Trying to restore Mail messages & folders

Before doing a clean install of Leopard, I did a complete backup of my system. After restoring my data, I did not realize that I had a problem with Mail. Though many of my email messages are listed, I am missing all of the local sub-folders and their respective messages. I can see other local folders and read the messages, but the sub-folders are all missing. For example, I had a folder called "work" and other work-related folders within them. "Work" is still there, but not the others. Also, I had always kept a backup, local folder of my sent emails. While I can see this list of "sent" messages, I can no longer access any of them: when I attempt to open any local "sent" messages, the content is blank.
Here's the kicker: I've been using Mail a lot each day and am afraid that a fix might wipe out my newer messages. Can anyone offer any advice as to what files I need to restore from my external hard drive without erasing the newer emails?
Thank you very much for any help you can give me.

Hey, it really depends from what you upgraded from. Usually a mailbox rebuild is a simple way to restore everything that "appears" to be missing, but sometimes it can be more tricky.
Here is a link to a previous discussion on this forum that addresses these issues in much detail: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5754646&#5754646
I hope this helps.

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E-Mail Message Folders

I have a Blackberry Curve 8310 through AT&T. I recently upgraded the software on the phone and Desktop Manager to 4.5. Currently I have an e-mail account at att.blackberry.net. I also have a personal google mail account that I setup on my Blackberry. Those accounts seem to be functioning correctly on my Blackberry. I have two work e-mail accounts that I want sent to my Blackberry. Currently I have those two work e-mail accounts setup to copy every inbound message to my att.blackberry.net account.
Preferably I would like to setup individual accounts (folders) on my Blackberry for the two work e-mail accounts while removing the copying to att.blackberry.net. I have tried doing this on AT&T's Blackberry Internet Service website, but they keep identifying the mail server as IMAP4 when it is POP3. I cannot change this setting.
The other option is to leave my Blackberry as it is with the copies sent to att.blackberry.net and create e-mail message folders to filter the work e-mail messages to. Supposedly there is a way to do this via Blackberry Desktop Manager, but I keep looking for the E-Mail Settings in that software and I do not have that option.
What are your recommendations about how to proceed?

You have in your device the icon to setup mail?, you can add the accounts from this icon.
If you don't have the icon call att customer service and ask for the setup mail icon in your device.
If I help you with any inquire, thank you for click kudos in my post.
If your issue has been solved, please mark the post was solved.

Error when trying to restore mail-folder

Hi.
I've done a complete re-installation af Snow Leopard.
When trying to restore the mail folder via Time Machine i'm told: "The operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient privileges for "mail'" I seems to me that i have both privileges to read and write in the folder.
I have no problems restoring my pictures and the likes?
Can you please help me?
Best regards Peter
Message was edited by: guapost

Check out http://docs.info.apple.com/article.HTML?artnum=307219

Restoring mail messages and attachments from Library Mail folder

Can someone please tell me the best way to do the following...
I have recently performed an erase and install of Snow Leopard.
I need to restore my old mail and I have the following data...
A copy of the "Mail" folder from the "Library" folder, up-to-date as of yesterday (19/9/09). I omitted to take a copy of the "Mail Downloads" folder which I believe contains the attachments for the messages.
An older copy of the "Mail Downloads" folder, up-to-date as of 31/5/09.
I was advised by one person at Apple Care that the Mail Folder was all I needed to back-up all my mail. Then the next advisor told me I should have taken a copy of the Mail Downloads folder as well. Another advisor suggested I exported all the mailboxes manually one by one which I now wish I had done.
In any case, I am where I am and I would like to know what to do with the data I have to be able to access my past mail messages.

Robert,
If you were to need to do this again, all you need is to restore the Mail folder and the com.apple.mail.plist file (Home/Library/Preferences). If you restore those -- replacing any that might get created, but would not if you don't first launch Mail -- then Import is not necessary and it picks up where it left off.
The Mail Downloads folder is not needed -- its contents are redundant to what is kept with the messages.
Ernie

Time Machine error while trying to restore Mail.app

Ok, I'm not really sure how to explain the mess I'm in, but I'm going to do my best.
I accidentally deleted two very important Mail accounts. Before I realized that to restore them all I had to do was restore the library files, I attempted to restore the entire Mail.app.
When I did this, I chose to replace it with the backup from last night. Example: I had the Finder open, Mail.app selected, and went to the time machine and went back to last night. It asked me if I wanted to keep the original, keep both, or replace and I chose to replace. It asked for my password (I'm the ONLY user on this computer), I entered it, and then it told me I do not have permission to restore it.
Now, I cannot even open Mail.app. So... I can't even open it to bring it to the foreground to attempt to restore it that way.
How do I restore Mail.app in this case? I have the missing library files restored already... now... what do I do about the program?
FWIW, I'm on 10.5.4... not sure why I haven't upgraded yet.

Ok. I managed to get Mail.app restored... as in, I can open it and I can see the accounts that I didn't accidentally delete.
I restored the files in the Library and I can see the account there... now... how do I get them to show up in Mail.app?

Restore flags, message folders, sent messages in Mail.app

My dad's computer has been running slow for some time now, so when we made the decision to upgrade it to Mountain Lion over the weekend, he asked that I do a clean install of it. We backed up ~/Library/Mail, and once we finished the installation we put it back in place. His inboxes and folder structure are all in place, however his sent messages, flags, and anything that he filed away into folders has disappeared.
We do have a time machine backup that was completed immediately before the install, and it's been re-associated with his machine, so in theory the information is accessible; I just need to know what to grab to restore it.
Thanks!

But are the sent messages also stored on the computer
Yes. The copies on your computer will be synched to match the copies on the server. If you disconnect your Mac from the Internet, you will still be able to view the mail prior to the disconnection. It's one of the main advantages that IMAP has over POP.
Note that there are behavior options for the Sent mail folder that change the retention levels:

Restoring mail messages from encrypted TimeMachine backup

I'm halfway there:
I need to recover hundreds of e-mails from my work exchange account
via Time Machine backup. The complication is that the backup of my
user directory is encrypted.
I have recovered the relevant folders (I think) by working in
Finder to open the sparse.bundle of my user directory with my
password,
pulling what looks like the mailbox from
myUser>Library>Mail>[email protected]
and inside that,
inbox.ewsmbox
contains
.plist
attachments (folder)
messages (folder)
and the messages and attachments seem to open up just fine, if I pick
one and double-click on them.
But I cannot figure out how to import them back into mail so I can
work with them.
"Import" doesn't seem to work--"Import from Apple Mail" or "Import
from mailbox" won't recognize the whole EWS-named folder or the inner
folder 'inbox'. Drag n' drop of the EWS-usernamed folder onto the
mail
window doesn't work, nor does drag n' drop of the messages themselves
or the "inbox" folder. Drag n' drop of the messages into my current
mail directory in with the other newer messages doesn't let them show
up in the mail window.
How do I get the messages back into my inbox, ideally with their
proper attachments?

Thanks for the suggestion.
As I tried it, thunderbird 5.0 (the current version I just downloaded) mail import is so automated (would you like to import "apple mail" or "eudora mail"? were the only options) that it only imported local files held on my mac from mac mail, and not my currently active mailboxes, nor did it let me direct it to the folder I cared about ([email protected]), and it ignored that folder even if I put that folder manually among the mailboxes that it did import correctly.
Did you have another way to import things in mind?

How do I restore Mail messages to Inbox

While working with my ISP on a mail problem I deleted all of the messages from Inbox and Sent.
I maintain regular backups so I have the messages there. They are located at User/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/POP-(me)@pop-server. . . .
How do I restore them to Mail's Inbox and Sent respectively?
Thanks!
-Joe

Kurt,
Your answer put me on the right track but it would not work quite like you said. What I needed to do was import the InBox and the sent folders from the backup copy. This creates an imported mail folder containing the messages from the backup. Then from the Inbox and the Sent folders in the import folder I moved the messages into the main Inbox and sent folders.
On Both of my computers there is no Mail folder in the Home/Library. It definitely is located in the User/Library folder.
Thanks for your help getting me there!
-Joe

How to restore mail messages and address book?

Recently the hard drive on my eMac failed. The drive would no longer mount. Fortunately, my entire user folder has been recovered. While I see the files such as AddressBook.data and Incoming_Mail they are showing up as generic documents. I can't seem to import these files or open them with their respective applications (Address Book and Mail). How can I restore these previous messages and prior address book? I want to add this recovered data to the new address book and mailboxes that I have created in the interim after the hard drive crashed and I began using another Mac.
17" iMac Mac OS X (10.4.8)
20" iMac Intel Core 2 Duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

the new version of Mail is not recognizing the mbox files and therefore I can't import them.
Again, this is wrong. Not only does Mail 2.x recognize Mail 1.x mailboxes, but can import them as either Mail for Mac OS X or as Other. The exact procedure is slightly different in each case.
I need a way to bring these old mbox message files into Tiger.
And I need that you explain what exactly it is that you’re doing and what exactly is the problem in order to be able to determine what exactly it is that you’re doing wrong...

Help!! Trying to restore mail preferences

I deleted my mail server and did not realize that it would also delete my inbox, sent messages, trash, etc.
I want to restore my mail program to exactly how it was at a back up I did this morning at 5am.
I have Time Machine up and running and when I go back into the old back up I cant find anything related to the mail program. I can't even find the "Library" folder under my user account.
I can not figure out how to do this or even where to find the "mail" folder that has all the preferences and old mailboxes.
Please help!!

To open your User Library, click on your Desktop to activate the Finder, then go to the Finder main menu:
Select the "GO" tab of the Finder menu and hold down the "option" key. Now you will see your User Library in the drop down menu. Click it to open in Finder.
Once the Library folder is visible in a Finder window, you can select the folder icon in the toolbar of the window and drag the icon to the sidebar of the window or to the Dock, to keep it accessible. If you want to find your Library in Time Machine it is important to have the Library accessible in the Finder.
Your Mailboxes are stored in the "Mail" subfolder of your Library, your preference settings in the "Preferences" subfolder in "com.apple.mail.plist".
HTH
Léonie

Help! Trying to restore mail!!!

I deleted my mail server and did not realize that it would also delete my inbox, sent messages, trash, etc.
I want to restore my mail program to exactly how it was at a back up I did this morning at 5am.
I can not figure out how to do this or even where to find the "mail" folder that has all the preferences and old mailboxes.
Please help!!

Thanks! I talks there about restoing the old mailboxes and e-mail. So at least I know I can get the data back.
Is it no longer like the old days where I can just replace all the mail related docs and files from the "Library" folder and the re-start the program? I can't even find where any of those files live on the computer anymore.
So then, how would I go about restoring the settings and preferences? Or do I just have to start from scratch on those?

Restored Mail messages not there

I used Time Machine to restore a lost email message. It said "One message restored," but the allegedly restored mesage is nowhere to be found. There is no "recovered messages" mailbox.
I am running Yosemite, which I recently installed, and the lost message was from an earlier time.
Thank you.

Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.
Back up all data before proceeding.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
          Go ▹ Go to Folder
from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V, then press return.
A folder window will open. Inside it there should be files with names as follows:
          Envelope Index
          ExternalUpdates.storedata
Move those files to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have longer names that begin as above. Move those files, if any, to the Trash.
Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is damaged and that Mail has to quit. Click OK. Typically, the process takes a few minutes, but it may take hours if you have gigantic mailboxes. In that case, you may be able to speed things up by temporarily adding your home folder to the Privacy list in the Spotlight preference pane. Remove it when Mail has finished importing.
Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the files you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

Trying to restore lion - message 'unable to install additional components' what can I do?

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If you're getting the can't get Lion's additional components, then Apple's servers are borked or you have a flakey Internet connection and you'll have to keep trying. To revert back to SL, see Kappy's going back to SL from Lion guide

How do you select all when trying to delete mail messages

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TS3694 Why did I rec'd error 9006 when trying to restore my ipad 1 in iTunes

When I turned on my ipad 1 today after using it 2 days ago with no problems. I had a black scree with the itunes logo, photo of the white USB charging cable and a white arrow pointing to the itunes logo. So I plugged the ipad into my iMac computer whichi is the computer I always use to update, synce my ipad. The computer did recognize the ipad, but not my the name/ID that usually appears. The message showed that computer recognized an ipad in recovery mode and only gave me the option to restore which would erase all data etc. But that was ok as I have a backup on that computer. However when it tried to restore, the message said my ipad was up to date, but yet it started looking for an update and then restore. It showed it was downloading an update and said once that was done, it would restore my ipad, then I would have the option to restore some of my data from a previous backup, but after 20 min, I rec'd a message that
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thanks for ANY help
PKNewman

Hello penel2907,
This could be due to a hardware issue. You may try using a different USB port on your computer.
Check for hardware issues
Related errors: 1, 3, 10-47, 1002, 1011, 1012, 1014, 1000-1020, 1669.
Try to restore your iOS device two more times while connected with a cable, computer, and network you know are good. Also, confirm your security software and settings are allowing communication between your device and update servers. If you still see the error message when you update or restore, contact Apple support.
Resolve specific iTunes update and restore errors
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3694
Cheers,
Allen

Trying to restore Mail messages & folders

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