Can't see mail in Time Machine backups

[Morac]

I just got a new MacBook Air M1 (2020) and created a brand new Time Machine backup. If I open the Mail App and go into Time Machine I can't see any mail, just folders. Also the window is shrunk (though I can resize it). Sometimes I can select the invisible emails from the list and the email preview shows up at the bottom, but other times I can't. Also the folder names for Smart Folders don't show up at all.

Similarly if I go into Time Machine for Contacts the window is not displayed correctly, but at least I see data (though not any iCloud data for anything other than "now").

I tried searching for this issue and couldn't find anything.

I contacted Apple Care and they said they've never heard of this. They had me delete the backup, but even then the Time Machine UI was buggy. They said it seems like a UI or Time Machine bug and they want me to reinstall MacOS.

Anyone else have this problem?

 

[Morac]

So I did the reinstall of MacOS and it didn't fix the problem, so I called Apple Back. This person wasn't aware of the problem, but checked with a senior engineer and was told Time Machine doesn't work with IMAP, which is what all my emails are.

You'd think there would be an KB article about that or at least some kind of message in the Time Machine screen, instead of just a broken window.

 

[Daverich4]

So I did the reinstall of MacOS and it didn't fix the problem, so I called Apple Back. This person wasn't aware of the problem, but checked with a senior engineer and was told Time Machine doesn't work with IMAP, which is what all my emails are.

You'd think there would be an KB article about that or at least some kind of message in the Time Machine screen, instead of just a broken window.

That’s been true for me all the way back to Mojave. At least it’s not new in Big Sur.

 

[gilby101]

Firstly, if I need to recover after a disaster, I just reconnect to the mail service and let the messages synchronise with Apple Mail. That works with any IMAP based service.

But this is not so good if you want to recover some old deleted messages which are gone from both Apple Mail and the mail service.

You can recover mail from TM. It is a bit messy but here goes. Don't use the TM app, use Finder and Apple Mail.

Using Finder, locate your Mail in an old TM backup. With macOS 11 (similar for older macOS), go to the TM drive and select the dated backup your want.

Inside that there will be Macintosh HD (or whatever your boot disk is called), go down to:
<dated backup>/Macintosh HD - Data/Users/<your name>/Library/Mail/V8/

Drag and drop the V8 folder to your desktop (or wherever you choose)

In Apple Mail, choose File -> Import Mailboxes -> Apple Mail -> Continue.

That will bring up the standard open file/folder window. Choose your whole V8 folder from the Desktop or (better) drill down inside it to be more selective.

Click Choose.

This will import all the selected mail into a Mail folder called Import inside "On My Mac".

 

[Morac]

Yeah I saw my mail was being backed up, I just wanted a way to go back and see old deleted mail, which seems like what TM is designed for, but no.

What‘s more annoying is that Apple’s own support agents don’t even know this can’t be done. There’s no external or internal documentation about this.

 

[Neophyte_FL]

Yeah I saw my mail was being backed up, I just wanted a way to go back and see old deleted mail, which seems like what TM is designed for, but no.

What‘s more annoying is that Apple’s own support agents don’t even know this can’t be done. There’s no external or internal documentation about this.

This problem started on Day 1 of Catalina and still true with BS. There are several lengthy threads in the Support Community--and some here--about this. Apple is well aware of it and it's a major annoyance to me but I suspect it's viewed as only an insignificant nit by Apple since it isn't tied to latest/greatest hardware. If you're a developer, raise the flag through channels.