Repairing Mail preferences

Hey there
My powerbook (10.6.2) started up yesterday only showing one of my three mail accounts. My inbox only displayed mail from the single account listed in mail preferences, but if I look in ~\user\library\mail all the correct files and folders appear to be there (there are folders for my other two accounts with INBOX.mbox files inside). I also have a recentish (5 day old) backup which includes ~\user\library\mail.
Can anyone help tell me what the least messy way to restore all this is? There's a bunch of things arrived in the last five days which I've probably tidied away in mail folders and need to keep, so I can't just replace my entire mail mountain with the backup...
Thanks a million
Gav

do you have a backup? if you do, quit Mail and restore the file ~/library/preferences/com.apple.mail.plist from the backup. start Mail and your email accounts should be back. if you don't have a backup recreate all you email accounts in Mail and they'll recognize their existing mailboxes. and start backing up.

Similar Messages

Error message says error writing Mail preferences

There’s a discussion about the very same problem I’m having at <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2047886&#2047886> about Mail not being able to save preferences... or at least a message pops up each time despite the fact that the preferences are saved. Annoying, really. I’ve followed all the steps suggested in the above thread, including terminal commands and repairing of permissions. However, the problem didn’t go away. Unfortunately, the thread above was closed (without being answered), so I had to open a new post. Here’s a description of the problem as stated in the above thread... and the problem occurs exactly like that on my Powerbook running 10.4.7.
**** Original question follows ***
At some point in time, I suddenly began having the problem of every time I close my Mail preferences window, I get an error message stating, "Error Saving Preferences - Writing your preferences to disk has failed. Your preferences may not have been saved. The permissions on ~/Library/Preferences may be wrong or your disk may be full."
My hard disk has many GB free, and I still keep getting the error message after repairing permissions.
I ran a test of changing a couple of prefs, then quitting Mail and relaunching, and my changes stuck.
But some prefs such as changes to signatures won't stick (although they never did, so the latter may be unrelated to my current problem).
In any event, it's disconcerting that I keep getting the error message.
Anyone know what's up? Is there a fix?

The preference file may be corrupt.
Try the following:
Quit the Mail.app first and using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Mail. Copy the Mail folder and place the copy on the Desktop for backup purposes.
Using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.mail.plist. Move the com.apple.mail.plist file to the Desktop.
Note: Moving the com.apple.mail.plist file out of the Preferences folder will require re-entering all email account information when re-launching Mail.
The only exception to this is if you have a .Mac account and/or you created an email account as part of the original computer setup assistant used when first turning on the computer after it was purchased which will be re-created automatically.
Launch Mail and decline the prompt to import mailboxes. After re-entering all email account information, the Mail.app should rediscover the existing account named folders and mailbox files at Home > Library > Mail.
After confirming all mailboxes were successfully rediscovered, you can delete the copy of the Mail folder and old com.apple.mail.plist file from the Desktop.
Test if this resolves the problem.
My hard disk has many GB free, and I still keep getting the error
message after repairing permissions.
What is your hard drive capacity and available free space?

I am trying to set up e-mail on a second user account but mail preferences is grayed out. I have looked at some posts which indicate it could be corrupt file and say to deletee .plist but I cannot find that at all. Any suggestions?

I am trying to set up a Mail account for a second user. I have made the user account but when I try to set up Mail, it fails as if the password or e-mail is incorrect but I know it is correct. When I try to go to Mail preferences, it is grayed out. Any suggestions?

1. If you haven't tried this already, just delete the user account entirely, and then try setting it up again.
2. To find the permissions file:
     a. hold down the option key
     b. go to the Go menu in the finder
     c. scroll down to Library and open it
     d. in Library, go to Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences
     e. drag it to the trash and restart.
3. if that doesn't work, go to Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access. In the Keychain Access menu, do Keychain First Aid, and repair.
This should keep you busy for a while.

ICloud not listed in Edit smpt in Mail preferences

Hi all-I have been having issues with Mail lately. I am running Mavericks (latest version) and Mail is 7.3.
First it keeps asking me for my password. I have lost count the number of times I have reentered it! But it keeps on asking. I enter the password in the popup window that says the iCloud password is incorrect. Sometimes it accepts it and the mail downloads but other times it doesn't.
The other issue is that in Mail Preferences if I go to Edit smpt settings iCloud is not listed. Comcast is but not iCloud. It's listed on the first screen of Mail Preferences.
The other question I have is the Incoming Mail Server-it says (in faint letters, not highlighted) p01-imap.mail.me.com. Is this what it should say? Out going is iCloud (iCloud). No TLS Certificate. Under the Advanced tab it says authentication if Password. Again, iCloud is not listed on this screen.
I wasn't aware that I changed anything. I did do the 2 step verification for iCloud today but the password issue has been going on for over a week. Looking forward to getting this mess straightened out! Judy

Back up all data before proceeding.
Launch the Keychain Access application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Keychain Access in the icon grid.
Select the login keychain from the list on the left side of the Keychain Access window. If your default keychain has a different name, select that.
If the lock icon in the top left corner of the window shows that the keychain is locked, click to unlock it. You'll be prompted for the keychain password, which is the same as your login password, unless you've changed it.
Right-click or control-click the login entry in the list. From the menu that pops up, select
          Change Settings for Keychain "login"
In the sheet that opens, uncheck both boxes, if not already unchecked.
From the menu bar, select
          Keychain Access ▹ Preferences ▹ First Aid
If the box marked
          Keep login keychain unlocked
is not checked, check it.
Select
          Keychain Access ▹ Keychain First Aid
from the menu bar and repair the keychain. Quit Keychain Access.

Mail Preferences takes 10 - 120 seconds to open

OSX Apple Mail Preferences takes 10 - 120 seconds to open when Accounts is selected. If General or anything other than Accounts is selected it's as quick as can be.
5 imaps, 1 pop and 1 inactive pop
Repaired Permissions 5x
Verify Disk OK
Processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 20 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB
Software OS X 10.8.5 (12F45)
Hardware Overview:
Model Name:          iMac
Model Identifier:          iMac12,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core i5
Processor Speed:          2.5 GHz
Number of Processors:          1
Total Number of Cores:          4
L2 Cache (per Core):          256 KB
L3 Cache:          6 MB
Memory:          20 GB
Boot ROM Version:          IM121.0047.B1E
SMC Version (system):          1.71f22
Serial Number (system):          C0*******HJF
Hardware UUID:          274F724D-3A05-5775-AAD6-C8C7537328EB
<Edited By Host>

Back up all data.
Select all your mailboxes, and then select
Mailbox ▹ Export Mailbox...
from the Mail menu bar. Export the mailboxes to the Desktop folder.
Make a note of the settings for all your Mail accounts – everything you'd need to reconstruct the settings from scratch.
Quit Mail. Then select
 ▹ Force Quit...
from the menu bar. A small window will open with a list of running applications. Mail may appear in that list, even though you quit it. If so, select it and press return. Close the window.
In the Finder, hold down the option key and select
Go ▹ Library
from the menu bar. Move the following items from the folder that opens to the Trash (some may not exist):
Caches/com.apple.mail
Saved Application State/com.apple.mail.savedState
Leave the Finder window open for now.
Relaunch Mail and test. If the problem is solved, you’re done. Delete the exported mailboxes. Otherwise, quit Mail and move these items, if they exist, from the open Library folder to the Desktop:
Application Support/AddressBook/MailRecents-v4.abcdmr
Containers/com.apple.mail
Mail
Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist (OS X 10.7 only)
Preferences/com.apple.mail.searchhistory.plist (OS X 10.7 only)
Note: you are not moving the Mail application. You’re moving a folder named “Mail.”
Log out and log back in. Launch Mail. It will behave as if you were setting it up for the first time. Go through the setup process with one of your accounts, using the information you noted earlier. Test. Same problem?
If there’s no improvement, quit Mail again and put back the items you moved to the Desktop, replacing any newer ones that may have been created in their place. You don’t need to replace the items you moved to the Trash.
If the issue is resolved, recreate the rest of your Mail settings, then import the mailboxes you exported:
File ▹ Import Mailbox...
After importing, test. If Mail is still working, delete the items on the Desktop and close the Finder window.

Mail preferences cause lockup

I have a new Mac Pro (2 x 2.4 GHz Quad Xeon) with 24GB RAM and a 512 SSD, and have been having problems ever since getting it.
Current Problem:
If I try to view Preferences in Mail.app, I get the beachball of death. Force quit is the only solution at that point. The mail functions work fine, but I cannot change any settings, add or update any accounts, modify rules or any of it.
I've done the permissions repair, disk repair, PRAM reset, and LIbrary stuff of removing preferences and mail folders. This has not solved the inability to access mail preferences, though.
Background:
This is the second SSD after having hte first one replaced. Why? Because of cascading app crashes, and Lion would not reinstall. The Genius Bar restored my account on the new disk using a Time Machine backup from another disk on the machine. All seemed good for a while.
A second visit to the Genius Bar was to try to fix more crashes. Now there were secret permissions problems (that seem to override the normal chmod permissions on files and folders) preventing apps from starting up properly. It stumped him, and he was looking up arcane system-level commands to try to clean these issues up. The Genius spend 2 hours creating new users, migrating apps over, etc. I left with things seemingly fixed.
Also I have the same problem with Safari preferences when trying to set default browser. That gives me the beachball of death, too and the only solutio is to force-quit Safari.
Perhaps related: iCal randomly crashes. No spinner, just suddenly it's gone and a crash report is in its place.
Question:
Is there any way I can totally reset Mail.app to at least test if there's a permissions problem causing this? Or must I resort to wiping the SSD and reinstalling Lion from a DVD?

First, restore your Mail data. That's apparently not where the problem lies.
Please read this whole message before doing anything.
Boot in safe mode and log in as yourself. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
During startup, you will see "Safe Boot" on the login screen, which appears even if you normally log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Safe mode is slower than normal, and some things won’t work at all, possibly including wireless networking.
Launch Mail, and test again. Same problem now?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)

Error Saving Preferences on exiting Mail Preferences

Hi, I am getting the Error Saving Preferences error on exiting Mail Preferences with advice to check disk space and directory permissions on ~/Library/Preferences. Not knowing what the official permissions should be I booted the iMac from the Leopard installation disk and in Disk Utility I repaired file permissions but this did not make any difference. I have followed other instructions I found in Apple Discussions which were for a previous OSX where I backed up the Mail directory and then moved ~/System/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist to the Desktop. Per instructions I then fired up Mail which picked up my Mac account straight away but again on exiting Preferences without even adding any new mailboxes the same error cropped up... in fact I don't think a new plist was created. I returned the old plist and Mail directory.
It may be worth mentioning that just before this problem cropped up I had been trouble-shooting another problem where every minute my active window would lose focus, I tracked this down to HP_scheduler (I have an HP all-in-one printer, C6180) and on killing the process the problem went away, but I think it was also a symptom of the real cause which is still unknown as the printer software has been installed for about a year, last update was months ago... but before I had tracked the issue down to this I had use MacScan2 to flush just my Safari caches and temporary files etc, it was running in authenticated mode, may mean something, may not. Subsequently to discovering HP Scheduler was to blame I uninstalled all the printer software using the HP uninstall package.
Around this time a third problem transpired where settings were not being retained in various System Preferences. Unfortunately I didn't pick up on it straight away as being a third problem and now can't remember whether it started before the window lost focus problem or not. The first time it happened was when I tried to put MacScan2 into the startup list for my login, it could be added but on checking the addition it wasn't retained in the list and well I thought nothing more of it as it was the first time I had tried to do such a thing. Then I noticed the Mail issue just by chance and subsequently, through seeing someone else's problems logged back in 2006 I think, I noticed that although I could change screensaver I could not make a change in desktop photo stick.
I have since reinstalled the printer software and I am no longer losing focus from the active window.
However, I think it is probably the case that the Mail Preferences, Startup Items and Desktop Preferences issues are all the symptoms of one and the same problem and I would be very grateful if anyone is familiar with and/or knows of a solution to this issue.
Many thanks for reading!

Well, in the end I tried many things including lots of things that I thought wouldn't help such as cleaning out caches, running crons; I was using IceClean and pretty much tried every system maintenance option but to no avail. I have removed MacScan and have kept Norton, which this time found a few things in my .wine folder, but I have only performed a few full system scans as it takes a full day.
This resulted in the knowledge that I would have to do a Leopard reinstall if that failed then a complete restore from TimeMachine which I knew would take ages, but fortunately the reinstall worked perfectly and effortlessly to solve the problem, and it only took 30 mins to update the security patches including 2 automatic restarts.
Phew!

Unable to open Mail Preferences, can't remove/add accounts.

Sorry I posted this under Tiger discussions as well, but it wasn't my intention. I am running Leopard now:
- I upgraded to Leopard today. My mail application that I have been using all along has been Entourage, but decided to switch to Mail.
- Setup walked me through and I configured another account (besides the .mac account created automatically).
- I wanted to change settings of the newly configured account, but when I go to Mail->Preferences... NOTHING HAPPENS!
- Tried reinstalling Mail from CD. Tried rebooting MAC. Tried removing and reinstalling again... nothing!
So I can't open Mail Preferences to modify existing accounts. What can I do?

Ernie,
Thanks again.
This is strange indeed! I can not do what you suggested. We must not be on the same page.
When I select the Mail pull down menu right under "About Mail" is the "Preferences" item. There are a series of periods behind it which usually indicates more options when the item is selected or highlighted. In this case nothing happens until it is selected at which you are taken to a "general" screen full of items with scroll through lists to select from. Accounts is not an item. Holding down the option key doesn't change the results at any point I tried.
My Mail version is 3.0 (912.1/912).
I may have to give up on Mail and go back to Entourage or thunderbird.
Dan

How do I add another e-mail address to my mail preferences?

How do I add another e-mail address to my mail preferences?

Mail > Preferneces > Accounts > click + on bottom left

I am unable to send mail-in mail preferences at accounts page I am unable to type in the incoming mail server

On my mac pro I have lost the abillity the send mail--no a probllem on my desk top Mac.
In mail at preferances --the Accountstab -on the macpro 'incoming mail server ' is blank and I can't type in to the box with the sever name.
Help please

You need to open Mail>Preferences>Accounts>click on "Accounts Information" over to the upper right in the window>click on the drop down list button at the right of "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" line> click on "Edit SMTP Server List">click on fIrst "Account Information" and then "Advanced", filling in each of the information fields with info that your ISP provides you with>click on "OK" button>click on the drop down list button at the right of "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" line>click on the correct SMTP Server in the list for that Account to select it.
Hope this helps

Mail Preferences Disappeared

Mail was working just fine all day. My wife tries to reply to a message received earlier and gets the following error message:
"This message could not be delivered and will remain in your Outbox until it can be delivered.
Verify that you have addressed this message correctly. Check your SMTP server settings in Mail Preferences and verify any advanced settings with your system administrator."
I go to Mail->Preferences and the only Preference pane I get is for Junk Mail. General, Accounts, Fonts and Colors, Viewing, Composing, Signatures, Rules are all missing. Can't very well verify the SMTP server settings if the Preference pane isn't there.
My Inbox looks OK and I have received one message since this all started. I can read the contents and was able to empty the Junk Mail and Deleted Messages mailboxes. File sizes in Users->xxx->Library->Mail all are the right size and appear intact.
I've tried a reboot and a complete system shutdown (including power disconnect), but Mail Preferences are still missing. There's nothing in the Trash that looks fishy. I've tried a couple of test messages back to my own e-mail account and got the same error message.
Is there a way to reinstall only the Mail app? Is there some way to find/verify that the Mail Preferences exist?
Need help, here. This is weird-and-a-half. First time in 20 years on Mac that I've seen anything like this.
Dual 2 Ghz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
Dual 2 Ghz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

OK, I found the answer in a reply to another question. The pill-shaped buton in the upper right corner of the Junk Mail Preference pane retrieved the rest of the Preferences and I was able to check my SMTP Server settings, which were correct. My test messages also came through this morning, leading me to believe that my ISP had a problem on their end, which was subesequently corrected.
My habit has always been to close any Preferences window while in the "Show All" mode, so I didn't think to check that first.
Dual 2 Ghz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I want to forward a message with the default headers included, but can't seem to set my mail preferences to include the headers when forwarding, just the original message ends up in the forwarded message and not the headers?

I want to forward a message with the default headers included, but can’t seem to set my mail preferences to include the headers when forwarding, just the original message ends up in the forwarded message and not the headers? What I'm trying to do is report SPAM and add headers to a spam message to forward to sites that go after the spammers.

Did you check the article and the add-on mentioned there?

Mail preferences has disappeared how do I get it back

A couple of days ago my mail went crazy and most things suddenly dumped themselves in Junk. I spent some time sorting it out and adding a lot of rules. Yesterday I found I had missed a couple and wanted to add a rule or edit an existing one. Click on Mail Preferences and nothing happens. Was busy, went away, forgot about it. Tried gain today. Nothing. Checked other Preferences eg Safari, Excel. They're there. What do I do now?

Hey MingtheSiarmese,
Thanks for the question. Let’s try quitting the Mail application and restarting your computer. If you have trouble quitting the application, see this article for information on how to Force Quit:
OS X: How to quit an unresponsive application using Force Quit
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3411
Thanks,
Matt M.

Error message when changing Mail preferences

Whenever I change anything in the Preferences of Mail 2.0.8 even just opening the preferences and then closing them, I get an error message that says "Error Saving Preferences" " Writing your preferences to disk has failed. Your preferences may not have been saved. The permissions on ~/Library/Preferences may be wrong or your disk may be full." However, the change seems to have been made anyway as the expected new behavior occurs. The disk isn't full (haven't had it long enough!) and I don't know what to do about the preferences.
Is there anything I can do to find out what might be wrong BEFORE something horrible happens? Tomorrow is back up day. Should I change anything before I do it?
10.4.6
Mac Mini Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1 gig RAM

This particular issue is still a mystery to me. In the rare cases when I've seen it reported, none of the suggestions that one would expect should work did.
Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and type the following commands -- you can copy them here, one at a time, and paste them in Terminal to avoid having to manually type them:
ls -ld ~/Library/Preferences
ls -l ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
What do they say?
If you want to try re-creating the preferences file, be sure to do it properly, i.e.:
1. Quit Mail.
2. Make a backup copy of the ~/Library/Mail folder, just in case something goes wrong. You can do this in the Finder by dragging the folder to the Desktop while holding the Option (Alt) key down, for example. This is where all your mail is stored.
3. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Preferences/. Locate the com.apple.mail.plist file and move it to the Desktop (to be deleted if this fixes the problem).
You'll have to set up your non-Mac 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 ~/Library/Mail/ when done.
You'll also have to re-configure most of your 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.
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.

An error occurred while updating mail preferences

Hi guys, i get this error "An error occurred while updating mail preferences" when try to enable vacation message in uwc.....any idea? is a hosted domain uwc...

hi jay,
mmp 2005q1 patched 118207-42
uwc 2005q1 patched 118540-21
there is 2 ldap servers running master replica
but when i tried on MMP's Messenger Express (webmail), i managed to do it, but not able when using uwc. ( anyway, Messager Express is not using since there is uwc)

Repairing Mail preferences

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for