Sent Mail Messages Missing

I'm trying to do some detective work. I'm not sure what could have caused this, but this morning I discovered that all email messages that I sent after February 24 have disappeared.
Yesterday evening I ran MacScan, which I have configured to scan my Home folder in search of spyware and tracking cookies. I've run it previously every month, and all it has ever reported finding were a dozen or so tracking cookies; never any spyware, and there had never been any problems. Last night, it found only 14 tracking cookies; nothing else, and I instructed MacScan to isolate them. Then I quit MacScan.
After that, I ran TechTool Pro's Protection Setup, which copies directory structure data from each of my four drives to each other for safety. Then I ran Diagnostics, which checks the drives. Protection and Diagnostics run every night, with never a problem.
After that I did my regular nightly backup using Deja Vu, which includes copying my entire Home/Library/Mail folder to an external drive.
And this morning, as I said, *+everything in Mail appears fine with the exception of the missing Sent messages after February 24+*. I realize, of course, that if this was caused by something I ran prior to the backup being done, then my backup is also missing those Sent messages.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

Well, BD, this may just leave you scratching your head in wonder.
In my Home/Library/Mail folder, I located the appropriate email account folder. Inside it are the folders we're accustomed to seeing: Deleted Messages.mbox, Drafts.mbox, INBOX.mbox, Sent Messages.mbox, and a file called 'MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded2.'
Despite the fact that there are 986 messages showing in Mail's Inbox, the INBOX.mbox folder contains only FIVE messages (inside the INBOX 'Messages' folder). Yes, just 5. And, despite the fact that there are 15 messages showing in Mail's Drafts box, the 'Messages' folder inside the Drafts.mbox has only ONE message in it. Similarly, ... WAIT JUST A @#$%^&* MINUTE HERE....
I have just come back from running some errands. Prior to leaving, I had quit Mail and put the G4 to sleep. Now, all the previously missing messages (some 400 or so) are back. However, clicking on any of the messages composed and sent prior to running MacScan displays the following text: "*+The message... has not been downloaded from the server. You need to take this account online in order to download it.+*"
But the 'Messages' folder inside the Sent Messages.mbox contains only TWO messages. And what I described two paragraphs earlier is still true. How can Mail display messages that aren't even present in the corresponding folders?
Wow... I am stumped.

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Gmail Sent Mail messages missing

I use Apple Mail for my GMail iMap account and I am suddenly missing the last 6 months Sent messages. Given that it's iMap, would it be safe to just delete the account and reenter it in the hope that the problem then just comes out in the wash.

Thomas A Reed wrote:
Then your sent messages have not been saved on the GMail server, so deleting the account and re-creating it will not help. If that setting was changed recently, you may have them on the server, though, so log on to GMail via the web site and check to be sure.
As to where they went, I don't know. You could try rebuilding the mailbox (Mailbox -> Rebuild), but if that doesn't fix it, and they're not on the server, then you're out of luck unless you've got those messages in a backup. If you haven't been backing up, they're gone.
Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. The reason I posted this under Apple Mail is because there is no problem at the GMail end, all the messages are there.

Saved and sorted/filed mail messages missing

Saved and sorted/filed mail messages missing
October's messages are still there but all other messages are no longer in the folders. I have a confirmations folder with all forum and newsletter info for the last year that is empty. Where do these messages go?
I do not believe that I have it set to empty or delete itself after a certain time.
I can probably find these messages from comcast/gmail but still am wondering about this issue.
Thank you.

Hi, sounds like a Save/Delete 1 month check in the box. I actually have a gmail account which gets sent a copy of every email from my other email accounts..Once each month I can Delete or Keep as I wish. Back Up....L

Mail messages missing after copying to new folder

I am recovering some email messages and have imported the mbox into a new folder. It contains 8860 messages.
When I copy these messages to the inbox, about 750 messages do not copy over. There is no warning that the file copy is incomplete.
Also If I try to export the mailbox, not all of the mail message are exported.
It seems very difficult to find out what is causing the problem.
I had already rebuilt the mailbox before attempting to copy it to the inbox folder.
Anyone have any experience with mail messages going missing files after copying them to a new folder within mail?

I am recovering some email messages and have imported the mbox into a new folder. It contains 8860 messages.
When I copy these messages to the inbox, about 750 messages do not copy over. There is no warning that the file copy is incomplete.
Also If I try to export the mailbox, not all of the mail message are exported.
It seems very difficult to find out what is causing the problem.
I had already rebuilt the mailbox before attempting to copy it to the inbox folder.
Anyone have any experience with mail messages going missing files after copying them to a new folder within mail?

How do I move or archive large numbers of old Sent mail messages?

I've created folders for past years Sent mail and tried moving my messages out of my Sent folder (for several accounts). They seem to move, but then I get a very basic error (with no details..): "34 messages could not be moved to the mailbox "2009 Sent -- On My Mac" An error occured while moving messages to mailbox "2009 Sent -- On My Mac"
I also get a similar error if I try to archive them. Admittedly I got WAY behind on doing this (they're from 09, 10, and 11), but there must be a way. I've tried selecting only a few months worth instead of the entire year and I still get the error. Is it an issue because they're from my Sent folder? Do I need to set up a special mailbox to move them to?
My goal is to get my Inbox and Sent boxes trimmed down.

I don't know what was happening but yesterday I went back and did the Export/Archive function and it ended up doing just as I expected, exporting the mailbox as an mbox format =finally!!! Not sure why it went haywire but all is fine now.

Mail messages missing after upgrade to 10.4.3

Short story: I upgraded a Mac from 10.3.9 to 10.4.3 and now none of my old received mail messages are in my inbox.
Long story: Installed Tiger using "Archive and install". Repaired permissions. Installed the combo updater to 10.4.3 using software update. Repaired permissions again. After the system was upgraded to 10.4.3 I opened mail. It said it was importing messages. However, when it was done, there were only 6 messages from the last few days. The other 400 or so messages that had been in mail (in the inbox) in the previous version were not in the mailbox. I tried rebuilding the mailbox. This resulted in losing all of these 6 messages. I tried importing from the old account mailbox and mail re-created the mailbox structure, again with only 6 messages in the inbox.
I have tried re-importing my inbox which is listed as 18.2 mb in size but I get a dialog box that says there are no valid mail messages to be imported. I have tried importing messages from my backup disk, a backup created before the 10.4.3 upgrade but it gives me the same “no valid messages to be imported.” I have tried rebooting but there are still only 6 messages in the inbox to be seen.
Of note, the sent mail box is full of messages and appears to have been upgraded appropriately.
The application mail and all associated mailboxes etc are in their default locations. I have not moved or modified any of the locations of files.
Any ideas on what happened and more importantly how to restore or otherwise make visible all of my mail messages?
Thanks,
Pete

Hi Ernie! I really appreciate your assistance. Are you ready for this? I had 13 POP accounts... Here is the current info on the files on my Mac (upgraded from 10.3.9 to 10.4.3 last night)
Pop Account 1 Folder (Main email account lost all inbox messages)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (3.9 MB)
- content_index-h-67-100-128-207.sttnwaho.dynamic.covad.net-542 (5.3MB)
- Info.plist (4KB)
- mbox (117.1 MB)
- Messages (empty folder)
- Messages-T0x560b9f0-pyksdq (contains file named 1.emix, 4KB)
- tableofcontents (264 KB)
Pop Account 2 Folder (Smaller email account appears to be intact)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (208 KB)
- Info.plist (4KB)
- mbox (416 KB)
- Messages (Folder contains 31 "emix" files, 488 KB)
- tableofcontents (8 KB)
Pop Account 3 Folder (Minor email account - not much was here, might be ok)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (16 kB)
- content_index-h-67-100-128-207.sttnwaho.dynamic.covad.net-542 (8 KB)
- Info.plist (4 KB)
- mbox (4 KB)
- Messages (Folder contains 1 "emix" file, 4KB)
- tableofcontents (4 KB)
Pop Account 4 Folder (important email account lost all inbox messages)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (1.4 MB)
- content_index-h-66-167-49-109.sttnwaho.dynamic.covad.net-455 (1.4 MB)
- Info.plist (4KB)
- mbox (3.3 MB)
- Messages (empty folder)
- Messages-T0x560b9f0-4voERb (contains 1 "emix" file, 4KB)
- tableofcontents (40 KB)
Pop Account 5 Folder (Minor email account - couple messages made it)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (20 kB)
- Info.plist (4 KB)
- mbox (8 KB)
- Messages (Folder contains 2 "emix" files, 12 KB)
- tableofcontents (4 KB)
Pop Account 6 Folder (Minor email account - couple messages made it)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (8 kB)
- Info.plist (4 KB)
- mbox (4 KB)
- Messages (Folder contains 1 "emix" file, 4 KB)
- tableofcontents (4 KB)
Pop Account 7 Folder (important email account - inbox seemed to come through - not positive it is all there, but it looks good)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (2.8 MB)
- content_index-localhost-574 (2 MB)
- Info.plist (4KB)
- mbox (25.9 MB)
- Messages (Folder contains 670 "emix" files, 25.9 MB)
- tableofcontents (176 KB)
Pop Account 8 Folder (inbox messages appearing - not sure they are all there)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (628 MB)
- Info.plist (4KB)
- mbox (2.7 MB)
- Messages (Folder contains 130 "emix" files, 2.9 MB)
- tableofcontents (28 KB)
Pop Account 9 Folder (Minor email account - couple messages made it)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (116 KB)
- Info.plist (4 KB)
- mbox (1.9 KB)
- Messages (Folder contains 4 "emix" files, 1.7MB)
- tableofcontents (8 KB)
Pop Account 10 Folder (Smaller email account appears to be intact)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (16 KB)
- Info.plist (4KB)
- mbox (12 KB)
- Messages (Folder contains 4 "emix" files, 20 KB)
- tableofcontents (4 KB)
Pop Account 11 Folder (inbox messages appearing - not sure they are all there)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (756 MB)
- Info.plist (4KB)
- mbox (13.6 MB)
- Messages (Folder contains 152 "emix" files, 12.3 MB)
- tableofcontents (60 KB)
Pop Account 12 Folder (inbox messages appearing - not sure they are all there)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (500 MB)
- Info.plist (4KB)
- mbox (5.7 MB)
- Messages (Folder contains 93 "emix" files, 5.5 MB)
- tableofcontents (24 KB)
Pop Account 13 Folder (inbox messages appearing - not sure they are all there)
INBOX.mbox contains:
- content_index (80 MB)
- Info.plist (4KB)
- mbox (128 KB)
- Messages (Folder contains 13 "emix" files, 148 KB)
- tableofcontents (4 KB)
When I compare the above INBOX.mbox files to the 13 POP account folders in my pre-upgrade Retrospect Backup, the files sizes match, but the difference is there are no "Messages" folders in the backup - I assume these are folders/files Tiger built (and screwed up) during my first launch/import of the Upgraded Mail.
Thanks again for looking at this.
Mary

Gmail IMAP Sent Mail folder missing in Mac Mail

I made a change in Mac Mail by using the Mailbox/Use this mailbox for Sent Mail menu item on the [Gmail] Sent Mail folder and the original
[Gmail] Sent Mail folder has vanished. It still appears in the Gmail web interface and is checked on to show up in IMAP, but it doesn't appear in Mac Mail. Sent messages to appear in the Mac Mail snet folder, which is fine but I want to [Gmail] Sent Mail folder back. I tried turning the "show in IMAP" setting in Gmail on and off and it works for other folders, but not for the "Sent Mail" folder. I also tried restoring an older copy of the com.apple.mail.plist file but that didn't work either. Any ideas how to get it back? Pop is turned off as well.

It seems this is the desired behavior in Mail, as I don't need the [Gmail] folders to appear since the mail is all in the Mac Mail folders.
Of course, this might all break again when I upgrade to Mavericks :-(

Sent mail messages disappearing randomly, do you know why?

I had this HUGE bug in the past, but was fixed (at least for me) with Lion. Now it's back.
When I send a mail message sometimes, randomly, the message is sent BUT not showing in the sent folder or elsewhere. The message simply disappears.
This is not acceptable, I NEED to keep track of my sent messages!
This is a deal breaker, I'm forced to move to Thunderbird or something else, at least for a while, until this bug is tracked and fixed again.
Any suggestion?

Hi James, thank you for helping.
I'm using Apple Mail 6.1 with IMAP on an italian provider (Aruba). My problem is only with Apple Mail, my iPhone and my iPad are ok. I'm using iCloud as a secondary email with no issues (at least for what I can see).
If I check via web browser I can't see the sent message, but I know it was sent.
This issue is very random. After the update to 10.8.2 I had 2 messages gone. I had the same problem with both Leopard and Snow Leopard, was fixed with Lion (same Mac, same email provider).
This is a console entry with an error message:
28/09/12 09:18:44,118 Mail[38324]: Error (null) occurred while trying to append messages to outgoing store. Ignoring and proceeding with delivery...

Mail Messages "Missing" --- but not really

SO I had to do a full restore from a Time machine disk recently because of a cyclical boot problem I was having --- I ended up losing a days worth of work but it was time critical that I get up and going again sooner then later so I did a full restore. Every thing came back OK except for Mail --- All of my mail is there but when you click the view them them the actual message portion of the e-mail is missing --- BUT If I enter time machine and look back at them they are there. a very strange bug. Anybody have a suggestion?

Report the names of the files and folders present at the first level of the ~/Library/Mail/ folder in the Finder.
In order to post the exact file names and avoid typing mistakes, proceed as follows. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/. With that folder open, if you’re looking at it in View > as List mode, first collapse any expanded folders so that the Finder only shows the files and folders at the first level of ~/Library/Mail/. Now, do Edit > Select All (⌘A), then Edit > Copy (⌘C), and paste it in your reply to this post.
Before actually posting that information, edit it so that the file/folder names do not reveal any details you should keep private, e.g. replace any real username with “username” to hide your real email address. Other than that, report the file/folder names as accurately as possible.
Now, go to ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/. With that folder open, repeat the procedure 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, report the names of the files and folders present at the first level of the ~/Library/Mail/Mac-username/ account folder.
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user’s home folder. That is, ~/Library is the Library folder within the user’s home folder, i.e. /Users/username/Library.

Why are PDF and Image Files embedded in all sent mail messages?

When sending mail with either PDF or Image Files as attachments, the person receiving the message does get the attachment, but the files are also embedded in the mail message. This will display the image file below my text, however with a PDF, it's just trying to display as an image but is just lots of garbled characters. Word docs are not embedded, just attached. Any ideas how to prevent this? I'm attaching files by using the attach button and browsing for the file like normal. Thanks!

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Missing Sent Mail messages

This problem has plagued 2 macs and is extremely annoying OS X 10.8.2 + Mail 6.2 - and also on 10.7.4 and Mail 5.2
Sometimes, when I send email, especially if it has attachments, the send op completes, but there are no traces of the sent email in the sent mailbox on the Mail client or on the iCloud web interface.
The message itself more often than not actually reaches the intended recipient, but I have no record of it ever having been sent.
Sometimes, when there are more than one recipient, it will go to some, but not all recipients
this is now happenng almost daily and is seriously impacting my business.
I tried rebuilding the mailbox. No effect.
Has anyone experienced this? How would I go about tracing the sent op or messages? Does anyone have any suggestions?

I see that this is very annoying and for someone who sends lots of emails for work is very bad!! It happened to me sometimes, fortunately that times I was sending emails to my other email accounts to do various checks.
Mine is not an answer, but if you haven't already done it, I suggest to send a feedback to the Apple Mail team :
Mail -> Provide Mail feedback... -> choose if you want or not send information to apple and click continue and you will be sent to a page where you can describe your problem and send it to the team (probably as bug because is quite important).
You can mark the fact that this is a serious problem and maybe someone will tackle the issue to resolve it.
This is a discussion forum, not sure that experts and developers look here for the bugs!!
Because is a problem that involves theoretically both Apple Mail and eventually the servers (maybe both or maybe just one of the two) that actually handle the sending operation (Gmail,Yahoo,etc.) I would suggest to send the email both from webmail and from Apple Mail for example to one of your accounts to see if they both arrive.

HELP!! All my INBOX & SENT mail messages are gone!!

Help somebody help please...
my 17 inch powerbook is acting up... last week, i experienced problems with my applications... all the applications wouldn't start, so i reinstalled OS/X and backed up everything (thank god)
worked fine for a while..
then...
today when i open up my mail.. it was cool for a while..
.then all of a sudden... all the messages in my INBOX and SENTMAIL could not be read!!
all it said when i click on any message is..
"The message from fois design <[email protected]> concerning “Foi's Promo” has not been downloaded from the server. You need to take this account online in order to download it."
we're talking about over 3000 messages in my inbox and 2000 over in my sent box. all displaying the same message!!
however the strange thing is, the messages in my JUNK and other archive folders are fine.. the messages are still displayed.
Has anyone ever experienced this? can someone help me please?

Beside your inbox and Sent folders (on the right side) is there a triangle?
If there is, click the triangle to go "online"
If it is not there, and you did have messages for awhile, I suggest trying the rebuild option if you haven't already done so. You can do that by click on Mailbox -> Rebuild
Alternatively (if this is an IMAP account), you could delete the account and re-add it.

Mail 10.10.1 Don't show sent mail messages

When I send mail after upgrading to 10.10.1 Mail doesn't show them in the sent messages box.

Try rebuilding the mailbox. This can take awhile if you have a lot of mail.
Rebuild mailbox

Sent mails are missing?

i don't want my sent messages to be deleted on my computer. but older message are are gone? i don't understand?? what can i do to keep all my sent messages? please help!

So when this Mac was purchased new it did not ship
with Tiger pre-installed?
i bought my powerbook two years ago. so it was preinstalled with 10.3., right?
How many POP type accounts are you accessing with the
Mail.app and this problem has occurred with the Sent
mailbox for all POP accounts?
i use 14 pop accounts with my mail.app.
yes, it occurres with all my accounts but for different time spans?
in the preferences/accounts/mailbox behaviors/sent i have set "Never" for erase copies of sent messages.

Sent mail is missing

When I go to my Sent mailbox, every message is shown in there but every message is unable to be read. When I click on a message to read, it has the following message in italics: The message from (my name) <my email address> concerning (“Whatever the subject of the emails was”) has not been downloaded from the server. You need to take this account online in order to download it.
My account is online. If I take it offline and then online again, nothing happens- message reads the same.
Please help!
G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

It appears you upgraded from Jaguar to Panther since there are some package files left over from Jaguar Mail which are no longer required or created with a new Mailbox in Panther Mail.
Although the left over package files shouldn't cause any problems, sometimes they do but the major problem with this mailbox is the size - over 2Gb.
All email clients have limits and although an overstuffed mailbox issue can occur at any mailbox size, it is more likely to occur depending on the number and size of message attachments contained in the mailbox and especially as a mailbox approaches or exceeds 1Gb with Jaguar/Panther Mail and 2Gb with Tiger Mail.
I'm surprised you weren't having problems with this mailbox before.
Due to the size of the mailbox, the manual procedure to restore all messages will not work on this mailbox.
Send me an email and I'll forward you an mbox breaker script that splits a mailbox into smaller sections to recover the messages. There is no guarantee with the script but it has worked well for others. If the script doesn't work and you haven't maintained a backup, the messages contained in this mailbox may be lost.
You can get my email address by selecting my name.

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