Sub Folders Arrows not turned down When Mail.app Launched

Question

Hello,
I imported some of my Email from Entourage. I have a mail folder "Companies", and several sub folders inside of that. Some of these folders I like to always have open (the little arrow to the left of the folder name turned down).
However, every time I re-launch Mail.app, all the sub folders arrows including "Companies" itself is closed or "turned-up".
Is there anyway to make this "stick" to whatever I had before I quit Mail.app?
Thanks, Scott K.

Answer 1

Hello Scott.
This information is stored in com.apple.mail.plist, so you may try re-creating that file in case there is something wrong with it.
Verify/repair the startup disk first (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
After having fixed all filesystem issues, if any, and making sure that there’s enough space available on the startup disk (a few GB, plus the space needed to make a backup copy of the Mail folder), try this:
1. Quit Mail if it’s running.
2. Make a backup copy of the ~/Library/Mail folder, just in case something goes wrong while trying to solve the problem. 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 com.apple.mail.plist and move it to the Desktop (to be deleted if this fixes the problem).
4. If you have a .Mac account and .Mac synchronization of Mail data was enabled either in Mail > Preferences > General or in System Preferences > .Mac, that will interfere with any attempt to get rid of *.plist files. If that‘s the case, after having followed the previous steps, but before opening Mail again, you should go to System Preferences > .Mac > Advanced, click Reset Sync Data, and choose the appropriate options to reset the Mail data stored on the .Mac server with the data locally stored on the computer, i.e. sync data must flow from the computer to the .Mac server so that the same data is deleted from the server as well.
5. Open Mail. 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.
You may also need to re-install or re-enable any Mail plug-ins you have installed for Mail to recognize them.
6. As a side effect of re-creating com.apple.mail.plist, Mail might rename Outbox (which is where messages waiting to be sent are stored) to Delivered. The name of that mailbox is actually a misnomer, as it would contain messages (if any) that couldn’t be delivered for some reason. You can delete that mailbox if you wish.
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 folder path here, doing Go > Go to Folder in the Finder, and pasting the folder path there.