Mail disappears and re-appears in inbox, drafts and sent not working

Question

I'm doing some troubleshooting for my Mum. She's running Mail under Tiger, and she's been reporting that some times she opens up Mail, and all her mail is missing, but if she tries again later, then it might re-appear. It happens to different mailboxes, but mostly the Inbox. It's an IMAP account, but the problem is definately not that (I've actually changed the mail account hosting, and it's made no difference).
On what I assume is related, and mail she sends, does not appear in the Sent mailbox (it sends fine), and drafts don't save at all.
The only issue I can think of is the way Mail was put on this iMac. Basically it was my sisters iMac, which she passed on to my Mum when she got a new MacBook. She passed it on, already running Tiger, but for some unknown reason, she had deleted Mail from the Mac. I put it back on, by using a the setup disc for my own iMac (both PowerPC) - and extracting Mail 2.0 using Pacifist, which I then just copied across to the the Applications folder. Could this be the origin of the flakey mailboxes? And if so, what should I do?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

she had deleted Mail from the Mac. I put it back on, by using a the setup
disc for my own iMac (both PowerPC) - and extracting Mail 2.0 using Pacifist
Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s the cause of the problem. Mail 2.0 is the version that came with Mac OS X 10.4.0. You haven’t said what’s the version of Mac OS X running on your Mum’s computer, but the version of Mail on a PowerPC-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.4.11, which is what your profile says you have, should be at least 2.1 (2.1.2 if you installed the latest Security Update)...
You should be able to fix the problem by reinstalling the Combo Update for the type of computer and the version of Mac OS X she’s using, to bring Mail back in sync with the rest of the system:
About the Mac OS X 10.4.11 Update
Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (PowerPC)
Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (Intel)
After installing the Combo Update, the computer may restart twice and the first restart may take several minutes. This is normal.
Additionally, if she had installed any Security Updates released afterwards that included updates for Mail, you’ll have to reinstall that as well:
About Security Update 2007-009
Security Update 2007-009 (10.4.11 PowerPC)
Security Update 2007-009 (10.4.11 Universal)
You may also want to read the following articles for guidelines on how to properly install system updates:
Troubleshooting installation and software updates
Installing software updates
Basically, you should verify/repair the startup disk and back up before installing the update, no applications should be running while installing it, and you may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modifications (not normal applications) installed.