When using Time Machine in Mac Mail, everything works fine but restored files do not appear in MM - On My Mac, and I cannot find them anywhere. Thanks

Question

Time Machine Problem: Mac Mail.  Cannot Find Restored Files in Mac Sidebar where they are supposed to go.
I am using Mountain Lion on my MacBook.  I have successfully used Time Machine in the past, but I have incurred the following problem that I am requesting help on.
I am attempting to recover Sent  and Inbox Mac Mail sent.  I go through all the steps properly and locating what I want to recover, and after hitting Restore everything seems to be working and I get a message "Restoring 207 files".  The guides say that then I am supposed to find the files in Mac Mail sidebar under   ON MY MAC.  But they are not there nor anywhere else I have looked.  In other words, everything appears to be working fine except I cannot find the restored files.
Thank you for you help.
Jerry

Answer 1

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 selectRestore ... 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.