MacMail problem

[Redsfan]

After installing and opening up MacMail we have lost all of our Yahoo/Rogers email. It looked like mail was downloading all our email over time (3k plus) but no idea where they may have gone? There are 2 archive folders but all dates. My gmail account was untouched, but no idea where our Yahoo email has gone?

Any ideas?

 

[anthonymoody]

I have a similar (?) problem in that none of my subfolders in gmail are showing up in the Mail app after the update. It's where I archive everything. Hmm.

 

[Redsfan]

I have a similar (?) problem in that none of my subfolders in gmail are showing up in the Mail app after the update. It's where I archive everything. Hmm.

mine are showing up but I'm not sure they are updated

 

[chrismac2]

After El Capitan upgrade, my entire Comcast (POP3) inbox was empty, gone. The system showed it was downloading tons of email messages upon first launch, but they never showed up anywhere. Had to use Time Machine backup to restore my inbox from prior to upgrade.

 

[anthonymoody]

mine are showing up but I'm not sure they are updated

I deleted the account and set it up anew and it's now working. Weird - can't recall ever having had to do that after an OS X update before.

 

[Redsfan]

After El Capitan upgrade, my entire Comcast (POP3) inbox was empty, gone. The system showed it was downloading tons of email messages upon first launch, but they never showed up anywhere. Had to use Time Machine backup to restore my inbox from prior to upgrade.

Never thought I would have to back up my email so didn't...same thing here showed thousands of emails but none showed up anywhere

 

[Redsfan]

Just noticed on my settings that I had check marked (POP settings) remove from server once retrieved. My guess is this is what I had settings at so once the new Mail OS was installed this happened...grr..

 

[Yellowbean12]

My MacBook was fine, but after upgrade to El Cap on my dad's ancient iMac, Mail.app was completely wiped! No saved emails, no accounts, nothing.

I'm currently messing around with time machine to see if I can get anything back again, if anyone has any ideas (a simple way to restore the entirety of Mail.app including accounts, messages, etc from time machine would be nice) then please let me know!

 

[captainpovey]

My mail was totally reset. Nothing. All my IMAP, Gmail etc. All gone.
Worst, over 10 years of Filed email (on my mac)

Been investigating and here is what I'm doing. I have NO idea if this will work for anyone else.

My Filed email was in a folder and sub-folders 'On my mac' called 'Filed'

* Opened up terminal and went to /Users/<account>/Library/Mail
* In there were two folders : V2 and V3
* I manually backed up V3 to another machine and cleaned everything out of the V3 folder
* Looked in the V3 folder and found V3/Mailboxes/Filed.mbox
* Went into mail and re-created my main IMAP account
* In Mail, I tried File->Import Mailboxes , Selected Apple Mail and chose 'Filed.mbox' ... it failed miserably!
* So, I manually went through the entire V3/Mailboxes/Filed.mbox folder structure moved all the .mbox folders to make a flat file structure
* I've found that I can now import these folders and re-organise within Mail (but with some problems concerning file names / hyphens)

This is an emergency step as I'm desperate to get my old mail back - I would hope a fix would be here soon.

 

[Yellowbean12]

My mail was totally reset. Nothing. All my IMAP, Gmail etc. All gone.
Worst, over 10 years of Filed email (on my mac)

Exact same situation as me then. Utterly bizarre. I did the same thing as you (messed about with V2/V3 folders to restore my saved mail) and then I just bit the bullet and manually re-added all my missing email accounts, so I'm back up and running now.

First time I've ever had a problem occur after upgrading OS X, not good at all. I don't know how users who don't know to dig into system files, etc, will ever get their email back.

 

[WSMuser]

Got a similar problem ... BT (ISP) mailbox did not migrate .... spent 45 minutes on phone with apple support to get it back but all my offline folders (with thousands of emails over years) are missing ... they are having someone call me ... I have done many upgrades on OS/X over the years and this is first problem with Mail .. shocked that this was not sorted at Beta test

 

[Loblolly]

Solution for me: Mailbox > Rebuild. User - "slieb" suggested this to me. Worked perfectly!!

 

[chrismac2]

I tried mailbox rebuild before attempting time machine restore, and it did nothing for me.

It seemed as if it was doing nothing. In my mind I thought maybe it's finishing the rebuild so quickly because it's rebuilding an empty mailbox.

Thankfully Time Machine makes it super easy to restore a mailbox--just enter time machine with mail as the foreground window, and it tells you to click on the mailbox you want restored, then select the date/time of the backup you want to restore from. Then click restore. Just took a few minutes.

I'm not excusing Apple for this horrible upgrade bug, but I've learned my lesson before, always backup your data, especially before an OS upgrade.

 

[nlrela]

Previously I always copied the Mail (several mailboxes) and Messages folder from the Library to an
external drive and copied it back after I had done a clean install of OSX. Until now this always worked
flawlessly (Lion, Yosemite, etc.). But now....

I upgraded once Yosemite to El Capitan GM and before I made a clean install of El Capitan, I copied
the folders to an external disk. After the El Capitan clean install I copied the mail folder back to the
library folder. Unfortunately this time it didn't work anymore.
No emails / folder are available in the Mac Mail app.

Does anyone have a solution?

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[WSMuser]

Thanks to chrismac2 ... Time Machine restore worked a treat ... had to do folders 1 by 1 ... but other than that ...i can now relax as i have all my emails again.

 

[digitalfailure]

Thanks to chrismac2 ... Time Machine restore worked a treat ... had to do folders 1 by 1 ... but other than that ...i can now relax as i have all my emails again.

When you were doing it, did it put the mails back in the right account folders i.e. X account sent and X account received ?

Mine seems to be making a new box in a new section called On My Mac / Time Machine inbox instead of putting the messages where they should be.

I have clicked on X account /inbox in time machine

 

[Redsfan]

Call our ISP and they claim their POP settings changed so told us to delete our account and reinstall it, and I guess all our mail came back..pain in the ass though

 

[satcomer]

After El Capitan upgrade, my entire Comcast (POP3) inbox was empty, gone. The system showed it was downloading tons of email messages upon first launch, but they never showed up anywhere. Had to use Time Machine backup to restore my inbox from prior to upgrade.

Some have reported if they do they delete the 'envelope' file for Mail talked about in Rebuild Apple Mail database.

 

[chrismac2]

When you were doing it, did it put the mails back in the right account folders i.e. X account sent and X account received ?

Mine seems to be making a new box in a new section called On My Mac / Time Machine inbox instead of putting the messages where they should be.

I have clicked on X account /inbox in time machine

Yes, that is expected behavior. Time Machine restores the mailbox to a news unfolded under "Time Machine". You then have to manually copy the messages wherever you want them to go.

 

[chrismac2]

Some have reported if they do they delete the 'envelope' file for Mail talked about in Rebuild Apple Mail database.

Thanks for the info. Wish I had tried that first, but not sure that I want to try it now that I've restore the inbox from backup. But I might make a copy of my mail and try it case I'm missing more mail than I realize.

 

[WSMuser]

When you were doing it, did it put the mails back in the right account folders i.e. X account sent and X account received ?

Mine seems to be making a new box in a new section called On My Mac / Time Machine inbox instead of putting the messages where they should be.

I have clicked on X account /inbox in time machine

It created the new folder under Time Machine ... I am OK with that but figure I can move it if needs be .. just glad to have them back and annoyed this was not picked up in Beta

 

[macsba]

I've installed El Capitan on a fresh hard drive in my Mac Pro. Just wanted to get rid of the cruf from the previous OSes and start fresh. What I did was to copy my Mail archives folder from the Yosemite hard drive to the El Capitan drive in the users/Library folder. After the copy was completed, I launched Mail and it promptly did the upgrade the Mail archives folder. When this was finished, I couldn't see the section "On My Mac" nor the mail folders in it. Afterwards I did an import and yes, I see the Mail folders but they are in a mess (some archaic structure) and not in the hierarchal folder structure that I have them in from Yosemite.

Is there any way to correct this problem? Thank you.

 

[George Dawes]

Had the same problem , lost over 13,000 emails going back years - luckily my old mac pro from 2007 is still going and has them on it - phew !!!! T

Not impressed by this tbh to say the least !!! At first I went loopy !!!

Dug around and found out that the email accounts have now all changed from Pop to Imap and that seems to effect things - it's to do with Bt and Yahoo changing things without liaising with Apple - apparently...

Next time i will do a proper backup...