Sent messages disappeared

I have two computers, a new Intel Imac on 10.7 and an old PowerPc MacBook running the final OS for that. My Apple Mail checks both my IMAP server for work and my .Mac account and both lost substantial chunks of Sent mail a couple of days ago. I don't even know where to begin looking for what might have happened. There are many folder on the IMAP account but only the Sent mail has been effected. Any ideas?

Quit Mail first and 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) > INBOX.mbox & Sent Messages.mbox.
Move the INBOX.mbox and the Sent Messages.mbox to the Desktop.
When re-launching Mail, a new INBOX.mbox and Sent Messages.mbox will be created automatically by Mail within the account named folder when received and sending the next message with this account.
This will allow the Mail.app to function properly again and not risk losing any new received or sent messages with this account while working on the old INBOX.mbox and Sent Messages.mbox files to recover the existing messages.
Control-click on the INBOX.mbox and at the menu window that appears, select Show Package Contents. In addition to the package content file names, please provide the size of each package file.
Repeat for the Sent Messages.mbox and provide the same for this mailbox.

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Sent messages disappeared in Apple Mail

Hello everybody,
I use Apple Mail (v. 3.6) with Mac OS X (Version 10.5.8) for my Google Domains email addresses.
Yesterday, all the sent messages suddenly disappeared from my Inbox in Apple Mail on the Mac (only for one account, although I run 6 accounts on Apple Mail). I therefore signed in with my username on Google Domains and discovered that the messages were still there in the "Sent" folder.
I tried to Rebuild my mailbox in Apple Mail but it didn't work.
After that, I removed and reinstalled the account in question in Apple Mail, but it got even worse and now every time I try to open Mail, it completely crashes. I get the coloured circle and nothing happens (except that the email account that I reinstalled blinks in alternatively on the Mac files side and GoogleMail side...). Eventually I have to force quite
Does anybody have an idea of what the problem could be and how I could solve it?
Many thanks in advance. Your help will be really helpful.
Clément.

Salut Clément, et un accueil chaleureux aux forums!
Not certain, but this can fix myriad Mail problems...
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go, run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then move these folder & file to the Desktop.
Move this Folder to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/
Move this file to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/Envelope Index
Reboot.
If that doesn't help & you can afford to redo any Mail Rules...
Trash these files...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/... MessageRules.plist and MessageRules.plist.backup

Sent messages disappearing from Mail

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

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

Suddenly hundreds of "sent" messages disappeared. Folder is empty, but 'properties' says there are 679 messages. So not deleted I guess. But where are they?

The only thing I changed before this happened was the 'retention' policy in my account settings with respect to retaining/deleting messages on the server. I had that set at 'never delete' while I was away for a week, but changed it to delete after 7 days on my return today. All sent messages then disappeared on the server, and I discovered later to my surprise in my computer as well. Next to the "Sent" folder in the computer there's now a small square that's filled in darkly. I don't know if the square was there before, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't dark if it was there at all. I really need those 'sent' messages - at least the most recent ones. Does anyone have any idea what's going on? Also - I could do a 'system restore', but have the feeling that won't affect my Thunderbird account at all. Is that right?

I suspect your account is an IMAP account. With IMAP all mail is managed on the server. If you delete a message in Thunderbird it is removed on the server as well, and vice versa.
So I think what happened is what's described in the article in the
'It's just doing what you told it to do' section.
More details in this article.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Message_aging
If you want to avoid messages being deleted set the retention policy to 'never delete'.
I don't think I understand what 'a small square that's filled in darkly' is.
A system restore won't do you any good as the Thunderbird profile isn't covered.
Miscellaneous.msf won't help. Msf files are index files, and do not contain any messages.
Your best bet is to restore a backup of your profile.

Sent messages disappear

Hi folks,
After using Mail.app for my personal mail for a few weeks, I just made the leap with my business mail as well. (I was a long-time Entourage user.)
Unfortunately, in my second workday on Mail.app, I have had two outgoing messages disappear. I sent the messages (both were replies to clients) and my clients received them, but they don't appear in my Sent mailbox. I looked in the Messages folder in Library/Mail, and there's no .emlx file for them. I also logged into a webmail interface for this account and they don't show up there, either.
I'm connecting to a Dovecot IMAP server at Westhost, and I'm using Mail 4.1 on Snow Leopard. Does anyone know what's going on? Also, please direct me to another thread if this is already covered ... I did a few searches but didn't find anything that matched my situation.
Thanks,
-Arlo

K T wrote:
Try rebuilding that mail box. Mailbox menu/Rebuild...
I just did that ... it didn't bring back my two missing messages, but perhaps it will stop more from disappearing. But I've only been using this IMAP account for two days, so I didn't think that would be necessary.
Also confirm the setting to save sent mail is enabled...toggle it on/off/on...
Which setting in particular are you referring to? I should clarify, though, that most of my sent messages are saving fine. I've sent about 20 since yesterday and two have disappeared.

Moving mail users to IMAP from POP. Issues with sent messages disappearing

Our mail server has been working well for several years, running currently on Mac OX 10.4.10 (Xserve G5). All user accounts have always been setup for pop and imap in WGM but we have just recently started to move client settings to IMAP. No changes to the mail settings in server admin except opening the firewall to include port 993 for imap ssl.
The issue is that all users appear to loose the sent mail records when using the apple mail apps. After a message has been sent, the message record stays in the Apple generated sent box for that account and then disappears (presumably after syncing with the server).
The mail app "account" settings shows that sent messages are to be stored on the server and never to be deleted (in mailbox behavior).
If you do a "get info" on the mailbox,sent messages don't show on the server either under "Sent". I also created an additional mailbox "Sent Messages" to be used as sent mailbox location. mailbox shows up on the server, but no mail is added when sent from the apple mail app.
Now, I would have assumed this to be an issue of the client app, but the behavior is consistent across several machines and also on new mail app configurations.
When using Entourage with the same account however, the server works as anticipated and all sent messages are stored on the server (in the "Sent Messages" box). Any Entourage sent messages also show up in the "Sent Messages"mail box of the apple mail apps.
When using iphones, the behavior is somewhat unclear. The iphone mail settings (under advanced) show the "server" selected ("Sent Messages") for sent mail, yet the actual iphone mail app lists that folder as just "Sent". When sending messages, that mailbox shows the Entourage sent messages and iphone sent messages, but the iphone messages never appear on the server.
This only happens on sent messages; inbox, drafts, deleted and junk mail boxes work perfect. This also happen on any imap client account I setup, not just a specific one.
Any suggestions? Any setting I am overlooking? Using Entourage for all users is not an option...
Thanks for any help...

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

Sent messages disappeared when I rebuild mailbox

15 minutes ago, my SENT email box in MAIL contained sent messages from May 11, 2011 to date, but searches run on that box only would pull up emails from early December.
I rebuilt the mailbox and now only sent emails from early December to-date appear. Where did the other ones go? How can I recover them?
Thanks

This has been covered before, but I can't find a post with the solution.
Your Mail is stored in a folder called "Mail" inside your username/Library/ folder.
First, make a copy of your username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist and your usernam/Library/Mail folder. You can just put them on the desktop for now.
Here is one option that is different than what I remember, but may do the same thing easier: http://www.geekculture.com/mt2/archives/2009/01/tigermail_tol.html
There's also this: http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=97495
If you delete your com.apple.mail.plist file, you will have to set up all of your accounts from scratch. Once that is done, it should see the folders inside of Mail.
If that doesn't work,
Go to your user/Library/ folder and drag the Mail folder out of that location to somewhere else.
Start Mail and quit. It will create a new Mail folder. Copy the contents of your old mail folder into the new Mail folder.
If all is fixed, you can delete the backup copies you made.

Why have my mac mail sent messages disappeared on one computer but not the other?

My mac mail account on my Air is not showing my sent messages other than the one I just sent. To find the variables, I checked my mac mail on my iMac and my sent messages are there.
Not sure what the problem is but I look forward to some help.
Thanks.

I note that I just found all previous sent messages in the separate sent messages folder on my sidebar (minus the message that appears in my regular Sent Mailbox). I just moved these to the Sent mailbox and will wait to see if they appear there (in the sent mailbox) once it has processed this action.

Inbox and Sent Messages Disappeared

Started the mail program (v 4.2) and received a new email. Clicked on it and I'm not sure what happened but all Inbox and sent messages are now gone. Very strange. My iPhone shows all messages but the iMac shows none of them. All other mailboxes are intact. What folder do I use with Time Machine to refresh all of them?
Thanks

For some reason the account had been dis-enabled in preferences. Re-enabling has reproduced the messages. Very strange!

Mail.app sent messages disappearing

With Mail.app version 8 on Yosemite with only iCloud email service configured, I am noticing that certain sent messages do not actually send even though you hear the 'swoosh'.
When looking in the sent folder, the message is nowhere to be found and I confirmed that the recipient did not receive it. Further, when I click on the little reply arrow from my Inbox in the following picture...
I get the the following error.
Both times that this has happened to me, I attached a PDF that was annotated with Preview.app.
I've logged a bug with Apple (Ticket 18764280)
Hoping someone in the community can shed some light on this.
Cheers

Ok, this brings me a step further. So, on the web mail page I see:
Inbox (964)
Deleted Messages (leeren)
Drafts
Sent Messages
Apple Mail To Do
Notes
SENT
Trash
So, my mail.app on my local OSX serve is using "SENT", my mail.app on my MBP is using "Sent Messages".
I didn't find a way how I can tell mail.app, which folder to use on the IMAP server to store sent messages in. Is there a way to configure this?

After upgrading to iOS 5 I have lost all my sent messages'all my deleted messages have returned ,2 of which I also can't delete!

After upgrading to ios5 all my sent messages disappeared,my deleted messages returned,a couple of which I also cannot delete!Anyone any ideas?I am thinking I should have stayed with ios4,as ios5 seems to be pitched at iPad 2 users.

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, I do access my email from 2 different sources.
FYI, I use the POP mailserver as I need most of the information to be loaded onto my PC while on a plane / not connected to the interenet.
The primary use of mail on my iPhone is to be available as much as possible - even when I'm away from my office.
Thanks again for your help. I'll start deleting them in segments of 100.......

Convert pop account to imap - lose sent messages and inbox messages

I converted a pop account to imap and lost the ability to search through messages prior to the conversion. Luckily I backed up all the messages. How do I get the ability to search them back? I tried moving them into the appropriate folder in finder, but they don't show up in mail.

i am having a similar problem - all of my sent messages disappeared from my mail program. i've located them in my home folder but can't figure out how to see them in my sent mailbox from the mail program ????

Outlook sent messages not in Sent Items, and not delivered, they disappear

Some of our users are experiencing this
They compose a message and click SEND.
A few hours later they hear from the intended recipient no message was ever received.
The sender checks his/her Sent Items and sees no record of the message.
I check Exchange (2007) Tracker logs and see no record of the message.
It's as if messages disappear into thin air.
I know this is true for internal email, but i do not recall instances for external email.
Clients are mostly Outlook 2013, with only a few 2007 and 2010. We are in the process of upgrading everyone to 2013.

Have you personally verified that this happens with your own two eyes? I would hope that you're not posting here based on what a user has told you.
Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."

My email message disappears off the page before it is sent or saved.

Sometimes my email message disappears (zooms to the right) before it is sent or saved (I use Safari). How can I retrieve that message?

Try the suggestion made in this thread.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/19556862#19556862

Why do my sent messages keep disappearing

Hi, I'm running Mail 2.05 and managing 4 mail accounts with Mail, to date, with little problems. I have a main personal account, which is set up as an IMAP account, then two other (work-related) IMAP accounts, and then a .mac account.
For the longest time, it's been configured that when I open up the inbox all four inboxes appear there, when I open up Drafts, all four pop up, ditto for Sent and Junk.
I also had somehow magically configured some sorting system which appeared at the bottom of the list, as a logo that resembled a small globe - when you expand the globe for each account, you see all the subfolders. great.
So now, all the sudden, one of these globes DISAPPEARED. and instead, at the very top, in the INBOX, now all of the subfolders are inside of the main mail account. i.e., the main mail account WITHIN the inbox now has everything: Sent, Junk, every folder I've ever made, etc. ALSO, and very disconcerting, is the absence of the main mail account in the SENT folder.
The whole thing is convoluted, but what is entirely aggravating now is that when I send a message from this main account (the sort of jumbled one that somehow moved due to my inept skills), it completely disappears, vanishes into the aether. HOW DO I NOW retrieve these sent messages?
I'd attach a screen capture if I thought it would help, but perhaps someone has had this problem before.
THanks in advance for any help.
G4 Laptop Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hi Yoganietzsche.
The situation you're describing is typical of an IMAP account that requires INBOX to be put in Preferences > Accounts > Advanced > IMAP Path Prefix. It's strange, though, that this account was working fine before and the weird behavior started happening out of nowhere. I encourage you to ask the administrators of this account for any changes they may have made to the server recently.
HOW DO I NOW retrieve these sent messages?
You don't. Unfortunately, Mail lost track of where should they be stored, and they are almost certainly lost now.

Sent messages disappeared

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