Lost Mailboxes

I renamed my "Home" by right-clicking the home icon and choosing "Rename". Immediately, all my mailboxes and all the Safari bookmarks
I had saved disappeared. I changed the name back to the original name, but, not unexpectedly, that did nothing. When I click "Mail", I get the wizard for creating a new account. All the toolbar choices are greyed out.
I click "Home">Libraries>Mail, and found the names of some, but not all, of the missing mailboxes. I then went back to Mail and created a new account, at which point the toolbar choices become available again. I then choose File>import mailbox and select the mailboxes in "Libraries". This produces the response that there are no messages to download.
What happened? Are my mailboxes lost? If not, how can I recover them? In the future, how can I back up my messages so that this cannot happen again? And what about my Safari bookmarks? What happened to them?

Each user has a /Users/username folder that constitues his/her home folder. Renaming it (by whatever means) would cause Mac OS X to create another /Users/username folder and use it as the new home folder, thus losing access to the data stored in the old (renamed) home folder.
What you must do is rename the old home folder back to username. In order to be able to do that, though, you must first rename the current /Users/username folder to something else:
1. Quit all applications.
2. In the Finder, go to /Users/, i.e. to the Users folder at the root level of the startup disk.
3. Rename the current username folder (it should have a home icon) to something else, e.g. username_new
4. Rename the old home folder (which now has the name you gave it when you renamed it) back to username, where username is your short user name.
5. Either log out, then log in again, or just restart the computer.

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Does anyone know how to retrieve lost mailbox folders and their contents in mail?

Does anyone know how to retrieve lost mailbox folders and their contents in mail?

It might be that you selected "Delete sent mail after a mont (or a week, or whatever)" in Mail Preferences. iCloud account is IMAP, so it won't keep mail in your HD. I have that problem.

Lost mailboxes in transition to mountain lion

can anyone help me recover lost mailboxes after mt lion upgrade?

Lion ate ALL my Mail: Apple Support Communities

HT4847 lost mailboxes on iCloud

I have lost mailboxes on my iCloud account. I only have left the ones starting with P to Z. Any chance to get the A to P back ?

You aren't addressing Apple here, this is a user to user forum. If you want to delete the contacts in your iCloud account, go to icloud.com on your computer, log into your iCloud account and open Contacts, click on the red ribbon at the top to display your groups, click on All Contacts, to the right click on any single contact to select it,click on the Actions (gear shaped) icon at the bottom and choose Select All, then press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Do not do this while you still have Contacts set to On in Settings>iCloud on your phone. If you do, it will delete the contacts on your phone too. If you want to save the contacts on your phone, be sure to go to Settings>iCloud, turn Contacts to Off, and choose Keep on My iPhone. You can then delete the contacts in your iCloud account without losing them from your phone.

Lost mailboxes after upgrading to Leopard

After installing Leopard my mail program does not sgow the saved mail and boxes that was in Tiger. I now create a save mailbox but it says I have one but where is it??? jim_joh

I lost all my mailboxes and everything in Mail 4 days after the install of Leopard. Everything was fine until today. The Mail folder in my library is intact withe all the folders, items, accounts, etc., but every time I open Mail, it's as if I'm a new user. No mailboxes, no account, nothing. I tried the import thingy, but my accounts did not import, nor my smart mailboxes.
Big problem and need help asap.

Lost mailbox listing (inbox,draft,sent etc)

Opened mail today and saw I had no mailbox listing. How do I get them back?

If you're referring the sidebar listing of mailboxes then hold SHIFT CMD and press M. Also you can go to Mail > View > Show Mailboxes.
Regards,
Captfred

Retrieving a lost mailbox

I thought I'd get clever and clean out the mailboxes in my Library>Mail folder, since many are named for Mail accounts I've since deleted or renamed. In the Mail directory in the Finder I renamed a POP folder for one such account to reflect its current address, and to my horror 2 years of personal emails that are precious to me disappeared! It seems that my renaming it wiped out the contents of its inbox and its sent emails! Worse, I stupidly failed to back up before renaming. I tried "undo" but no dice. Can I recover these somehow via the Mac OS? Do I need to buy Norton or some other software to try to do so? Or am I SOL due to my carelessness? I'll be heartbroken if these emails are gone for good.

If you did not make a backup the files and you deleted them from iCloud Drive, they are gone, unless you did not yet empty the Tras on your Mac. Have you checked the Trash in the Dock?
If you deleted them completely, you can only try data recovery software like Disk Drill, but that will be expensive.
If you are syncing another Mac with iCloud, they documents may still be on this Mac, if it has not been connected to the Internet and the changes had not yet been synced to that Mac.

How can I retrieve lost mailboxes after upgrading to ML?

Several of my mailboxes dissapeazred after upgranding to ML, I can't find them in Time Machine either. Any help would be appreciated.

Can you find them in iCloud?
Move your curser around in the area where your folders/boxes are. You will find something that will show up that you click to get all your boxes back.

Lost mailboxes, emails

Yesterday, due to some severe OS problems, an Apple Care specialist had me archive my computer, then install the old OS that came with the laptop.
Now, all of my original problems are solved and all my software is now up to date, but I don't know how/where to find my mailboxes and email from the Mail software.
When I open Mail, it looks and behaves as if it is Day One. I know my old data is on the HD somewhere. Can someone please help?
Obviously, I have the same question re: iCal and Address Book.
A bit worried,
Tommy

This was sorted out for me by Apple phone support. Thanks.

Lost Mailboxes since upgrading my Mac

How do I retrieve my mailboxes. I used the migration assistant and the mailboxes were
transferred when I upgraded my Mac but all the Mailboxes were empty
where do i find them on my old Mac?
Can anyone assist me please
Thanks

Hi Graham. You’re welcome.
It remains unclear what the situation is here exactly. In particular, what was the version of Mac OS X on the old computer? If it was Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) or earlier, that would explain what happened (see below). If it was Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), however, then the problem would be something else...
The conversion from Mail 1.x to Mail 2.x is broken. Take a look at the following thread to better understand the problem:
Help! "You need to take this account online in order to download it."
More specifically, if this is a POP account, the following procedure should allow you to fix the Inbox problem. A similar procedure should allow you to fix other mailboxes that might also be affected:
1. Quit Mail if it’s running.
2. Make a backup copy of the ~/Library/Mail folder, just in case something goes wrong while trying to fix the problem. You can do this in the Finder by dragging the folder to the Desktop while holding the Option (Alt) key down, for example. This is where all your mail is stored.
3. Create a new folder on the Desktop and name it however you wish (e.g. Inbox Old). It doesn’t need to have an .mbox extension.
4. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/POP-username@mailserver/INBOX.mbox/.
5. Move the files mbox and Incoming_Mail out of INBOX.mbox, into the Inbox Old folder just created on the Desktop. These files contain all the messages that were in the mailbox before the upgrade to Tiger, and maybe even some messages that had been deleted. mbox is the most important. Incoming_Mail may or may not be present.
6. Move any strangely-named Messages-T0x... folders to the Desktop (not into the Inbox Old folder). These folders are to be deleted after fixing the problem. They are temporary folders created during an import or an indexing process, and Mail should have deleted them when done. Their presence is a clear indication that something didn’t work as expected. If you’ve been using Mail after the conversion and have already tried to fix the problem by rebuilding the mailbox or something like that, they might contain messages that are neither in Messages proper nor in the mbox file, so keep them around until the problem is fixed.
7. Move everything else within INBOX.mbox, except the Messages folder, to the Trash.
The result of the above should be that INBOX.mbox contains the proper Messages folder only, and the Inbox Old folder on the Desktop contains the mbox and Incoming_Mail (if it exists) files only. Now, proceed as follows:
8. Open Mail.
9. The account’s Inbox should properly display in Mail as many messages as *.emlx files are in ~/Library/Mail/POP-username@mailserver/INBOX.mbox/Messages/. If that’s not the case, select the mailbox in Mail and do Mailbox > Rebuild.
10. In Mail, do File > Import Mailboxes, choose Other as the data format, and follow the instructions to import the Inbox Old folder that’s on the Desktop.
As a result of doing the above, some messages may be duplicated now. Andreas Amann’s Mail Scripts has a Remove Duplicates script that you may find useful.
Do with the imported mail whatever you wish. You may move the messages anywhere you want and get rid of the imported mailboxes afterwards.
If all is well and you don’t miss anything, the files on the Desktop can be deleted, although you may want to keep them for a while, just in case.
Take a look at the following article (also referenced in the thread I mentioned at the beginning of this post) to learn what you might have done before upgrading to minimize the risk of this happening, and what you may do after fixing the problem to avoid similar issues from happening in the future. DON’T do now what the article suggests, though, as that would make things worse in the current situation:
Overstuffed mailbox is unexpectedly empty
Ask for any clarifications or if you need further assistance.
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user’s home folder. That is, ~/Library is the Library folder within the user’s home folder, i.e. /Users/username/Library.

Lost Mailbox Content?

After re-installing Mail I copied the User>Library>Mail>Mailboxes Folder from a CCC back-up. Mailboxes in Mail are there but empty. In each of the Library Mailboxes Folders there's a Messages Folder containing .emix fies which open when double clicked. Also an attachment folder and a loose info.plist. Nothing is accessible in the Mail App. Any ideas?

I have since found the following:
imac007
Re: mailboxes not showing Dec 20, 2007 6:14 PM (in response to JDP44)
Make sure mail is not running.
In the mail folder there is a file called envelope index.
Pull that file to the desktop and open mail.
The mail will find your mailboxes and rebuild.
When the rebuild is done the mailboxes should be there.
If the On My Mac arrow is pointing to the right click on it so it points down.
Thanks. Problem solved.

Mail help!!!

Oh help.... my ISP was not working last night but I thought it was something to do with my mail box... I decided it was a good time to clean out old messages.... I was deleting away and somehow when I looked up I had accidently moved my entire inbox to the trash... I tried to move it back and the darn thing wouldn't let me... I went to preferences and clicked delete trash NEVER and left the program alone. Came back this afternoon and all the messages are gone!! ... I phoned the ISP and although they are still having slow problems with their server there is nothing they can tell me about getting mail back... can anyone here help me?.. there were some REALLY important emails in there......

Roxy,
What mailbox was -- by that I meant was in one such as an Inbox, or one of your custom mailboxes?
In the Finder, open Home/Library/Mail/your account folder. Open the account folder, and find the Deleted Messages.mbox folder. Open that folder, and report the files and folders within.
Also, in the Mail folder, locate the Mailboxes folder, and observe that whether there is any vistage of the lost mailbox, if it was a custom mailbox. Then, still in the Mailboxes folder, look to see if there is another Deleted Messages folder there. If so, control-click over it, and report its size using Get Info. If there is a Deleted Messages.mbox folder in the Mailboxes folder, now open it, and report the files and folders within -- with any Messages folder, do not try to list all the .emlx files within it.
More info, please.
Ernie

Mail Problem - Missing Folders, possibly hidden (somehow)

Interesting problem.
1. Recently had to reload my OS due to bad behaviour of iMac and faulty external HDD that was used for Time Machine.
2. Backups had to be made manually from Mail, Calendar and Address Book. Done successfully.
3. Reloaded OS and reimported all backed up folders, files and content successfully.
4. Imported backup files for Address Book and Calendar successfully.
5. Imported backup files for Mail - not so successful.
     * Had 16 "On My Mac" mailboxes.
     * Only 14 reloaded with all applicable content (sub-folders did not comeback, which is annoying)
     * The four that are missing just won't import back into Mail. Not a big problem, I will just forgo the lost mailboxes, content (regretfully) and recreate.
6. Tried to recreate the missing mailboxes and received the following message.
     "The mailbox 'Transactions' could not be created. The mailbox 'Transactions' already exists."
So where is the mailbox I am trying to recreate if it exists already? Hidden somehow? If yes, then maybe the missing content isn't really missing.
I have already clicked on the "Show" button to show all mailboxes within "On My Mac".
Suggestions and advice welcome!
Regards,
Norm

Hi,
Did you ever figure this out? I'm having the exact same issue. Gmail is setup as IMAP. At some point yesterday, all my GMail labels showed up fine in Apple Mail. Then this morning, they were all gone. My inbox still works, as well as Sent and All Mail. But no labels at all...

POP Connections in Mavericks Mail have Become Intermittent

New iMac upgraded to Mavericks about 3 weeks ago. Mail worked just fine and sending mail with SMTP still works OK. However...
Over the last three days Mail started to occasionally fail to pull in new email. Now it only fetches new mail whenever it feels like it -- 2 or 3 times a day. The rest of the time it sits there with the little error/alert icon on the Inbox line that usually leads to a message indicating the server connection has failed -- The server returned the error: The connection to the server “mail.mediacombb.net” on port 110 timed out. Once in a while we get a more elaborate message that includes a button for the Mail Connection Doctor and another that is supposed to bring all accounts back on-line. The "Doctor" always finds that there is a failure of the POP connection.
We have tried alternate mail ports -- with and without SSL (as suggested by our mail host Mediacom) and nothing makes a difference.
Heard that killing our Mail account and reestablishing it from scratch might fix this problem. BUT, part way through this process, I came to a warning that doing so would cause us to lose not only all of our preferences and other settings, but would also result in the loss of all of our mail messages!! Can't afford to do this.
If we do wipe out our mail account and all the locally stored messages are lost, can the previous (lost) mailbox contents be recovered -- perhaps from a recent backup? If so, how to do this?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks for any help!

The copy to the Desktop was most likely a backup in case something went wrong.
You might want to download the combo updater and refresh your files.
OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 (Update (Combo)
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1746
MORE INFO ON WHY RUNNING COMBO FIXES ISSUES
Apple updates available from the Software Update application are incremental updates. Delta updates are also incremental updates and are available from Apple Downloads (software updates are generally smaller than delta updates). The Combo updates contain all incremental updates and will update files that could have become corrupted.
Combo updaters will install on the same version as they're applying--no need to roll back or do a clean install. So if you think you've got a borked 10.8.4 install from a regular update, just run the 10.8.4 Combo Updater on that system.
"Delta" updaters can only take you from one version to the next. For example: 10.9.1 to 10.9.2. If somehow the 10.9.2 is missing something it should have, and that something isn't changed between 10.9.1 and 10.9.2 it will still be stale after the delta update.

Lost Mail in Smart Mailbox

I tried to edit a Smart Mailbox and lost all my mail in the smart mailbox when I hit the "-" to remove a double entry. The original entry remained and I added another entry and also I reentered the one I had removed. However, nothing now appears in that Smart Mailbox although there are message in the Inbox that meet the criteria.
Is there any way to recover my lost mail in the Smart Mailbox and how do I get the messages into it that are in Inbox?
Thanks.

You didn't lose the mail by doing this, you understand. A Smart Mailbox is like Smart Folder in Finder. It just shows you all mail that matches a set of requirements.
At this point you just need to think it through and re-enter the Smart Mailbox requirements (being careful about the "that match ALL" and "that match ANY").
Fred

Lost Mailboxes

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