Recover mail after archive and install

Hey there good mac people,
I recently archived and installed on my ibook g4. It was successful, my problem is that I forgot to backup all the mail I had in my osx mail app.
The previous system folder (library<mail<mail accounts<com.mac.mailaccounts<English.lproj< file, but I don't know if this will help restore or not?
Some of the mail is still on the server, but it is set to delete from the server once a week, and thus only a weeks worth at best is still on the server.
Does anybody have any suggestions?
In the future, what's the best way to back up mail?

Hello art-is-work.
I don't understand your problem. Archive and Install should have preserved all your data, unless you told it to do otherwise. Did you?
Mail stores most preferences and all account settings in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist. Everything else, including all your messages and mailboxes, is stored within the ~/Library/Mail/ folder.
If the problem is that you told the installer to not Preserve Users and Network Settings, then Archive and Install should still have saved a copy of your entire home folder in /Previous Systems/Previous System N/Users/, where N is a number. The old Mail folder and preferences file should be there. You can just copy them to the appropriate location of your current home folder, or follow the somewhat convoluted procedure described in the following article to safely restore them:
How to get files from a previous home directory after Archive and Install (Mac OS X)
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user's home folder.

Similar Messages

  • I need help to recover/relink mail after archive and install

    I am helping my friend fix her 15" G4 PowerBook after memory failures caused many crashes. There was no recovering short of a reinstall via "archive and install". All that worked great, but now Mail doesn't recognize the accounts, mailboxes, signatures, etc. that are still located in the user/library/mail folder.
    What's up with that? I can't figure out how to relink Mail to this stuff.
    Here's more detail:
    1) After lots of prior debugging (Disk Utility, Disk Warrior, Apple Hardware Test, single-user commands per Apple tech notes), I did the A&I to 10.3.4 from the original disks.
    2) Per Dr. Smoke and The X Lab, I ran the 10.3.9 combo installer right away so that the "older" system would not get confused by the "newer" stuff in the Previous Systems folder.
    3) I Launched Mail and it started anew, i.e. didn't recognize accounts and wanted to start over.
    Thanks for any help.

    The account settings are stored in HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist. It looks like that file became corrupt -- maybe its permissions went awry (Disk Utility cannot fix that) and Mail just deleted the file to create a new one.
    If your friend doesn't have a backup copy of that file, just set up the accounts from scratch all over again. If given the option to import existing mailboxes or something like that, don't. Just enter the account information and Mail will automagically rediscover the data in HOME/Library/Mail/ when done.
    You'll also have to re-configure most settings in Mail > Preferences. For spam-related security reasons, the first thing you should do is go to Preferences > Viewing and disable Display remote images in HTML messages if it's enabled.

  • Missing mail after "archive and install"

    Hello,
    I went to talk to the folks at the "genius bar" today because my powerbook fan has been blazing like crazy. I had OS 10.4 on my computer, which I had installed from an upgrade about a year ago. I bought the computer a few months before that, when it still shipped with OS 10.3. So the guy at the mac store told me to re-install the system using the archive and install feature and the original install disks. He told me to re-install 10.3, which came with the computer, and then to run the upgrade that I have to get it back to 10.4.
    I am having some problems. I have reinstalled X.3 and find that when I open the Mail application, all of my messages of the last year are gone. I can't find them anywhere. But everything else on the computer seems untouched...all of my documents, and even old emails from before I made the upgrade to 10.4, one year ago.
    I am afraid that if I do anything else, like install 10.4 that I will lose any chance of recovering these files. Does anybody have any advice on where I can recover the emails from my inbox and other folders? The guy at the apple store assured me that everything would be saved by clicking the "preserve users and network settings" option in the re-install program.
    Or will everything show up again when I re-install 10.4? I was holding off on doing this because I wanted to see if the fan would run less using the older system, as someone suggested that I try this. I also tried to "import" the inbox in the library/mail folder, but this only imported all of the messages that I already have...not the lost ones.
    thanks for any advice!
    colin

    Did the folks or this person at the "genius bar" also recommend that you create or update your backup before performing an Archive & Install?
    If not, a "genius" he ain't.
    The mbox filing structure used with Tiger Mail is significantly different than the mbox filing structure used with previous Mail.app versions under Jaguar and Panther.
    Tiger Mail stores each message contained in a mailbox as a separate file in .emix format located within the Messages folder for the mailbox. Although you can import Jaguar and Panther mailboxes to Tiger, the mbox format used with Tiger Mail is not backwards compatible or interchangeable with Jaguar or Panther Mail without taking an additional step first. The reason you are seeing the old messages available before and up until the time you upgraded to Tiger is because you didn't delete the left over content package files used by Panther Mail and one of these files contains all messages messages and message attachments which are not automatically deleted after the conversion process to the mbox format used with Tiger Mail is completed.
    Using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Mail > this POP account named folder (named by the user name and incoming mail server for the account). Within the account named folder is there an INBOX.mbox file and/or an INBOX.mbox named folder and the same for the other mailboxes (mboxes) within the account named folder?
    Tiger Mail.app mboxes at the Finder level are folders and each folder contains a Messages folder which stores each message contained in the mailbox as a separate file in .emix format.
    Jaguar and Panther Mail.app mboxes are .mbox files only, not a folder.

  • Where is mail stored after archive and install?

    Hello All,
    I need to know where my old mails are stored after archive and install. To give a bit of background... This is a work computer. Its a MacMini which came with 10.4 installed. Before I joined the company boss upgraded to Leopard and thats what I have been using all this time. Recently it blue screened and I had to do an archive and install after trying various other options.
    I only had the original install discs with 10.4 in them and not the Leopard discs. Since I needed to my computer up and running, I used those discs and did an archive and install.
    I have all my old documents, etc but I couldn't open mail from the previous systems folder because its a different OS.
    Is it possible to retrieve my old emails without having to install Leopard again?
    Any help is appreciated.

    When I started the computer up, instead of the login page with the account names coming up, there was just a blue screen. There are lots of articles that gave suggestions to try but nothing worked so I had to archive and install.

  • Finder not responding after Archive and install

    I recently encountered my first problem ever with my mac(new in '05) This is the first mac I have owned; I have worked on G3's and G4's in the past. After reading through many message boards and support pages I don't believe my problem to be similar but different to previous posts.
    My problem started off with an OS problem that I was able to diagnose in the "help" book I purchased when Leopard came out. It said I should Archive and Install to remedy the problem and keep my files. I ran the archive the install (it gave me no options to preserve user or network settings). After Archive and install my computer started up alright, but I got the permanent beachball and the finder does not work. it is constantly non responsive. I can relaunch finder, but after it restarts it goes non responsive immediately once again. So I can't actually access my "previous system" folder to move anything over. I checked my dock items and finder, they opened, but my itunes asked for an update. I list of update items came up; I did the non-restart items first. they updated fine, (my itunes old itunes playlists are viewable but not playable now) then I did the items that required a restart. That is when I found out that I could not shut down or restart my computer with std. procedures.
    Currently I can only access my spotlight or apple pull down menu if I am in a functioning dock program (safari or itunes, quicktime. etc.) after reading some more support pages it looked like the common thing to do was check permissions and verify disk. I did, I repaired two permissions and the disk was OK. I did look at the HD files, they were as I remembered, but unaccessible (greyed out) and the "previous system" folder was present. +It didn't look like I would expect. The HD looked same as it used to just with a previous system folder.+ After checking the permissions and verified the disk I tried a hard restart. It came back the same as before, unresponsive finder and only the few dock items worked along with spotlight. I checked permissions and disk verify again and everything was OK.
    Sorry to be long winded I am trying to be thorough...In short, My finder does not work after doing an Archive and Install to fix my original problem (which has been fixed)...the remedy for an unresponsive finder is to do an archive and install. Is another archive and install really going to fix my problem? Can I archive and install OSX 10.4 and work my way back up to 10.5.6?
    Secondly is there a way to restart my computer without doing another hard restart?

    It won't let me add a new account. I am locked out and when I try to unlock it gives me the beachball and becomes non responsive after it tries to authenticate.
    I looked at the log file, I am not sure what exactly to look for. I am no programer. I see an awful lot of negative wording. I see some errors like "error (-4956) locating menu extra but they are mostly under system preferences...I see some stuff in the loginwindow that says is not a full path... Otherwise, the only reference I see to the finder is when I have force quit the finder.
    2/8/09 8:59:55 PM com.apple.launchd[114] ([0x0-0x4d04d].com.apple.finder[304]) Exited: Terminated
    2/8/09 11:10:17 PM com.apple.launchd[114] ([0x0-0x57057].com.apple.finder[321]) Exited: Terminated

  • Cd inserted but unrecognized after "archive and install"

    After "archive and install" OS X.2 and clicking on "save settings", everything works fine, except sound cds are not recognized when inserted. iTunes works fine with the original files on hard disk, but doesnt see the cd (it did before).
    I repaired permissions. I deleted the "previous systems" folder. still nothing.
    I did notice that the "previous systems" folder has an "audio" file in it but the current "system" folder doesnt. I tried copying this audio file into the current "system" folder but I get the notice that it cant be changed.
    I need to hear cds on this computer. Any ideas?
    (It isnt a speaker problem as the itunes files play fine).
    John in Vancouver

    Hi John in Vancouver! And Welcome To
    Discussions!
    Open System Preferences > CDs & DVDs.
    Adjust the appropriate setting there, and see if it
    helps.
    Good Luck!
    ali b
    Thanks, ali, but I did that early on. Didnt put it in the post. On insertion of a CD I have it set to open iTUnes.
    I found a further problem which is that the midi set-up no longer locates my external keyboard. I will check the discussions under audio for this one, however. (I did check about the CD problem in the audio discussion but nothing there.)
    John

  • Video podcasts won't play after archive and install

    I'm one of the folks having capture issues with FCP 4.5 and OS X 10.4.9. So I decided to archive and install to 10.4.8. Now it seems I'm having all kinds of video problems, including downloading and playing video podcasts in iTunes (7.2). When I download a podcast, say "Tiki Bar TV", the file downloads, but in the podcast screen, I get an error message which reads,
    "There is a problem adding the video to iTunes. The file might be corrupted, or a file type that iTunes cannot play." For the record, I have never run into anything like this before. And it's the same way with every video podcast.
    I had some similar wonkiness going on with QuickTime, too. But after I installed a divx plug-in, and flip for mac, everything seems to be okay with the QT. iTunes is still a mystery. Any ideas on what my next step should be would be appreciated.
    Thank you.
    Ben
    PowerMac G5 Dual 2.5Ghz   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   3GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, ATI9800XT

    There are files that are not brought along with Archive and Install.
    Some are invisible and not accessible without enabling "root" access and even then you have to know exactly which files have to be moved from the 'previous System' folder.
    Archive and Install never works with Apple's Pro apps.
    If Niel's suggestion doesn't work you'll have to erase your hard drive and reinstall everything making sure you first backup important data to another hard drive.
    (don't forget to save your mail and addresses)

  • No User accounts after Archive and Install ?

    Today I tried to salvage a 20" iMac G5 for a friend. He had done something that screwed up his hard drive. Disk Utility Disk Repair run of the startup partition always failed. Using an external FW disk, I was able to use Disk Utility Repair successfully, but drive would still not boot. Decided Archive and Install was the right way to go, did that and everything seemed OK but I found I could not log in to his account. Thought it was just a lost password, so tried using the OSX Tiger Install DVD to Reset Password. His *Macintosh HD* Startup drive shows only the "root" user available, neither of the two previous user account names appear.
    I can think of nothing to do to recover except an Erase & Install (I have his User files saved). Is there an alternative?
    I would assume performing another Archive & Install would yield the same result.

    I continued work on this issue today. First, I checked and the three User account folders were present in the Users folder along with the one new account created as part of the Mac OSX Tiger A&I. For some reason, not one of these 4 was accessible from the Login screen; it acted exactly if there were no user accounts.
    Purchased and installed DiskWarrior 4 on the FW drive and rebuilt the directory of the iMac's internal drive. Ran all other tests available w/ DW. Still no joy on logging in. I should NOT have had to see the Login screen at all if the new user had been created properly.
    Punted. Copied everything I thought I would need to the external drive, then did an Erase & Install of OS X Tiger. Applied all updates, no problems logging in. Copied all the original User/username files and folders and restored a few apps.
    Finally, after much wasted time, I have all but one App running and all data files, folders, pics, music restored.
    Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 fails because I apparently failed to save a .plist file somewhere and now I learn too late that PE 3.0 will not install on a 10.4.x system. Sigh.

  • After Archive and Install, music and photos lost

    Hello, I installed Leopard yesterday on my Imac desktop and it went fine, but then somehow it locked me out of the hard drive, and then...the blue screen. I put the orginal Tiger disk back in and re-installed the previous software, opting for 'archive and install'. It worked but my question is this;
    Within the previous system folder, my music and photos are still missing. All I see is the iphoto icon which opens to a completely empty program. (Yet the info on this Icon says it is a 1 gb in there). Are my photos lost, really? And if not, how may I retrieve them? Thanks in advance.

    You may find it in the Previous System Folder created during an Archive and Install that contains your old system. Assuming you have no need for its contents you can delete the PSF and recover the disk space.
    Of course if the hard drive is corrupted then you may have performed an Archive and Install on a corrupted drive which will result in a corrupted installation. Consider doing the following:
    Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
    Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now shutdown the computer for a couple of minutes and then restart normally.
    If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

  • Partitions not mounting after Archive and Install

    I have just installed 10.4 after putting it off for ages. My machine is G4DA with 1.5ghz processor upgrade and a Sonnet ATA133 card for hooking up my 180gb Seagate 7200.7 HD.
    I had the HD partitioned into three equal 60gb partitions. One for system, users and apps, one for my video stuff and one for my audio stuff.
    The install went fine (Archive and Install option) onto the System partition. However after restarting, only the System partition is mounted. Disk Utility recognises the other two partitions (they have the generic document icon next to them rather than the little HD icon). When I run the repair it tells me there is nothing wrong with either partition.
    Disk Warrior also sees the partitions and also repairs them fine without any errors. Even the VISE installer for some of my software installs lists the partitions as available to install on but neither mount.
    I have been able to recover the data from the partitions using Data Rescue. Just wanted to know whether there was any way of getting the partitions to mount via the command line or otherwise before I resort to reformatting the drive.

    The Terminal.app command diskutil will do that. Launch it and type
    man diskutil, hit the return key, and read all about it.

  • How do I restore previous settings after archive and install?

    I had to do an archive and install (with the box unchecked about users) on Friday after I had a kernel panic issue, but now I don't know if there is a way to restore my previous settings and access my previous files. I found the "previous system" folders, but it restricts my access to almost all of the folders, and I can't even find all of my music (iTunes) files or my stickies. I also can't find all of my bookmarks and internet settings. I'm totally panicked...there is a lot of information for my business that I really can't afford to lose. Please help me!

    See the following:
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107297.
    The following can also apply to locating and moving data from a Previous System Folder. The "Home" folder will be /Users/shortname/ where "shortname" is the user account name you created.
    Because you did not transfer the users accounts when you did the Archive and Install you may have created a new user account and password that is not the same as the one you previously used. This means the PSF has different permissions associated with it.
    <font "size=+1">Folders You Can Move to Your new Mac
    From the Home folder copy the contents of Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites.
    In your /Home/Library/ folder:
    /Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
    /Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
    Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
    /Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
    /Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
    /Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist (* This is a very important file which contains all email account settings and general mail preferences.)
    /Home/Library/Preferences/ copy any preferences needed for third-party applications
    /Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
    /Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
    If you want cookies:
    /Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
    /Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
    For Entourage users:
    Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
    Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
    Credit goes to another forum user for this information.
    Why reward points?(Quoted from Discussions Terms of Use.)
    The reward system helps to increase community participation. When a community member gives you (or another member) a reward for providing helpful advice or a solution to their question, your accumulated points will increase your status level within the community.
    Members may reward you with 5 points if they deem that your reply is helpful and 10 points if you post a solution to their issue. Likewise, when you mark a reply as Helpful or Solved in your own created topic, you will be awarding the respondent with the same point values.

  • FCP won't launch after Archive and Install

    After the fiasco of the 1.1 update for the Alu-iMac's I had to do an archive and install on my system to return it to 1.0.
    Everything is now working fine but FCP6 won't launch. It bounces in the dock once and then nothing. LiveType and DVD Studio 4 will open but Color, Motion and FCP won't.
    I have trashed preferences and repaired permissions with no luck.
    Any ideas?
    Thanks in advance.

    There are files that are not brought along with Archive and Install.
    Some are invisible and not accessible without enabling "root" access and even then you have to know exactly which files have to be moved from the 'previous System' folder.
    Archive and Install never works with Apple's Pro apps.
    If Niel's suggestion doesn't work you'll have to erase your hard drive and reinstall everything making sure you first backup important data to another hard drive.
    (don't forget to save your mail and addresses)

  • Recovery of lost printers after Archive and Install

    Hi,
    I just finished an Archive and Install of Leopard, and I discovered that one of the side-effects of doing this is that my printers are all gone. I sort of expected this, and I have a full system backup of the system I rebuilt, so if all else fails, I can boot off the backup, and print or take notes on the printer settings, and then go back to my active installation of Leopard and re-enter them all. But I'm wondering if there's an easier way. Would anyone know if all of the printer info might be contained in a few discrete sections of the "Previous System" folder that I could just drag into the current system folder to get all of my printers back? I do consulting work at a number of companies, so I have about ten printers that I routinely print to, so it's a bit of a bother to rebuild the list by hand.
    Thanks,
    Ken

    Usually, when no additional printer software had been installed into the Mac
    (assuming the printers are among the many supported printers already in it)
    all you'd have to do in order to use one of those attached or available printers
    would be to have them turned on and attached to the computer or the network
    they'd normally be accessed through. Unless they require newer driver software.
    At times, the choices of available printers would appear in the print setup in an
    open application; at others, you may have to go into the setup utility to see if
    the printers could be added to the list - pulling drivers from the installed OS X
    and putting them into a position to be used, if compatible with the printers there.
    The system's installer and updated files available to it include many drivers,
    and these are not all turned on by default.
    So, if there is no chance of the printers being recognized by the OS X version
    you have (assuming archive & install and update) even after being given any
    new drivers available through Software Update, you may have to seek out the
    latest drivers from the printer manufacturers web site downloads pages.
    There may be some other way to make the printers work through the OS; if
    they otherwise should appear and be available. Some of the printer setups
    & CUPS printing options or settings should be explored if they haven't been.
    Although I don't have OS X 10.5.x running in my computers now, I have tried
    it and decided to stay awhile longer in 10.4.11; some of the same kinds of
    issues can occur, between these slightly different systems. You may be able
    to re-use the printer drivers from the Previous System, unless their installer
    had an instruction set to put various parts for the printer software in different
    locations, in which case, the drag-n-drop may not be suitable to reinstall them.
    Hopefully someone with more restore experience (short of manually reinstalling
    drivers, if these are not already a part of the OSX and its 10.5 install/updates)
    will contribute a bit more and direct you as per the specific demands of Leopard.
    PS:
    When you get your system back in order, you may wish to consider making a
    full computer drive clone on an externally enclosed FireWire drive unit capable
    of booting Mac OS X and running your PPC-based Mac (and also Intel-based)
    so that unit may be something in the way of a FW400/800 + USB2.0 drive with
    its own AC power adapter. OWC sells a mercury drive enclosure with HDD in it.
    That may be a way to avoid doing Archive & Installs + updates; just restore from
    a full drive clone and be on your way. And do other backups if needed, too.
    Good luck & happy computing!
    { edited 2x }

  • Blank iTunes library after Archive and Install

    My PowerBook G4 suffered a catastrophic crash and after advice from Apple support, the only way I could restart it was to perform an Archive and Install. Before this, I couldn't start the machine and therefore couldn't back anything up. Everything seems to be all right after the Archive and Install except that my iTunes library is completely blank, and the old library is not anywhere on the hard drive. All of the songs are still on my iPod - is there any way to get them back into the library? I don't want to connect the iPod and lose everything I have now.
    Thanks!
    PowerBook G4 867 Mhz   Mac OS X (10.2.x)  

    From the Keyboard Shortcuts in the iTunes Help menu:
    iPod shortcuts
    Prevent iPod from automatically updating when you connect it to your computer
    Command-Option as you connect the iPod to your computer (hold the keys down until the iPod appears in the iTunes Source list)
    After that, use an application like Senuti or iPodRip (latest versions on versiontracker.com) to transfer the contents of your iPod to the computer.
    Hope this helps.
    M
    17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM   Mac OS X (10.4.6)   Several ext. HD (backup and data)

  • Can't Print PDF/Folders Need Password To Opem After Archive and Install

    Greetings:
    I did a archive and install on my 10.4.11 eMac because of ever sluggish performance and Safari 3.1.1 and QuickTime 1.4 problems (gotta be a better way than all that!). First, maybe by my shakey hand or because of bills, I somehow did the archive and install twice in succession, ending up with 2 previous system folders. (The second one doesn't contain any personal goodies). But I've lost my prefs and happily I regularly Sync Firefox/Thunderbird separately so they weren't lost in the grand sweep-up. I dumped the library folder in the 1st Previous System folder into the "new" System folder's (blank) library one and retrieved most of my functionality. What I can't do now is Print PDFs and annoyingly, most every other system folder wants my permissions password before I can use it. This sneaky lock-out kept NeoOffice from booting for hours despite reinstalling it several times before I realized the NeoOffice folder in the library folder was locked. Unfortunately, Safari seems to choke when you type a password or characters into some input windows, like some kind of auto-fill was trying beat you and gets hung.
    How can I kill all these pesky permissions off and how do I recover Print PDF?
    Thanks.
    James Greenidge

    Hi,
    Could you clarify this... seems to cover an awful lot of ground...
    Did everything standard in print what should be done.

Maybe you are looking for