Mail hangs , mailboxes disappear

My mail has been hanging up several times a day. The mailboxes disappear and the application hangs. When I force quit it comes back as good as new until the next time it hangs. I noticed this happening before with the mobileme sync. I turned that off and it seemed to solve the problem but now it has returned and mobileme is not set to sync. Any ideas?

You may have to reimport the mailboxes. Try this
1. Go to ~/Library/Preferences, and trash the com.apple.mail.plist. (don't empty the trash yet). Restart.
2. Restart Mail, and Import From Mailboxes. Navigate to the ~/Library/Mail folder, and look for your accounts. They will start with "POP" or "IMAP". Import each one. Move the mailboxes out from the "Imported" folder.

Similar Messages

  • (Mail) Smart mailboxes disappeared

    I have been running a fairly comprehensive set of smart mailboxes to organise mail since August 2002. Today I noticed all my smart mailboxes have disappeared.
    Oddly enough they have disappeared on both of my user accounts on this mac, although it's only one of those user accounts where their loss would be disastrous. They may not actually have disappeared today, just merely that I noticed it today.
    I keep regular back ups of the library/mail folder, but rather than start to fiddle and experiment with replacing files from my back ups, I'm assuming someone here can tell me exactly which files from the backed up library/mail folder I should move to my actual library/mail folder. I'm guessing it will be one or more of the files in the MailData folder.
    My back ups are incremental back ups but assume the smart mailbox data is held in a single file, so I don't need to hunt down lots of files.
    This what I have in my actual library/mail folder.
    And this is what I have in a recent back up
    I'm assuming the size of the backed up SmartMailbox property list indicates all my lost data is safe, but I don't really know whether that property list is the only file I should replace.
    Thanks in advance guys.

    The same thing just happened to my smart mailboxes.  I noticed that you did not receive an answer....Did you find the file or another way to resolve this?

  • Mail: smart mailbox contents disappears/search doesn't work & fix is only temporary

    Since installing Mavericks (including the Mail update), the contents of my Smart Mailboxes disappears (the Mailboxes themselves are listed, there's just no content) and my ability to get results from Search within Mail disappears. 
    I have done a lot of searching here and via Google and read other people with similar problems.  I have done the usual magical stuff: resetting permissions (including the version that involves the command "resetpassword"), deleting caches, etc. - but to no avail.
    Spotlight clearly knows about all this mail, because I can find it with HoudahSpot, which uses the same database, but somehow Mail is not able to read what Spotlight knows.
    Now there is a commonly recommended fix, which is to go to Terminal and type some version of:
    mdimport ~/Library/Mail/V2
    This works (as does reindexing the entire disk)!  But only for about a half-hour to an hour, at which point Mail reverts to its previous state.  Running the command again works again, but once again the cure goes away shortly after.  Once again, the Smart Mailboxes are empty and search in Mail stops giving reslts.
    Can anyone suggest a real, permanent solution to this problem, besides switching to another email program?

    Okay, I think I understand better now.  So I just ran a test, by creating the following rule:
    I specifically chose an address (obviously not the one shown) that I had a message from in my Inbox, and a word that was present in the subject line of several messages in my Inbox.  When I ran this rule on my Inbox, it copied exactly the messages I would have expected into the test mailbox.  Are you seeing different behavior with the same rule, or is your rule constructed differently?
    If the difficulty is with running the rule, note that (as I said earlier) rules only run automatically on unread incoming messages.  It won't run automatically on existing messages or on messages on an IMAP mail server that you have read on another device using (in which case they will have been marked as read).  If you need to run this in such conditions, you'll have to either run the rule manually or run it via an AppleScript or something similar that is somehow (via something other than Mail) made to execute at certain times/intervals or under certain conditions.
    And you're correct, a smart mailbox would be totally inappropriate for what you're trying to do!  It would behave exactly as you guessed.

  • Mail Hangs after 10.5.6 update

    After installing the 10.5.6 update via Software Update Mail started to Hang. Odd, it worked for about a day then turned south, very south. I have no 3rd party add-ons. Simple set up to SBC global DSL via yahoo. I can't even create a new account because Mail hangs within 5-10 seconds of launch-beach ball and force quit. I have restored a pre update version of mail.app via Time Machine, but that does not change a thing. Kept both versions. I don't know what other elements could/should be restored from Time Machine to regain pre update functionality. Please, any suggestions.

    After losing hours of my life trying to find an answer, I tried mucking around myself. Found that Time Machine can indeed restore Mail, or at least it did repair my problem. Rather than replacing Mail.app and main library files, which did nothing, I restored my 'User' Mail LIbrary ( 'damaged user Account' >Library>Mail ) to Sunday before the 10.5.6 update. Be sure to Import mailboxes from the splash screen Welcome to Mail Window that will appear when you relaunch Mail after TM restore, this will restore all the mail boxes as they were, otherwise everything is empty. I now will be archiving my mail diligently, I promise, even before the new year. Seems the 10.5.6 upgrade has caused many many problems in many many areas, Mail just being the one I was blessed with. Good Luck. Time Machine is Wonderful when it is on an external HD.

  • Mail hangs when it receives a report that an e-mail could not be delivered.

    Hi Guys :o),
    One bug which is really bugging me is that every time I receive a bounced e-mail report, with a subject line containing words to the effect of:
    "Undeliverable. Return to sender."
    or:
    "The message could not be delivered."
    Mail is unable to pull any subsequent e-mails down from the POP server.
    So I junk the report, and then I delete it.
    However, lo and behold, the errant e-mail is INSTANTLY back in my Inbox, plus there's now AT LEAST one copy in my Mail Junk, and also AT LEAST one copy in my Mail Trash.
    Round and round I go, junk, delete, junk, delete, but the errant e-mail refuses to go away, and Mail continues to be unable to pull any new e-mails down from the POP server.
    Eventually, Mail just hangs, with a spinning disk.
    Even a force quit and relaunch of Mail doesn't resolve the spinning disk.
    The errant message just sits there, REFUSING to be deleted.
    The only way to get round this bug is for me to go up to my POP server, delete the report, and then PURGE DELETE the report - on the POP server !
    I then have to go in to my Mac, and go:
    --> Users --> Home --> Library --> Mail --> Account --> Inbox, Junk, and Deleted
    and then manually drag ALL copies of the report into the trash on the Desktop.
    It happens so often (pretty much every day) that I've had to create a shortcut in my Dock which leads straight to the Account folder.
    Mail has always been buggy under ALL versions of OS X, but this ongoing bug drives me crazy, mainly because there's NO logical reason for it.
    Just because I receive an e-mail message from the Hotmail server, for example, which says that my e-mail could not be delivered, usually because the recipient's inbox is full, or because no such address exists, on paper, that's just another e-mail which Mail is pulling down from the POP server.
    However, EVERY TIME I receive such a report, Mail hangs.
    I'm reluctant to rebuild my Mailboxes, in case I lose any messages, but I will if you advise it.
    Any workaround would be gratefully received.
    With best wishes to everyone in the Apple community, especially those on the Infinity Loop.
    In particular, I wish Mr Jobs a very speedy recovery.
    Cool,
    Michael T
    London, England

    Quit Mail, Right click on that Mail folder, choose archive, you'll get everything in the folder, and the folder itself in a file called Mail.zip, move it to a safe place, same for the Mail Downloads folder... only the plist is separate.
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
    Not certain, but this can fix myriad Mail problems...
    Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go, run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then move these folder & file to the Desktop.
    Move this Folder to the Desktop...
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/
    Move this file to the Desktop...
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/Envelope Index
    Reboot.
    If that doesn't do it and you can afford to redo all your Rules, try these & reboot...
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist
    /Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist.backup

  • My emails in mail have just disappeared leaving the headers of date etc

    my emails in mail have just disappeared leaving the headers of date etc
    any one out there who has had this before
    smburc

    Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.
    Back up all data. That means you know you can restore the Mail database, no matter what happens.
    Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
    ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData
    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
    Go ▹ Go to Folder
    from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens (command-V), then press return.
    A folder window will open. Inside it there should be files with names as follows:
    Envelope Index
    ExternalUpdates.storedata
    Move those files to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have longer names that begin as above. Move those files, if any, to the Trash.
    Log out and log back in. Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is damaged and that Mail has to quit. Click OK. Warning: The process may take hours if you have gigantic mailboxes. For reasonable-sized mailboxes, it should only take a few minutes.
    Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the files you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

  • New Smart Mailboxes Disappear (again & again)

    There are two smart mailboxes setup in the "Mail" application on my desktop Mac ("All Mail" & "Newspaper"). These mailboxes also exist on my laptop. On my desktop, I deleted the "Newspaper" mail box and created several new smart mailboxes. The next time I looked, the new mailboxes "self-deleted" and restored the "Newspaper" mailbox. I tried this several times with the same result. I then created a new smart mailbox on the laptop and deleted the "newspaper" mail box. Same thing happed; the new mailbox disappears and ther "newspaper" mailbox returns.
    I use use IMAP with my Gmail account and forward my "iCloud" mail to my Gmail account. The "Mail" setting is "checked" in my iCloud system settings (but not sure what impact that has on my setup).   I thought this setting may allow the smart mailboxes to synchronize between the Mac and possibly my iPhone. I am using OS X 10.9.3. I recently returned to mac "Mail" after several years of simply using the Gmail web interface on the Mac (plus iOS Mail) and am a bit unclear how the iCloud sync should work. I am pretty happy with the newer IMAP capabilities after using POP in the past.
    Any suggestions on how I can create (and keep) my smart mailboxes?
    Thanks,
    Dave

    WHAT DIDNT WORK for me:
    I have the problem, but I never had Docs & Data switched on, so Sheppard's solution does not apply for my case (there are no such files as mentioned there). Neither did Beda's move work for me. Causing fresh copies of the two files he mentioned to be created does bring back the Smart Mailbox category and a default Today smart mailbox, but putting the original files back in position, puts the problem back to square one -- no smartmailboxes appear.
    WHAT DID WORK for me:
    What I found worked was moving smartmailbox specifications from SmartMailboxes.plist into a clean SyncedSmartMailboxes.plist file.
    Steps: (This procedure requires something that enables you to open and edit plist files (e.g. Xcode). As always, keep safeties of everything before you mess around.)
    0) Before starting, check this file and confirm your smart mailbox specifications are actually still in there. If not, this won't work.
        ~/Library/Mail/V2/SmartMailboxes.plist
    1) Taking a tip from Beda, move the following files out and then launch Mail and quit it, to force creation of new copies of these files.
        ~/Library/Mail/V2/SmartMailboxesLocalProperties.plist
        ~/Library/Mail/V2/SyncedSmartMailboxes.plist
    2 ) Open the new SyncedMailboxes.plist. It contains a single item (a default Today smartmailbox specification). Delete that.
    3) Open your SmartMailboxes.plist. It contains a sublist called 'mailboxes' where all your smart mailbox specifications reside. Copy each of these items over to (the top level of) SyncedMailboxes.plist. You have to do this one at a time if you are using Xcode, because there is no multiple selection available.
    4) Save and close SyncedMailboxes.plist (and close any other plists for good measure).
    5) Launch Mail and your smart mailboxes should be back.
    Hope it works for you as it did for me.

  • APPLE PLEASE HELP! Mail hangs after start, address book never launches!

    I've been reviewing postings since friday last week about issues with mail/address book after 10.5.2 and here's a summary:
    • Symptom 1: Mail launches slow
    • symptom 2: mail hangs while downloading new mail (in my case from 1 particular account according to the activity viewer, while downloading the last, most recent msg, the msg does not have attachments but it stays downloading forever, force quit required)
    • symptom 3: mail does not send msgs (in my case it sends one-by-one after each force quit/relaunch)
    • symptom 4: duplicate msgs appear, particularly msgs received after 10.5.2
    • symptom 5: mail does not quit,, force quit necessary. in my case after i force quit/ relaunch several times mail launches somewhat "normal" but after a reboot or relaunch, problems appear again. (duplicates never go away)
    • issues with mail after 10.5.2 are not ISP/email host related, we all have different ISPs and hosts and we all have the same symptoms.
    • i also experienced problems with address book, it starts but the window never opens or if it does is completely empty, no functions are possible. this also affected ichat as the info for the contacts cant be retrieved from address book.
    thanks for reading and please contribute to the thread if you agree with the summary, APPLE NEEDS TO HELP US!!!

    Hi everybody,
    I have received an update from my friend who suffered from the Mail problem. In fact, the errors occurring AFTER the restore from Time Machine were due to an ISP's problem. So the restore really worked after all.
    So to put it in a nutshell, I would recommend the following process:
    1. Quit (or force-quit iff necessary) Mail asap when the application gets stuck. Do not open Mail again.
    2. Restore ~/Library/Mail folder from the youngest Time Machine Backup you know Mail was behaving properly.
    3. Run the 10.5.2 Combo Updater while all applications are shut down (just to be on the safe side).
    4. After the inevitable Restart, check Software Update for more updates and install if necessary.
    5. Run Mail and let it rebuild all the Mailboxes.
    This should work fine to solve the problem. With the AddressBook case, I should try a similar workflow to get it fixed, yet I haven't tried that one so far.
    BTW: I can only encourage you to really get an external drive and use Time Machine frequently. Even if it seems to be expensive in the first place, imho TM is the best piece of software Apple has been inventing for ages. In my case, I also tried to save money and took a leftover 40 gig HD from an old server and got myself a usb-2.0 external box for around 10 euros. Although space is limited, i have been backing up hourly since 1 February and there's still 12 gig to go. I only back um my home directory, as all my personal data, settings and mail are stored there.

  • Mail box contents disappeared

    After a failed Tech Tool treatment I had to erase my hard drive and restore it from a back-up. In the process the contents of my inbox, and one of my mailboxes, disappeared. Can I retrieve them, and if so how?
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    So you have some plug-ins. I wonder whether they could have a bearing on this. If the procedure I’ll suggest below doesn’t work, you should consider (properly) uninstalling them and try again.
    Assuming there is nothing wrong with the filesystem (you may want to verify the startup disk with Disk Utility, just in case), try this:
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    3. Locate Envelope Index and move it to the Trash. If you see any other “Envelope Index”-named file there, delete it as well.
    4. Move any “IMAP-”, “Mac-”, or “Exchange-” account folders to the Trash. Note that you can do this with IMAP-type accounts because they store mail on the server and Mail can easily re-create them. DON’T trash any “POP-” account folders, as that would cause all the mail stored there to be lost.
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    6. As a side effect of having removed the IMAP account folders, those accounts may be in an “offline” state now. Do Mailbox > Go Online to bring them back online.
    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.

  • Nokia E72: Urgent:Mailbox disappears when 'memory ...

    Hello Nokia,
    I had set up my corporate email account on my phone. Bydefault it uses Phone Memory for storing all messages. I tried to change the Memory In Use in option by selecting 'Memory Card'
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    Also is there a way I can transfer all my email messages currently on the phone memory to memory card ?
    Do I need set up the email again after changing the memory setting? Is that the only way out ?
    Appreciate quick response as I am worried about my phone memory getting used up fully.
     Thanks
    Venks

    Yes it goes, you have to setup email once again when you change the storage to memory card there is no way to transfer the mails stored in the phone memory to card. If you are dealing with some important mails its better to store them on the phone memory, if ur memory card gets corrupted or unusable it would be difficult or no way to get those mails back, also you make sure u delete unwanted mails when u use phone memory as it may eat up phone's memory making it slow and lagging its better to maintain some considerable amount of space in the phone.
    If a reply has solved your problem click Accept as solution button, doing it will help others know the solution. Thanks.

  • I run 3 email accounts on Mac Mail, all 3 disappeared after doing the latest OS X update. I have tried adding the accounts back but no mail appears. Help!

    I run 3 email accounts on Mac Mail, all 3 disappeared after doing the latest OS X update. I have tried adding the accounts back but no mail appears. Help!

    The mailbox list is divided into categories with headings in caps, such as ON MY MAC. When you hover the cursor over one of those headings (except for MAILBOXES), you should see the word Show or Hide on the right. Click Show. The  MAILBOXES category can't be hidden.
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  • Mail hanging

    Since updating to Lion, Mail hangs for ever while trying to retrieve messages. I have my iPhone connected to my iMac all the time whilst I am in my study, and I can hear the alert telling me when new mail arrives on my phone but when I go to Mail it won't retrieve new messages until I Quit and relaunch it. (Just the latest in a long line of issues I've had since updating to Lion...)

    with regard to my question:
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    Using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.mail.plist. Move the com.apple.mail.plist file to the Desktop.
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  • E72, IMAP mailbox disappearing

    Hello,
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    I have updated my phone to the latest firmware - as of today.
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    I have seen the same issue with IMAP mailbox disappearing. At times I've noticed that if you have the mailbox already open and then try to open it again say after a short gap, the mailbox disappears. But it actually does not and once you go to the already open mailbox by looking at all open apps, your mailbox opens. I will have to think this is a bug in E72. Latest FW does fix few memory issues with email but its still far from being perfect.

  • Main mailbox disappeared for iphone5

    My main mailbox disappeared from mail although it still appears under mail accounts. Anyone know what happened?  I still have all my other accounts listed under mailboxes.

    How, exactly, did you close out the Mail App?
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  • Mail hang when getting email from multiple POP accounts

    I'm posting this issue again.
    Mail hangs while getting new mail from multiple POP accounts almost every time. When it does, only Force Quit can quit it.
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    - Exporting, deleting and reimporting all mail boxes
    - Disabling all rules
    - Deleting anti-spam history
    - Deleting all emails from all mail boxes
    Testing each POP account individually while putty the other two offline works fine.
    I also noticed that sometimes the new mail counter in Inbox displays 2-4 new messages while there is no new ones. Switching boxes/folders and back to Inbox fixes it.
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    One secure POP
    One GMail POP
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    You’re welcome.
    I did try to clear the junk mail preferences
    The Junk Mail preferences cannot be “cleared”. What do you mean?
    it crashes almost every single time.
    It doesn’t crash (i.e. quit unexpectedly). It freezes (i.e. becomes unresponsive), right?
    I transfered my data to a Mac Mini. I had the same exact problem on it too!
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    Well, that would depend on what exactly does “I transfered my data” mean...
    Try first disabling all the rules in Preferences > Rules AND the junk filter in Preferences > Junk Mail. If the problem persists, proceed as follows.
    Verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described here:
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    After having fixed all the filesystem issues, if any, and ensuring that there’s enough space available on the startup disk (a few GB, plus the space needed to make a backup copy of the Mail folder), try this:
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    2. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/. Make a backup copy of this folder, just in case something goes wrong, e.g. by dragging it to the Desktop while holding the Option (Alt) key down. This is where all your mail is locally stored.
    3. Locate Envelope Index and move it to the Trash. If you see any other “Envelope Index”-named file there, delete it as well.
    4. Move any “IMAP-”, “Mac-”, or “Exchange-” account folders to the Trash. Note that you can do this with IMAP-type accounts because they store mail on the server and Mail can easily re-create them. DON’T trash any “POP-” account folders, as that would cause all the mail stored there to be lost.
    5. Open Mail. It will tell you that your mail needs to be “imported”. Click Continue and Mail will proceed to re-create Envelope Index — Mail says it’s “importing”, but it just re-creates the index if the mailboxes are already in Mail 2.x format.
    6. As a side effect of having removed the IMAP account folders, those accounts may be in an “offline” state now. Do Mailbox > Go Online to bring them back online.
    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.

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