Messages disappearing from Mail

Hi,
I use an iMac 8,1 OS 10.5.8
For my email, I have two addresses and messages are downloaded to the Mail software. My Mail file is enormous (23GB) because I have all my sent and received emails for works purposes. I regularly copy the whole thing back and forth between my iMac and iBook via FireWire when I go away on trips.
I recently had some connectivity issues and was using my iPhone as a modem. Having encountered a problem, I restarted my computer, having closed down the programs. Having restarted and reopened Mail, I noticed that one of my mailboxes was having trouble opening, but I assumed that this was due to the slow connectivity. Now I have full wireless connectivity restored but I noticed that tens of thousands of sent messages, and hundred of received that were in my inbox, have simply disappeared. I have checked all the folders and the messages that have disappeared and they all relate to one of my email addresses - the one whose box was having trouble opening...
I have two questions - apart from how this couldl have happened:
1) can I restore the missing messages? Are they somewhere on my machine?
2) If not, I copied the whole of Mail to my iBook a few weeks ago. Can I transfer en masse the missing sent and received messages to my iMac, without effacing the more recent messages sent and received on this computer? If I import the Mailboxes, will this not overwrite the more recent messages since that copy to my iBook?
If anyone can help, I'd be most grateful, as these emails are really important for professional reasons.
thanks
Sebastian

With that version of OSX and Mail, there would be no Attachments folder with any POP account's mbox folder.  Don't worry about that, as it is a fully redundant archive.
Do  you only have POP accounts?
What you are going to have to do is to create some On My Mac mailboxes, and then in the Finder, move batches of the xxxxx.emlx files from the Messages folder into similar Messages folders in enough On My Mac mailboxes so that no one Messages folder exceeds 2 GB.  This is because at 2 GB, Mail may not be able to index the messages in a single xxxxx.mbox folder.
Once you have created the On My Mac mailboxes in Mail, you must then Quit Mail.  In the Finder, you will find those On My Mac mailboxes within the Mailboxes folder found within the Mail folder.  You may have to create the Messages folder in each, if Mail does not do that at the moment of creation.
Once you have distributed the xxxx.emlx files across these new mailboxes, then also in the Finder, at the root level of the Mail folder, remove the Envelop Index files (may be more than one due to indexing failures, btw). then Relaunch Mail and allow it reindex all these messages in all these new mailboxes.  See:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mail/4.0/en/14019.html
Pay no attention to its being for Lion, as this has not changed since Leopard (10.5.8).  Especially note that IMAP and Exchange account folder, if any, must be removed before doing this.
Got to go out for awhile, so if any questions, ask and I will address, later.
Ernie

Similar Messages

  • Sent messages disappearing from Mail

    I checked the threads. This has been a problem for some, but not me before that I remember, and I haven't come across a solution that works for me.
    This morning I had an email message disappear after I tried to send it. Sometime later I heard the swoosh sound, and it's there in the sent mailbox, so I didn't think much about it. This evening, after taking much time to carefully compose a long detailed technical message to some actors and performers in a musical I'm producing, I clicked send, and the message disappeared. No draft, no sent, and no "swoosh". About a minute later, I heard a swoosh. But nothing else happened.
    I'm about losing my **** right here. The most frustrating feeling ever.
    Now, an hour later, still no message. I've checked everywhere I could think of. I looked in the mail folders in the Library. I found the email I sent prior to this. It's late at night, and I have no way of finding out whether it was received (somehow I doubt it), and now I'm worried some other critical messages I've sent out may have also vanished.
    I depend on email for my work, and I've counted on mail to do the job for many years. It's always worked for me. Now this. I'd love to keep using mail, but I depend on my email for business, and I can't afford for this to ever happen again.
    Has anyone else experienced this lately and has anyone else come up with a solution? Until I do, I'm taking special precautions such as manually copying the message as I go/revise and pasting/saving into text. I wish I didn't have to, but I obvioulsy can't count on mail.

    Please see my post and how it was resolved:
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1181356&tstart=0
    When I had that issue, I tried using Apple Mail app and noticed that Sent Mails are getting lost. Try sending an email using WebMail. You might see similar "Permission Denied" error. Try restarting the server and see if the issue still exists.

  • Almost all messages disappeared from Mail's Sent folder

    A friend of mine running OSX 10.4.11 with all Apple updates on an Intel iMac about a year and half old, is having problems with Mail. She seems to have lost all her Sent messages from before Jan. 24th. As she put it: "Came in on 1/25, to find only three message left in my sent messages" dating 1/24." She's using an IMAP account, and a broadband Ethernet DSL modem.
    Personally I rarely use Mail, preferring Mailsmith/POP, so am not that familiar with the app - or with IMAP. After looking up Mail Help I suggested she first rebuild the Sent folder and instructed her how to do that over the phone. It went through it's paces but didn't improve the situation. Sent mailbox still only contains messages dating from Jan.24th. There should be several years of Sent messages in that box.
    Then I had her try the next thing on the Help page, which was reindexing Mail, done by quitting Mail, removing certain files from the ~/Library/Mail folder, launching Mail and waiting for it to retrieve stuff from the server. That didn't solve the problem either. The other mailboxes seem to have all their messages intact, and the Mail app seems to be working normally otherwise. She hasn't done a backup since the problem occurred, but restoring from that would eliminate all the mail she has received since.
    I'd greatly appreciate any other suggestions on how to get her missing messages back.
    thanks,
    ncm

    Hopefully someone with more knowledge will pitch in. In my friend's case it isn't a dot mac account.
    Could it be related to the allocated space on the server being too full? There are several years of email stored there and it's an office, so I imagine there's a lot of mail. Not being very familiar with IMAP I don't know if the stored mail could get messed up if there isn't much room left on the server.

  • Messages disappear from mail app?

    since i changed my comp and automaticly transfer from my old one, a power book,every day i open the mail app i find every time less messages inbox and sent...
    i found some messages in librery they have a number and emlx(?)
    does anybody can help me i don't want to loose all the info i have in my mail!

    In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/. With that folder open, do Edit > Select All (⌘A), then Edit > Copy (⌘C), and paste it in your reply to this post, to let me see the names of the files and folders present at the root level of the Mail folder.
    Before actually posting that information, you may edit it so that the file/folder names do not reveal any details you wish to keep private, e.g. you may replace any real username with "username" to hide your real email address if you wish; similarly, you may disguise any domain names you don't want to be revealed. Try to be consistent in how you disguise those details, though, as we may need to refer to them in subsequent posts.
    Now, go to ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/. With that folder open, repeat the process to let me see the names of the files and folders it contains. Again, you may disguise any mailbox names you wish to keep private. Be careful to not alter any suffixes, though.
    Finally, locate the account folders within ~/Library/Mail/ -- their name begins with the account type (POP, IMAP, Mac), followed by the account username and the incoming mail server. For each account folder, repeat the process to let me see the names of the files and folders it contains.
    Let me know which are the mailboxes that have the problem.
    Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user's home folder. You can easily locate any of the folders referred to in this post by copying the file path here, doing Go > Go to Folder in the Finder, and pasting the file path there.

  • The 'reply' and 'new message' bar has disappeared from mail on my iPad since I upgraded my Macbook Pro from OSX10.5 to 10.6. How do I get it back?

    The 'reply' and 'new message' bar has disappeared from mail on my iPad since I upgraded my Macbook Pro from OSX 10.5 to 10.6. How can I get it back?

    Updating your Mac's OS X version won't have affected how the Mail app (I assume that it's the Mail app that you are using, not Safari) shows on your iPad. If you don't have the menu bar showing in the Mail app then try closing the Mail app via the iPad's multitasking bar and see if it shows when you re-open it : iOS: Force an app to close
    If that doesn't fix it then you could try a soft-reset : press and hold both the sleep and home buttons for about 10 to 15 seconds (ignore the red slider), after which the Apple logo should appear - you won't lose any content, it's the iPad equivalent of a reboot.

  • I just opened my mail on icloud and all messages disappeared from the last year! I have one email left in my inbox which is the most recent. I moved to icloud 2 weeks ago and it has been working fine until now. How can I retrieve old messages? Thank you.

    i just opened my mail on icloud and all messages disappeared from the last year! I have one email left in my inbox which is the most recent. I moved to icloud 2 weeks ago and it has been working fine until now. How can I retrieve old messages? Thank you.

    I guess you could try but I don't believe Apple can help with activation lock issues.  They may, however, be able to determine if the Apple ID belongs to one of you and reset the password for you if you can prove your identity.
    You might want to try calling Apple by going to https://expresslane.apple.com; click 'More Products and Services, then 'Apple ID'.  In the next page select 'Other Apple ID Topics' then 'Lost or forgotten Apple ID password'.  Perhaps they can help determine if it's your ID and reset the password for you (and they probably have more expertise in doing this than the Apple store).

  • They are suddenly disappeared from Mail all the account, please help.

    they are suddenly disappeared from Mail all the account.

    Rebuild is not clickable. It is as if you entered in Mail the first turns and it ask me which accont to take a census.

  • Messages disappearing from notification center, ios8

    Why are my messages disappearing from my notification center before I open them with ios8?  I have an iPhone 5s.  Sometimes they don't appear in notification center at all...

    I myself am having this issue and its driving me crazy. I search the internet and find posts just like this, one with no answer or solution to the problem. Please help this is really annoying !

  • TS3276 why do my email messages disappear from my inbox since I started using OSX Mountain Lion on my mac?

    Why do my old email messages disappear from my inbox since I started using OSX Mountain Lion on my mac?  These are not messages that I have deleted on other linked devices such as my iPad.

    Why do my old email messages disappear from my inbox since I started using OSX Mountain Lion on my mac?  These are not messages that I have deleted on other linked devices such as my iPad.

  • ICloud account disappears from Mail preferences

    In Mail preferences my iCloud account didn't seem to be working so I deleted it, logged into iCloud, selected 'Mail and Notes' and the Mail account was recreated.  After signing out of iCloud the account disappeared from Mail preferences.  Why?

    So, then, do you recommend that I remain "signed in" to iCloud all the time on both my desktop and my laptop so that the iCloud account always appears in the Mail application?  Or should I "sign in" to iCloud periodically to see if I have mail in my iCloud account or, alternatively, access mail in the iCloud account through iCloud.com?
    The old MobileMe mail account was always present in the Mail application unlike the iCloud mail account.

  • Mavericks mail reply message disappears from screen

    Using Mavericks 10.9.1 and mail, when I hit reply to a message, the reply window pops up and disappears from the screen not to be brought forward again even though it is listed in the window dropdown. This action only occurs when I have my MacBook Pro attached to an external monitor. When I detach the monitor replying to a message works fine. I don't want to constantly attach and deattach though just to answer an email. Suggestions? Bug?

    What type of mail account is this (POP, IMAP, .Mac)?
    Verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described here:
    The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
    Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Network, choose Network Port Configurations from the Show popup menu, and make sure that the configuration used to connect to Internet appears at the top of the list.
    Try disabling Search .Mac For Certificates in Keychain Access > Preferences if it’s enabled. Take a look at the following articles for an explanation of why this could be the problem:
    http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/07/18/apple-mail-phones-home-too/
    http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/mailapp_doesnt_phone_homeeither/
    BTW, are you really using Mac OS X 10.4.2, as your profile indicates? Is there a reason you haven’t updated your system since then?

  • Messages disappearing from folders in Mac Mail

    I'm using Mail for my AOL e-mail account. I often save messages into folders by subject--say, "travel". I'm noticing that some messages are disappearing from these folders. It's not by date, and I KNOW I'm not deleting them. Where does old mail go, when it goes? Has anyone else had this problem or know of a fix? I need to be able to save important mail indefinitely!

    I'm using Mail for my AOL e-mail account. I often save messages into folders by subject--say, "travel". I'm noticing that some messages are disappearing from these folders. It's not by date, and I KNOW I'm not deleting them. Where does old mail go, when it goes? Has anyone else had this problem or know of a fix? I need to be able to save important mail indefinitely!

  • Messages disappeared from my Hotmail Account after opening Mail-pls help!!

    Please Help!!!
    I put hotmail to my apple mail through a pop3 connection. I guess it copied all of my mails from my hotmail inbox to my apple inbox and then deleted them from my hotmail account. However, this was not my intention, I would still like to check my e-mail history through a web browser remotely (ie from my phone or another computer) but they have disappeared and now my hotmail inbox is empty!!! This happened yesterday! There were over 3500 e-mails, is it possible to get them transferred back from Mail to my hotmail account?
    Thanks

    Hi Vivi981,
    Here is an article of troubleshooting for issues receiving mail:
    OS X Mail: Troubleshooting sending and receiving email messages
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3276
    I hope this helps!
    - Ari

  • Mail messages disappear from the Inbox, but are still in ~/Library/Mail

    Folks,
    I'm encountering a perplexing problem on my parent's eMac; any input would be very much appreciated...here's the story:
    Over the weekend, I upgraded my Dad's 1.25GHz eMac G4 to Tiger (it had been running 10.3.9). The upgrade went smoothly, and all seemed well. I applied all the latest Apple Software Updates to get the eMac to 10.4.6, and once again, all seemed well. I performed the usual Disk Utility "permission fixing," as well, and nothing came up that seemed unusual. I did notice that I encountered the "spinning beach ball" a fair amount during routine operations, but I attributed this to the fact that the eMac only has 512MB of RAM (it's going to receive another 512 in a few days), and that I was just being impatient, given that I am accustomed to my own machine, which is a relatively snappy dual 2.5GHz G5 with the full complement of 8GB of RAM. A day or so later, Dad reported that the Mail app was not starting; upon clicking the Mail icon, it simply bounced several times, and then simply stopped bouncing. I looked at the crash logs and found that Mail could not locate a needed file/library located in /System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework. In addition, I noticed that the iCal app and the Address Book app were also crashing (the icons of each would bounce, just like Mail's, then stop, without the apps actually firing up). The crash logs revealed that those apps were also looking for this mysterious file, which apparently had somehow been misplaced/lost. I used the "Pacifist" program to reinstall the contents of that particular directory (using the Tiger install CD). Much to my relief, once that directory was reinstalled, the apps once again started up and worked normally. HOWEVER, I noticed some odd behavior with the Mail app. The first thing that became evident was that the Inbox did not show all the messages that had been there before. Looking under the ~/Library/Mail/POP-Dad's account/INBOX.mbox/Messages directory, however, it was clear that all the messages were indeed there (in the form of the individual .emlx files). They just did not seem to be displayed in the Inbox of the Mail app. I tried doing a "rebuild" of the mailbox, but this did not result in any additional messages being displayed. Any thoughts?
    The other perplexing behavior is this: the Mail app on the eMac can send and receive mail, but, once you click on a newly-received (unread) message, and then go to another mail box (say, for example, the "Drafts" or "Sent" folders), and then return to the Inbox, the message that was just received is no longer displayed/listed in the Inbox. Once again, looking in the ~/Library/Mail/POP-Dad's account/INBOX.mbox/Messages directory reveals that the message IS there (again, in its own .emlx file), but is simply not being displayed in the Inbox. I can click on the individual .emlx files, and they open new windows in Mail, from which you can hit "reply" or "forward," as normal; it just won't display the actual message that was originally in the Inbox. Sent messages, however, seem to be saved/displayed normally.
    I've searched through the Mail discussion forum, and while I've found discussions along generally similar lines, I have not located an entry dealing with these particular symptoms. As such, any input/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks in advance for your time.
    -Javier

    Regarding the missing package that you reinstalled with Pacifist, it would have been better to fix the problem by reinstalling the Mac OS X 10.4.6 Combo Update. Actually, you're going to have to do that anyway, as the package you installed came from an older version of Mac OS X and could now be out-of-sync with the rest of the system. Not only that, but if there was something amiss with that package, chances are that something else went awry as well, so you should really reinstall the latest Combo Update. 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 boot volume (not just permissions) before installing the update, and no applications should be running while installing it.
    As to the missing messages, the conversion from Mail 1.x to Mail 2.0 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."
    If you see a strangely named Messages-XXXXXX folder within any of the *.mbox folders in the Finder, that means the conversion didn't proceed as it should, so be careful about deleting the old files, as they may contain messages that didn't come through. Better just move them out of there if you wish.
    I partially disagree with Allan (and with Ernie, who also has troubleshooted a lot of similar cases and believes the old files could still be troublesome after a successful conversion as well) in that I don't think the problem with Mail 2.0 is the presence of the old files, but rather that, as a result of the improper conversion, there is something wrong with Envelope Index and with some of the converted messages themselves. IMO, the old files shouldn't be a problem if the conversion worked properly. Mail should just ignore those files when it sees a proper Messages folder in the mailbox folder.
    The reason you cannot see in Mail some messages for which an *.emlx file exists is precisely that there is something wrong with Envelope Index. Mail will simply ignore any *.emlx file for which a corresponding entry does not exist in Envelope Index. Actually, Mail doesn't look into the Messages folder at all when displaying the mailbox contents, it just loads whatever there is in Envelope Index. If that information is wrong, the information displayed by Mail will be wrong as well; it may refer to messages that no longer exist, ignore messages that do exist, display one message but load a different one when you open it, etc.
    Re-creating Envelope Index without cleaning up the mailboxes first would probably fail and it could even make things worse, though. That's what makes troubleshooting these issues harder than it should be.

  • Hotmail disappearing from Mail on iPhone 6

    A few months ago I was having trouble with my email not downloading to my phone so I deleted the hotmail account and re-installed it. It solved the problem with emails not downloading but after a few weeks I noticed my oldest emails were disappearing from my phone. I don't use outlook on a computer so it isn't related
    to that. I use Mail on an iMac but I rarely use email on my computer.  I went into settings and changed deleted messages --> remove to "never" but it is still happening. I noticed after I re-installed hotmail it is connected to the server now. In other words if I log in to hotmail from a web browser the inbox is the same as on my phone so if I delete a message from the web browser it is deleted on my phone and vice versa (it didn't do this before I deleted hotmail the first time) but when the emails randomly disappear from my phone they are still in my inbox on the web browser.
    I hope someone can help because I primarily use my phone for email and I keep losing important emails.

    Ok, great!.  So what?  What is your question?

Maybe you are looking for