Recovering Mail from Time Machine

I have had to, for a variety of reasons, to reinstall my osx Lion. I did not want to use the migration assistant to restore my whole computer the way it used to be because I did not want any earlier software glitches to transfer from time machine to my new reinstall. Si I've opted for the time consuming process of restoring specific apps. The one app I am having trouble with is mail. I would like to restore all my old e mails, smart folders etc but I do not want my old mail's settings. Is there some way to do this?
Also, when I do a restore, does the old mail software also get transferred alongwith the e mail data?
Thank you.

Thanks for this, Eric. When you say do a backup, you mean do a new backup? using Time Machine? - of the current contents of my laptop? Which will include my almost empty Gmail Sent Messages mailbox.
At the moment (pre-new backup) there is no AoisIMAP item in my Library/Mail/V2 folder - what there is, in terms of Gmail, is:
Library/Mail/V2/[email protected]/Sent Mail.mbox and also Library/Mail/V2/[email protected]/Sent Messages.mbox. Are you saying that when I do my new backup, I'll get a new folder in V2 called AoisIMPA/Sent Messages.mbox?
And then, going into my Time Machine, do I go to the last backup I did before the new one (August 16) or do I go into the new backup which I'll have just made?
Thanks so much for helping me with these questions, Eric!
One more weird thing, on my Time Machine backups of my current laptop (an 11" Air), which I've had about 9 months (and last backed up 8/16, that's about 3 weeks before I accidentally deleted my Gmail Sent Messages), NONE of my Sent Gmails are showing in any of the backups I did for it (about 12 over the 9 months), although all the mail, sent or received, on my mac.com and aol.com accounts have been backed and are showing.
On my other Air (13") which I've had a couple of years, my Time Machine backups show my Gmail Sent Messages up to October 30, 2013 but then in every subsequent back up, the Gmail Sent Messages folder is also empty! (Mac.com & aol.com folders are all showing all their mail, throughout all the backups).
Any explanation on that? Did something happen between Apple & Google?
Thanks again, looking forward to more advice and information.
Vikramjnt x

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How to recover mail from time machine

I need to recover all my emails - thousands of messages in numerous mailboxes - from Time Machine. What is the best way to do this?

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Open
from the contextual menu.* A folder should open. Inside it are subfolders representing your Mail accounts. The names refer to the email addresses you use.
Enter Time Machine and scroll back to the snapshot you want. Select the account folders you want and then select Restore ... to... from the action menu (gear icon) in the toolbar of the snapshot window. Restore the folders to the Desktop, not to their original location.
From the Mail menu bar, select
File ▹ Import Mailboxes...
Import from the mailboxes in the folders you restored to the Desktop. The imported messages will appear in a new mailbox. Move the ones you want to keep wherever you like and delete the rest. Then delete the folders on the Desktop.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, 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). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

How can i recover mail from time machine

i upgraded from lion to mountain lion few month ago. i have been backingup to time machine since day one.
last week, formatted my mac, i tried to recover my mail by using time machine, it did not show up any date for recovery.
it there a way to import back these mail? or is there a way to recover it?

Although you can restore messages from a Time Machine snapshot within the Mail application, it generally won't work with messages that were saved by an older version of Mail. In that case, you have to use an alternative method.
Triple-click the line below to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a folder selected. Inside that folder are subfolders representing your Mail accounts. The names refer to the email addresses you use. Decide which ones you want to restore messages from.
Enter Time Machine and scroll back to the snapshot you want. Select the account folders you want and then select Restore ... to... from the action menu (gear icon) in the toolbar of the snapshot window. Restore the folders to the Desktop, not to their original location.
From the Mail menu bar, select
File ▹ Import Mailboxes...
Import from the mailboxes in the folders you restored to the Desktop. The imported messages will appear in a new mailbox. Move the ones you want to keep wherever you like and delete the rest. Then delete the folders on the Desktop.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Clean install (Yosemite). Recover mail from Time Machine (Mavericks)?

Hi,
I did a clean install of Yosemite on a 2010 MBP. It had Mavericks on it before. I want to restore Mail. I performed a Time Machine backup of the entire system before and manually backed up my mailboxes via Mailbox >Export Mailbox... for each.
My three mailboxes didn't import correctly. I imported them via Mail> Import Mailboxes >Apple Mail for each. I am missing emails and my folder structure within Mail is gone. I can't seem to access it via Time Machine. I Enter Time Machine with Mail open and cannot go back at all.
What am I doing incorrectly?

The edit button disappeared.
I've manually copied the contents of my latest time machine backup from the location below.
Backups.backupdb > Computer Name > Latest > Macintosh HD > Users > Your User > Library > Mail >
I've also copied over the backed up com.apple.mail.plist file.
To the same location on the laptop. Nothing shows up in mail. Are there other locations I need to copy data from?

How restore aol sent mac mail from time machine?

I am using mac mail and an imap connection to aol. I also have a time capsule and use time machine for backing up. Yesterday I stopped receiving incoming mail in mac mail and tried deleting the aol account in mac mail and then setting it up fresh. I was shocked to find that my 25,000 AOL sent emails did not restore! I was told by an apple genius bar rep several months ago that once mail was on my machine that the emails would NEVER be lost. Apparently this is not true. When I open mac mail and go into my time capsule using time machine, however, do not see the SENT mail icon under AOL--it goes away? When I try to restore the aol mail from the day before the incident the only thing that comes up is the one Sent Mail mssg that I sent AFTER the deleting and restoring of my AOL account in mac mail. The only relevant post I have found is the one below which was posted in 2008. Please let me know there is a way to get back my sent messages. I can't get them directly from the aol server because the server does not save messages that are sent from any client but AOL. Thanks.
http://raffyjohn.com/2008/01/29/restoring-apple-mail-and-your-emails-from-time-m achine/
Restoring Apple Mail and Your Emails from Time Machine
filed under: How-To tags: mail, timemachine Tuesday, January 29, 2008, 11:31 am
UPDATE (25 August 2010): Please note that this post is well over 2 years old and as Tim pointed out in the comments below, this method may not be the best solution for restoring emails. According to his restore efforts, changes where made to the timestamp from the date in which they were received to the date in which they were restored. I have not tested this myself.
The hard drive on my PowerBook completely died the other day, but I luckily had been running Time Machine backups since upgrading to Leopard. (I wasn’t all that ****** off seeing as I was eager for an excuse to replace my wimpy 40Gb hard drive with a new 160Gb drive). I fumbled a bit, looking for a specific Apple Mail restore tool. I knew where all my emails lived, but I thought that Apple would have a specific means for restoring apps like Mail. So I created this mini-tutorial on how to restore Apple Mail from Time Machine simply because I could not find this method elsewhere.
Supposedly, If you attach your Time Machine backup drive, open Apple Mail then launch the Time Machine application, you are presented with historical views of Apple Mail. This did not work for me, the historical views were just blank, so the steps below do not take this approach.
Restoring Your Emails from a Time Machine Backup
Warning: If you have already setup Apple Mail with your accounts and preferences, this will negate ALL your doings.
Note: This process will restore all your email accounts, preferences, passwords, smart mailboxes, etc.
The How-To
Before loading Time Machine, open the Finder and navigate to Home Folder (username) -> Library. In there will be a folder name “Mail”. Rename it to “Mail (default)” (Select the folder then hit the Return key to rename).
Mount your Time Machine Backup Drive (ahem, plug it in).
Control + Click the Time Machine Application and chose “Browse Other Time Machine disks…”. This, of course, brings up the historical view of your backups.
Go back to your most recent backup (2nd window back) and navigate to Home Folder (username) -> Library. Select the “Mail” folder and click the restore button (bottom right).
Once the restore is completed, open Apple Mail and you will be presented with an import wizard (below). Simply follow through the prompts and you will be good to go.
That’s it!UPDATE (20-January-2009): After step 4., also restore ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plistThanks Jon C.
If you have multiple mail accounts, you should also restore the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file as well. This will ensure all of your account settings are imported. – Jon C.
Follow me on Twitter here.
40 Comments
Chucho
May 13th, 2008 at 11:11 amThanks it’s a great hint, you should post it in macosxhints.com
Westin
May 19th, 2008 at 3:28 amAwesome content and great instructions even for stupid people like me. Thank you so much for posting this. It worked like a charm and really is appreciated at 2:30 a.m. after hours of reinstalling junk.
Slippery Snake
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:15 amThis worked. However, I had three email accounts, and it only imported one. My Smart Mailboxes were not imported either.
Jon C
July 30th, 2008 at 2:50 pmIf you have multiple mail accounts, you should also restore the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file as well. This will ensure all of your account settings are imported.
Joseph Hurtado
August 26th, 2008 at 11:23 amRaffy,This tip is worth it’s weight in gold! Thanks so much for posting such a well though out recipe for a Mail Rescue operation.Just put Jon’s advice on the article, that is also very valuable!Take care,Joseph Hurtado
from Toronto
Cory
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:25 amYou saved my life! Thanks!
Drew
January 19th, 2009 at 12:08 amCheers Great tip! Thank you very much for your time!
Lizart
May 23rd, 2012 at 2:00 pmStill working in May of 2012! Thanks so much!
source
May 29th, 2012 at 11:11 amIm getting a teeny problem. I cant get my reader to pick up your feed, Im using bing reader by the way.
Bruno Zysman
May 31st, 2012 at 4:56 pmThanks so much for this tips
I could get back my 170 000 mails in 5 hours thanks to this post, after having tried for few hours without success…Bruno

Don't try to restore the file; restore the Note. Go in Mail to the mailbox where the note belongs. Enter Time Machine from there and step back until you find the Note.

Restore Archived Lion Mail from Time Machine

I deleted a mailbox, thinking I could add it back, and synch with the server. That worked fine, but I forgot that I had archived a whole bunch of mail on that account. Now I want to retrieve the old mail. I have a fresh Time Machine backup. How do I retrieve my archived mail from Time Machine for a deleted account?

If Time Machine was backing up before you deleted the account, you can try to enter Time Machine from
~/Library/Mail. See if the deleted account is in there.

Recovering Calendars from Time Machine

I want to recover calendars from Time Machines. What files/folders do I recover?
I imagine I need ~/Library/Calendars.
What other files/folders would I also need to recover?
Thanks,
Stephen

Was this the correct answer? Did it work?

Recovering iPhoto from Time Machine - Project is not recovered, the book is

Having lost a book in iPhoto, I recovered iPhoto from Time Machine. The Project containing the book was there, but the pictures in the book were not. The pictures are in the photos section, but not in the book. I do not want to have to reload the pictures one by one. Any suggestions. Looks like a defect in Time Machine
Richard

I just recovered a library with a couple of books in them and all photos were in the book. You might try recovering a different backup of the same library. Go backward from the time of your last attempt and then, if necessary, forward. If all fail then you've got an problem with TM and that library. Check to see if other files can be recovered satisfactorily. If you use iWeb try recovering your domain file from a time back (select the option to keep both so you don't lose your work to date).
It might be a little late, i.e. the horse is out of the barn, but you might consider using a separate library for your books. That provides a couple of benefits: 1 - working in your primarary library, deleting files, etc. will have no effect on your book; 2 - it's easy to backup and archive the book for ordering additional copies in the future. Old Toad's Tutorials #9 and 9a describe two different methods. I prefer #9a.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier versions) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. There are versions that are compatible with iPhoto 5, 6, 7 and 8 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
NOTE: iPhoto 8's new option in it's rebuild library window, "Rebuild the iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup" may make this tip obsolete. We'll know when users have occasion to use it and see if that's the case.

HT201250 How can I exclude mail from Time Machine backups?

How can I exclude mail from Time Machine backups?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Mails are stored on ~/Library/Mail, being ~ your user folder. As you are running Snow Leopard, it's easy to exclude your mails from your Time Machine backup.
Open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and add ~/Library/Mail to excluded items, so the next backup won't include mails. Note that you have to go to your user folder, in order to access to this directory

Can´t recover all my mails from Time Machine

Hi!
When I upgraded to Yosemite I did a backup with Time Machine before. After the upgrade I had some issues with my mail accounts. I already figured it out but trying different things I erased a pop account. When I added again, I lost most of my mails from that account. I talked to the server´s owners and they told me that the account is pop so the server doesn´t have a backup of my mails.
I have a backup with Time Machine, but it does´t let me recover mails from before the day I erased and added the account again, so when I recover mails I only recover a 10% of them.
Does anyone know how can I recover all my mails? I assume that they must be on the backup, right?
Thanks!!

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Try restoring the library as a whole, keeping both copies. Then open the restored version with iPhoto. That will have all your albums, keywords, titles, slideshows, etc. that existed at the time of the TM backup.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Cannot restore Mail from time Machine - permission problems

I am running Lion 10.7.2 and mail 5.1 (all software updates applied)
I know there is a fair bit referencing similar problems but I cannot find my solution.
I inadvertantly deleted a mail account and simply wish to restore the account from my time machine backups.
Time machine has been reliable in the past and my put my faith in it. However this problem now introduces a fair bit of mistrust which should never happen with a backup system.
I navigate to ~/library/Mail/V2 and then open time machine and select a known good backup (I hope).
I highlight the time machine account folder I want to restore and select "restore".
Time machine starts the restore normally but very quickly comes up with this mesage -
"The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access “.mboxCache.plist”.
(I am logged on as admin)
I have repaired permission on my HD to no avail.
I assume that the message refers to the time machine file but any attempt at changing permisions on the time machine backups fails as "not permitted" (I would not be surprised at this anyway as I dont know how the time machine file system works).
I then copied my complete mail folder to another disk and deleted the original and tried to restore the complete mail folder from the time machine backup.
A similar permissions error message occurs but on a different file.
I am getting nowhere and am rapidly losing faith in time machine - I totally rely on it.
Can anyone help please.

I deleted the account using mail preferences, so following your advise:
I restored the pref file from the good known backup date.
I also used disk utility to repair the time machine backup volume which showed no problems.
First of all, restoring from time machine according to FAQ 15, the actual messages in the deleted account were indeed restored to the new mailbox that time machine created and could be viewed - that is fine and solves the problem of lost mail.
Almost solved - but what I was trying to do was :
I had two accounts which show under inbox and when you "get mail" the little whirling indicator shows activity which my wife (and I) liked. After I deleted the second (now unused account) there is no more indicator when "getting mail" and it is not obvious that anything is actually happening. Any mail received will show up under mail activity but if there is none we all just sit there with no feedback until it "beeps".
There was also the other issue of maybe wanting to get back all mail for the deleted account (which you solved).
I can of course recreate the account as a new one but I thought time machine would be able to restore the mail system back to where it was (as it should) - it seems it may not be able to which is not nice as in "what else will fail one day that I dont know about". To restore "as was" is why I tried to restore just the "missing" folder in ~/library/mail/v2 but keep running into these permission problems.
Time machine was the best backup system I have seen in over 30 years in computing but if it now "doesnt" under all circumstances it becomes useless and we will have to go back to manual or other backup systems. Surely Apple will fix it - a backup and restore system has to completely reliable or not at all.
I thank you for your help and, as I say, there is no real urgency as mail items can actually be recovered - it would be nice to be able to restore "as it was" however.

Restoring Mail from Time Machine onto a different Macbook

My 2008 MBP died given the well known NVidia video card problem. Since Apple called my MBP an "antique" and any service or warranty due to the video card issue is expired, I'm left with a heavy paperweight.
I'm not in a position to buy a new MBP currently but I'd like to at least restore my Mail archives and folders from Time Machine onto my Mail on my 2011 MBA. Can I get some tips on the best way to do this?

You could restore your mails from TimeMachine back up with Migration Assistant.

Restore Apple mail from time machine

The configuration of account information accidentally deleted for Apple Mail 4.6. How to retrieve/update this information from Time Machine?

I'm not exactly sure what you are getting at so if my answer doesn't help you progress, I am sorry.
If you first go to Mail and then to that part of mail you wish to review. With the page on your screen, go to dock > Time machine (if that is where you hold it) wait a moment and when the screen activates put your cursor on the date line (to the right). Then scroll upwards to a point in time prior to when your problem appeared.
Clicking on restore should bring the screen to the front and the mail page at that time and date will be available to you.

Restore mail from time machine

Help needed please!
I have recently restored Lion OSX but in doing so my mailboxes have disappeared. I have Time Machine so tried to enter it but the restore points only go back to the date I restored Lion. I can see other backups in the route of Time Capsule which suggests that previous backup files are available but I cannot access them from Time Machine.
Any suggestions please?
Thanks
Steve

Sometime the Library folder are hidden and you cannot see it.
Try this:
Press and hold down the Option key.
Pull down the Go menu in Finder.
Select Library.
You can now release Option.
You should then be able to find the Mail folder there.

How to restore Emails to Mail from Time Machine?

Does anyone know how I restore my Mail contents?
I have restored my User to a Mac mini from Time Machine.
But my Mail contents were not restored.
I have not been able to find any intructions to restore my Mail contents.

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 the text on the line below to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope Index
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (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 Finder window will open with a file selected. Move the selected file to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have names that begin with "Envelope Index". 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 corrupt and that Mail has to quit. Click OK.
Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the file you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

Recovering Mail from Time Machine

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