of Mail, setting the messages flagged status does not change the flag icon in the message list, but does in the header of the actual mail message. The only way to get the flag to show up in the list is to select another folder and then reselect the smart folder. It does this on both my MacBook Pro and iMac, with with the latest Yosemite version and all updates applied.
In the previous OS X Mail (Mavericks) changing the flag status would remove/add the flag icon in the message list pane; now it doesn't. It's insanely annoying.
Anyone else seen this bug? I have tried recreating the smart folder and that makes no difference, neither has rebuilding the mailbox/deleting index/envelope file. No changes have been made to our Exchange server.
Cheers
Matthew

Well, I guess those are more "smart inboxes" and not "smart mailboxes" in iOS...

Mail Smart Folders across accounts / between Macs

OS X Mail Smart Folders are very useful, but I have one problem:
My "Unread" folder between accounts and Macs has two criteria: Unread, plus on one account, not in a certain Inbox. Now, the mail account that I use for that 2nd criteria is only set up for use on one account. I have 2 accounts on my Mac Pro and 1 account on my MBP. When I check my Mail Unread folder on the other account and other Mac, the Unread folder syncs across iCloud, but since that email account I use for the 2nd criteria is not set up (active) on the other account / Mac, the Unread folder essentially breaks. If I edit it, then it breaks on the other user account where that 2nd criteria is effective.
Does that make sense? Anyone else having iCloud Mail Smart Folder sync issues across accounts / Macs?
Running OS X Yosemite all up to date on everything.

iCloud does not support or sync Smart Mailboxes or local folders. You can create mailboxes at the iCloud.com site that will be IMAP and show in the Mail sidebar under the iCloud folder. Those will show up on all devices.
Other than that, iCloud will only sync Mail's main mailboxes (default mailboxes).
In Addition to better explain:
Local folders under On My Mac are folders only located on the computer. They are not part of any IMAP or Exchange account.
Smart Mailboxes are for the most part just search engines. Messages are not stored in those, but they merely point to messages which actually reside in the original mailbox where they are stored.

Mac Mail Smart Folders triplicate messages (Gmail-based mail server)

I can't get Mail Smart Folders to work well with my Virginmedia mail server, which seems to use a Gmail type of system. (I'm using IMAP).
It is easy to set up an instruction to select mail e.g. from defined individuals only, or any other qualifier.
However, I get all mail in triplicate: from the normal Inbox, but also from Gmail-type "All Mail" and "Important" inboxes. I know these mailboxes exist on the Virginmedia server, and also, virtually, in Mail, but I don't ever look at them or need to. There might be a way of not having all mails defined as "Important" on the server, but "All Mail" exists by default and can't be removed, for obvious reasons.
I have tried various additional instructions in the Smart Folder such as include if "Message is in Inbox", but that selects all messages. Also, if "Message is not in Inbox", so that I get only two sets of messages, but that has produced strange results such as messages marked as in Spam folder, which seem to have nothing to do with the defined instructions.
Is there anything "smart" I can do about this, or is it just a matter of Mail not being up to speed with Gmail-based servers. It's just an annoyance, more than anything.

Nope. Gone.
I went to my second mac. Opened Mail, it refreshed its previous state, with 1100 messages in the Inbox, I was relieved and while thinking about my backup options, Mail started its new activity cycle and POOF....Gone. One test message in the Inbox.

TS3276 Folders on Mail just disappeared how do I get them back

I just lost several of my folders on Mail. They just disappeared how do I find them or get them back

Hi, I have the same problem. How did you get them back?

Column view not peristent in mail smart folders

I use a smart folder which displays multiple actual folders; I enable the mailbox column, but as soon as I move to another folder and back, the column becomes disabled.
I assume from some other old messages that this is the intended default behavior and not a bug. Does anyone know whether there is a way to ensure persistent column settings, and if not, if this is a planned fix for the next version of mail.app?
Thanks very much.
(searching: persistent column views in mail; View > Columns > Mailbox)

I'd love to know too, but can't seem to find out how.
This seems like a major oversight/quirk.
I have to adjust the column widths often -- otherwise they bounce back.
I have this in the Inbox, not just Smart Folders.

Smart Folders, Spotlight comments and Apple mail messages

Hi,
I have a simple question, but couldn't figure it out yet:
I have a workflow that tags specific mail messages according to the specific mail inbox folders I assign them to (be it via incoming rules, or Act-On rules) by automatically adding specific Spotlight comments.
My mail messages, therefore, have text in their comment boxes (if you check via GetInfo).
When I use Spotlight, I can find mail messages by searching for the comments - this is exactly as expected.
I however also have smart folders (searching for a specific Spotlight comment) that list other files that I tag with the same Spotlight comments - but my Smart Folders never find the mail messages with the requested tags (at most they find the folder that contains the messages if this folder is tagged - which it is generally not).
Question: how can I make sure that the Smart Folder does indeed identify and list the mail messages that I have tagged via Spotlight comment ?
Thanks a lot !
D.V.
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Howdy,
I cannot reproduce this problem myself...I see the same results in both the Mail spotlight and the spotlight menu bar item. I'm not sure if after installing 10.5 a new spotlight index is created, but it might be worth a shot to create a fresh index and see if that helps.
I haven't tried this, but it was the easy way I could find to reindex.
Open Spotlight Preferences
In the privacy tab, add the volume you want to reindex
After a few moments, remove that volume from the privacy list
Allow Spotlight to reindex the volume
Please let me know if that works for reindexing.
+R

Why my smart folders dissapear in mail when i close mail application in mountain lion?

Why my smart folders dissapear in mail when i close mail application in mountain lion?
Please help!

My results jumped up from around 1000 to 10,000 when I did that.
I think this may have to do with having x11 and xcode installed.
In case anyone is interested, these are the folders I've had to exclude:
User\Library\Developer
System\Library\Frameworks
opt in the root folder of the HD (this is x11. You may have to Finder's 'go to folder' option to get to it.)
There was also Office stuff coming up which looks like it's from the system when you see it (the identities folder and the subfolder within the Office 2011 folder in Applications)
The combination of this stuff seemed to create the impression of more files from the System and Library folders were coming up than actually were.
In case anyone is still reading, the stuff *still* being thrown up that I'm aware of is
Mountain Lion screensavers from the System and Library folders.
PreferencePanes - System, PreferencePanes - User and PreferencePanes - Library folders, which each show up as individual results.
But, as you say, bispymusic, perhaps Apple has deigned that those folders appear in results. Thanks a lot for your help! Have a good one.

Disappearing Smart Folders in Mail

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