Time Machine backups of Mail: no email messages

I have a problem with Time Machine backups of emails. If I open the Mail app and enter Time Machine, it shows no emails (for one account) and only a couple of very old email messages for another. There are actually gigabytes of emails in both accounts. I wonder what's wrong, since the files from ~/Library/Mail seem to be backed up by Time Machine. Can I make Time Machine show backups of individual messages? Mail app is setup to access Gmail with IMAP.
Thanks

I just noticed this myself and I think I know what might be going on. Mail no longer keeps seperate copies of all the email that is in each folder, including the Inbox. It keeps one copy of the email in the gmail All Mail folder and then uses tags to make that email show up in the differnet folders but it does not make an actual copy in the folders. So Time Machine is backing up the actual email file that is in All Mail but as far as it is concerned there are no emails in any of the other folders.
This does not explain why there still might be old emails showing up in the folders, I have this happening too. Maybe it's an artifact from the conversion from the old Mail to the new Maverics Mail. I have also not tried to restore an email yet so I don't know if the folder metadata is being backup up or not. I hope it is otherwise all I can do is restore the All Mail folder but I would have to manually put email back into the correct folders.

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Time machine backup of mail.

Hi,
Does Time machine backup mail? If so, which folder is it backed up to?
Thanks
Glen

Bring the Mail browser window forward, then select Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine menu, which is represented by a clock icon in the menu bar. If you don't have that menu, select
 ▹ System Preferences ▹ Time Machine ▹ Show Time Machine in menu bar
Scroll back in the time-travel view to the most recent snapshot containing the messages you want to restore. Select the messages, then click Restore. The messages will be restored to a new mailbox. From there you can move them wherever you like.

My Time machine backup fails with an error message

Time machine used to work just fine when I first upgraded to Leopard but now every time it tries to backup I get an Error message "Unable to complete backup. An error occurred while copying files to the backup volume." This occurs while Time Machine is "Preparing". Next hour it starts all over again and does the same thing. I have reformatted the backup drive but still get the error. I'm backing up to a 300g Firewire drive and have used about 207G for the backups.backupdb folder.
An ideas how to resolve this issue?

Here is a list of some TM articles that may help. You can look for more by searching Mac Help from the Finder's Help menu or searching the Knowledge Base from Apple's Support Page.
Time Machine Troubleshooting
Here are several articles to help troubleshoot Time Machine Problems as well as assist in properly setting up Time Machine.
Mac 101- Using Time Machine in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
Is Time Machine all you need?
Some advice for those using Time Machine
TidBITS Macs & Mac OS X- Time Machine- The Good, the Bad, and the Missing Features
Mac OS X 10.5- Time Machine backups are not visible
OS X 10.5- Time Machine stops backing up to external disk
10.5- Disable the 'use this disk?' Time Machine dialog
Time Machine tips and troubleshooting
Mac OS X 10.5 Help- Restoring files backed up with Time Machine
OS X 10.5- Using Time Machine and troubleshooting Time Machine issues

Time Machine backups fail with no error message

My Time Machine hasn't successfully completed a backup since 3/19. It starts the backup on schedule, indexes over 2 million objects, goes through the phase of preparing objects, and then just stops. I know that there have been many changes since that time, but it isn't backing them up. Please tell me how to fix this.

I have the same problem - Time Machine fails to backup with no error message - after a brief foray into Mavericks. Each time it tries to backup, TM creates a new folder in the "in progress" directory but fails to complete. Otherwise TM looks normal with no obvious errors. I have several HDDs. I installed Mavericks on an external drive, migrated my data over to it. Booted from it and after a day or two decided I just didn’t' like it and booted from my Snow Leopard partition. All was fine but apparently, I had forgotten to turn OFF Time Machine while booted into Mavericks. Thereafter, Time Machine failed to backup. Here's what I've done and the error logs:
Deleted the NEW directory that Mavericks created on TM
Done a full reset of TM (deleted: /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Re-entered the exclusions
Rebuilt the directory structure on the boot disc using DiskWarrior
Repaired the TM disc using Disc Utility
Resynced the Spotlight cache on the boot disk
TM also seems not to do a deep traversal since it just stops after checking files to backup.
Here are the error logs from the TM Buddy widget:
Starting standard backup
Error loading /Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Vir tualPCDiskImagePlugin: dlopen(/Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin.bundle/Contents/Ma cOS/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:\n /Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Vir tualPCDiskImagePlugin: mach-o, but wrong architecture
Cannot find function pointer MacDiskImagePluginFactory for factory 7F1FD83E-6684-11D8-968F-000A957703C0 in CFBundle/CFPlugIn 0x102f00930 </Library/Plug-ins/DiskImages/VirtualPCDiskImagePlugin.bundle> (bundle, not loaded)
Backing up to: /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Mac Pro Data
Forcing deep traversal on source: "Mac Pro Data" (mount: '/Volumes/Mac Pro Data' fsUUID: B4BEA50F-15B1-34BB-92F1-B7605139B852 eventDBUUID: BA019CB5-8123-4C99-9806-C9593D4EFA34), {1, 1, 1, 0}
Event store UUIDs don't match for volume: Music HDD
Forcing deep traversal on source: "Music HDD" (mount: '/Volumes/Music HDD' fsUUID: FF1EF8F5-30D0-34C0-BC02-ACDB5AD18B3A eventDBUUID: 92A95F63-5F4A-4987-90DB-5444ADF33D40), {1, 1, 1, 0}
Node requires deep traversal:/ reason:must scan subdirs|
Error: Flushing index to disk returned an error: 0
Backup canceled.
I don't know what to do next. Any ideas?
Thanks,
John

Time Machine "Backup disk not available" error message since install Snow L

Since installing Snow Leopard my back-ups have failed, generating the error message "The back-up disk is not available." Last successful back-up was immediately pre-install of Snow Leopard. TM looks like it is backing up but in the end I get the error message. The wireless aspect for internet connect works fine so I don't think connectivity is the issue.
I am not real techie so insult me with basics. Thanks.

I have four macs using time machine on a single 1TB drive connected to Airport Extreme through USB. This morning I got the dreaded error-109 on Mac#1. This occured right after I had added Mac#4 to the bunch. While adding the Mac#4, I mounted my airport disk and then used time machine to select it for backup. I forgot to eject it after it had done the initial backup. That was when the error occured on the Mac#1.
Mac #1 C2D Mini 2009 SL 10.6.2
Mac #2 G5 DP L 10.5.8
Mac #3 MBP 2009 SL 10.6.2
Mac #4 MB C2D2006 SL 10.6.2
First I turned off TM on all of the Macs. I mounted the airport disk again, on Mac#1. I deleted the sparsebundle for Mac#1. I opened TM and selected the airport disk for backup. It is now backing up again on Mac#1. When it is finished, I will turn on TM once again on the other macs and see what happens. There is still a chunk of space left on the airport disk, about 680GB after all of the backups

How to recover Mountain Lion iMessages from Time Machine backup?

Today, I sent messages to someone using iMessage on my iPod touch and it said "delivered" on the last one.
But when I woke up my laptop and opened Messages, the latest messages were the ones I sent yesterday, not the ones I sent today.
So I went in ~/Library/and deleted the Messages folder to try to reset the iMessage database so it would re-sync with Apple's servers but it didn't work.
I have my Time Machine backups that have my intact Messages folder stored but when I put the original back in its place, the messages still aren't there and when I click on a conversation, the conversation goes down the list and is empty.
I'd now like to simply recover my iMessage conversations (I don't care about what's in Jabber or whatever), does anyone know how I could do that?
Thanks!

I resetted my PRAM and now it works...

Can't copy Time Machine "Backups.backupdb" to another drive.

My external Time Machine backup drive now displays this message every time I connect it to my Mac.
Mac OS X can't repair the disk "Backup Drive"
You can still open or copy files on the disk, but you can’t save changes to files on the disk. Back up the disk and reformat it as soon as you can.
Since this is a Time Machine drive, I found these instructions here -- Time Machine: How to transfer backups from the current backup drive to a new backup drive -- that say to copy the Backups.backupdb to a new drive.
Every time I do this, the process gets to about 150,000 files then crashes my Mac. Sometimes it's a grey screen with words telling me to hold the Power Button down to force a reboot. Sometimes it just crashes and reboots itself.
I've repaired disk permissions and it keeps happening.
How do I copy Backups.backupdb to a new drive when the process keeps crashing my Mac?

Try using one of the clone apps to copy. It's possible the drive is too damaged and the files will not copy.
Both of these applications can be used to create a clone.
SuperDuper! http://www.shirt-pocket.com/
CCC http://www.bombich.com/download.html

Cannot verify time machine backup

Hi all, I have just replaced my HDD in my macbook pro to a Samsung 830 SSD. I simply used to disk utility to copy/restore from the original hdd to the ssd. Every thing seems to be running fine however if I try to verify my time machine backup I get the following message:
Time Machine couldn’t verify your backups on “John's Time Capsule” because verification was interrupted. Interruptions are usually caused by network problems. Try again after the network problems are resolved.
I can enter time machine and see all my past files ok however I just cant complete a verify backup. I have tried several time to reboot my macbook pro and also my time capsule, all without success. Im currently running the latest OSX 10.8.2 Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Also forgot to mention that I can still do a time machine backup ok and enter time machine, just not complete a "verify backup"

Still no luck. Still getting the below error
Time Machine couldn’t verify your backups on “John's Time Capsule” because verification was interrupted. Interruptions are usually caused by network problems. Try again after the network problems are resolved.
I have tried to verify and repair the disk and permissions. Everything seems ok however the verify wont work.

Time Machine backup failed following upgrade to OS X Mavericks

I upgraded from Snow Leopard (10.6.8) to Mavericks yesterday, and since that time have consistently received an errror message that my Time Machine backup is failing. The message is: 'Backup Failed' 'The backup on "xxxxxx Time Capsule" is already in use.'
My backups to the Time Capsule worked flawlessly prior to the upgrade.
Additional troubleshooting:
- When I go to open the Time Capsule in Finder, I can see the folder for my iMac, but cannot open. "xxxxxx iMac.sparsebundle" Resource temporarily unavailable"
The backup disk image “/Volumes/Time Capsule-1/Michael Dollinger’s iMac.sparsebundle” is already in use.
Is this a permissions issue? If so, how do I resolve?
Any additional suggestions

Note, I MAY have resolved the issue. I updated the firmware on my Time Capsule (which was not previously even showing in Finder), and now the backup seems to be running. It took a long time (20+ minutes) to prep, but now it is running. I'll let you all know if this completes successfully.

Where can I find mail messages I saved in the time machine backup

I am trying to retrieve e-mail messages I had saved in folders from my time machine backup. Where do I find them ?

Put the icon in the menu bar (if not already there) ->System Preferences->Time Machine->Show Time Machine status in menu bar.
Then, while in Mail, click the icon, and select "Enter Time Machine"
Locate the emails in Time Machine, then select Restore.

Status report time machine backup by e-mail

Hello,
i'm using Leopard server (workgroup mode) and want to know if there is a way to get a time machine backup status report by e-mail
It's important for us to know every day if time machine was able to backup ok or if there are problems.
thanks for suggestions
Marco

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.

E-mail error Time Machine backup

My old iMac crashed - so I bought me a new iMac 27" 1 day ago.
I used Time Machine backup to transfer from external harddisk, and everything works well, exept MAIL.
All my 17000 mails got transfered, but when I start up the MAIL program, I can only see the MAIL icon on DOCK and MENU at top.
Non of the windows in the MAIL program are showing!
All my accounts have green light, so they work.
If I check for emails, the new one is showing on the icon (DOCK).
If i try "show window" - the program crash.
What to do?
I have try recovery - but still not visuable.
How do I delete MAIL program, and reinstall?
I google and found out that to many mail can be a problem when transfer from Time Machine backup.
But say nothing about what to do.
Thanks.
J

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.

Importing Mail from SL Time Machine Backup into Lion

Quick Question:
When importing my 14k+ worth of mail through the built in method provided by Mail:
What I was told was to go into my Time Machine backup of Snow Leopard, and navigate to ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes, and copy the Mailboxes folder onto the desktop. From there, I would redirect the "import mailboxes" function back to the Mailbox folder on my desktop.As I went into the Mailbox folder I only found the following: Deleted Messages.mbox, Notes.mbox, Outbox.mbox, ToDos.mbox, and there was not ainbox.mbox
My question is:
I have a few email addresses: one for school, two others for personal use. And within my ~/Library/Mail folder in my TM Snow Leopard backup, there are three folders that correspond to my three email addresses: IMAP-(schoolemailaddress), IMAP-(personalemailaddress1), POP-(emailaddress2), & POP-(emailaddress3). And so, my question is which folder do I import my mail from the TM to the new Mail in Lion because only in these folders do I see an "Inbox.mbox"?
Thanks!

In addition, how come mail has taken up close to 12gb of HD space when it was importing my mail over from snow leopard when I first launched mail in Lion?

Restore Mail from Time Machine backup

Hi, I have a time machine backup from my MacBook which unfortunately crashed and is now resting in Mac heaven. The problem now is that I just bought a new iMac and so wanted to get my mail settings and messages to my new computer without getting all the gunk from the Macbook along. Please could somebody help me out as to which files from where or if there is an easier way to get this done.
Thanks a lot
Mitesh Gowani

The settings are stored in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist and the messages should be in ~/Library/Mail.

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and i can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help

I had to reformat my OSX 10.5.8 and I can't restore my emails from my time machine backup from an external hard drive - only the latest (post backup) time machine back ups are available to restore. Please can any help? I can find the mail folder in my libraries, but the Restore Button is grayed out

OSX treats the reformatted drive as a different one; it's the same as replacing it, and the old one is no longer connected.
See #E3 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting to see and restore from the "old" drive.
And, you may not want to restore via the Finder; see the blue box in #15 of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

Time Machine backups of Mail: no email messages

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