Mail Application Trashed

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Following instructions on the MacInstruct website about moving email from one Mac to another, I've ended up with NO mail application at all on the new iMac. I was able to copy the Mail folder and User/Library/Preference/com.apple.mail.plist into the proper iMac file locations using a flash drive (the firewire connection only dumped a bunch of disorganized files into my Documents folder which seemed haphazard). That's when the Disaster happened. I can no longer open Mail at all - first nothing came up when I clicked on Mail. I repaired Permissions, tried an Apple software update, and tried to restore from a backup made yesterday on the Mini (all I had because I hadn't gotten the iMac running everything yet and therefore hadn't backed up which would've overwritten the Mini backup). Now, there's no icon on the desktop and no icon in the Applications folder. I can see the Mail application in Finder where it should be, but unlike Windows (from whence I came originally), I can't see what the executable is to see if creating an alias of it would bring Mail back to life.

Is it possible to restore Mail via the disk that came with the iMac? Or by what other method? If I EVER get Mail back up, can someone point me to a safe, workable method to move my mail, mailboxes, address book, keychain, Safari Bookmarks, and, yes, even Cookies (for those sites that require permanent ones)? I don't dare try to do anything else at this point, so am completely dead in the water. This is my fourth Mac, but on the other three I was moving a virtual machine into them. I've never experienced a problem before on the Mac side with the transfer of Mac applications and data to another Mac.
LeslieT
 
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Strange that it would mess up like that,

By using Pacifist you can restore induvidual applications on the installer disk back onto your computer.
CharlesSoft - software you always wished someone would write

Then after installing Pacifist, insert your Install DVD and open Pacifist and click on "Open Apple Install Disks".
Use the find field to search for "Mail.app" and press the "Install Files to Default Location" button.
Pacifist - Documentation


When you are transferring information to a new mac, why don't you use the "Migration Assistant" that comes with Mac?
Simply restart the old mac in target mode ("t" key upon startup) connect the two with firewire and open the "Migration Assistant" in the utilities folder on the new mac.
 
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Thanks so much for responding. I'll try the software.

I DID use Migration Assistant, using the firewire connection and checking all possibilities, including Preferences, for transfer. It brought over all my applications but NOT Mail, Address Book, Keychain, Bookmarks. I was floored! I just don't understand why it didn't move these things as I expected it to.

Should I try re-running MA?
LeslieT
 
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I downloaded, installed and ran Pacifist. I extracted the Mail app from the install packages on the iMac OS X disk. I restarted the computer. Still NO Mail App at all. No icon on the Dock; no Mail program in the Applications folder.

I DON'T understand this at all! Plus I keep getting error message about disks not be ejected properly when I haven't touched or removed any disk or drive.
LeslieT
 
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...Now, there's no icon on the desktop and no icon in the Applications folder. I can see the Mail application in Finder where it should be...
What do you mean you can see Mail where it should be? Then you say there is no Mail application in your applications folder?

I have no experience with Pacifist so can't help you there.

As for transferring Mail data, there will be a directory storing all your emails and drafts, something like ~/Library/Mail I think, might even work just copying these over? Although I would only pick certain files AFTER setting up Mail to sync with my accounts.

However, you can just setup the account fresh off and let Mail download all the emails from your online inbox, can't you? Just like you would when you first setup Mail with your email accounts.
 
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I have a hard time believing that your Mail application magically disappeared, think back to what you did EXACTLY and post back, otherwise it's just stabbing in the dark.

If the application is not in the Dock then that means absolutely NOTHING, the Dock has nothing to do with the application actually being available. Try to do a search for the application, use Spotlight. Maybe you just dragged the application to an unknown location by accident.
 
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I can see Mail.app under Users/username/Library/. I see com.apple.mail.plist under Users/username/Library/Preferences/ByHost. But . . . . there's no application named Mail in the Applications folder, either on the folder on the Dock OR in Finder. There is no icon with which to call up the program.

I did find the mailboxes from yesterday's use of Migration Assistant (the file date shows they were transferred yesterday), but they WERE filed lower down in the tree and NOT within the Mail application. I have a complicated hierarchy of mailboxes for saved mail. All appear to have been moved, just not placed in the Mail.app folder.

When I used Spotlight, as you suggested, I got the message that I couldn't use this version of Mail. However, both Macs are running OS X 10.6.4. So evidently, MA did copy over the mail folder from the Mini, but it's the wrong version from that on the iMac. Given that I'd run Pacifist to reinstall the Mail app one day later than MA transferred the mailboxes and prior to following your suggestion of using Spotlight, I don't understand why the version is wrong.

Every time I click to open Finder, the three icons representing the three backup drives disappear and I get a message about disks not being properly ejected. I have not touched any of the 3 icons. When I open Finder again, the three icons appear. This never happened on my husband's iMac (which I set up a week ago), my MacBook Pro (set up last week), OR my Mac Mini (set up last November).

I can't download the email from my online account which is set to erase all downloaded mail after one day. I have about 600 MB of stored email in separate folders which deal with various projects on which I'm working. I keep the Inbox cleaned out and regularly rebuild all mailboxes.

Although MA did transfer the mail app and mailboxes, it did NOT transfer Address Book or any of the other items previously mentioned. It simply didn't transfer them to the "right" place.
LeslieT
 
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First, I moved all the MA transferred mailboxes from yesterday into the right place. I followed your advice and re-established the email account on the iMac. Voila, email. The icon is back in the Dock. Only one mailbox was not transferred and I need some of those emails.

I went back to the Mini, where I copied the emails I needed out of that particular box into five other mailboxes which I'd moved via MA yesterday. I then copied these mailboxes to the flash drive, moved it to the iMac, and tried to paste them into the right Mailbox on the iMac. I got the message that they were replacing the transferred mailboxes as intended. But, when I opened Mail, the emails were not there. Sigh. I can't find them anywhere else either.

I've no idea how to make this work. It's obvious that the Migration Assistant is the way to move email as copying/pasting doesn't seem to work, but I only need to move five mailboxes. I didn't see any option to move selected items - which might work to move my address book and all the other items that didn't migrate as expected.

Any further suggestions?
LeslieT
 
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Maybe you should try starting from the beginning.
Delete the Mail folder, /Users/###/Library/Mail. And the plist, /Users/###/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist.

You say found a Mail application with spotlight, do it again and see if you can find out where it is located.
Then make sure that the Mail application is in the Applications folder, if it is not you need put it there.
Either by moving it there from whatever wrong location it is at currently, reinstalling it with Pacifist, or copying Mail app over from the other Mac.

Instead of using the flash thumb drive, start the other Mac in target mode and connect to it as a regular backup drive through the Finder.
Navigate to /Users/###/Library/Mail and copy the whole folder over to /Users/###/Library on the new Mac.
And copy the plist /Users/###/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist to /Users/###/Library/Preferences.

The address book data is the whole AddressBook folder in /Users/###/Library/Application\ Support/
Copy the folder to /Users/alko/Library/Application\ Support/ on the new Mac.

When copying the files instead of doing copy/paste, open two Finder windows side by side with the two different locations.
Then just click and drag the folder/files over from one window to the other dropping it on the correct destination folder.
You should see a little + under the arrow, if not while dragging hold down the option key and drop it on the correct destination.
 
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Thanks, but I don't think you read my earlier response. Although I didn't delete the Mail folder, what got me into the mess in the first place was copying to the flash drive the same files you recommend copying and then copying them to the right location on the iMac. I do appreciate the suggestion, though, especially about using two Finder Windows. As I said earlier, I finally found the mailbox files that were migrated on Sunday with Migration Assistant. They were in the wrong place - somewhere I never would've thought to look without Spotlight. Once I moved them to where they should've been placed, all but one of my old mailboxes were there.

Still unable to open Mail, I re-established my mail account (which had been unaccountably deleted). I then could see the migrated boxes. Of course, in the meantime, other emails had come in PLUS I discovered some in the box that did NOT migrate had not been re-filed into the right mailbox (my fault entirely).

I next followed your suggestion about copying just those individual mailboxes with new mail to a flash drive and tried to copy them into the right mail location on the iMac. Although Finder said the copied mailboxes WERE replacing the mailboxes, in fact they did NOT. When I opened the boxes, the new mail was not there. It's gone from my email server so . . . . .

I regret not doing what seemed terribly clunky starting out . . . . importing these mailboxes AND my address book into Thunderbird and then exporting Thunderbird's mailboxes to the iMac and importing them into Apple Mail there. The annoying thing about doing this is that once the export/import is completed all the moved emails are listed as unread. Using Thunderbird is what I had to do to move all the Windows email . . . . but I expected Apple to have a more elegant solution. Evidently not. Not if you can't count on Migration Assistant to properly place the mailboxes or at least give you the option to do so.

Migration Assistant appears to have done the same thing with Address Book, Cookies, Safari Bookmarks, and KeyChain - it put them under the Macintosh HD location and not in the User/Library location. I'm hesitant to move them, but as it worked with mail here's hoping it works with them.
LeslieT
 
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I moved the Safari folder from where Migration Assistant put it to the Home Library. Next, I opened Safari; no bookmarks were there.

I moved the Address Book folder to Home Library/Application Support/ and got the following error message: "Operation can't be completed because the item "MailRecents-v4.abcdmr" is in use."

When I opened the folder MA moved into the Mcintosh library, I saw a number of files, including a com.apple. file. I moved this Keychain folder to the Home Library and got the message that the operation couldn't be completed because the log-in keychain was in use. When I checked back with the moved folder which was now back into its location under Mcintosh HD, all the files except login keychain were gone!

I moved the Cookie folder, but because there's no listing that I can find, don't know if the vital cookies for subscription sites moved. Plus, there's no Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation folder at all in which to put HTTPCookies.plist (if I ever had one in the first place).

I am thoroughly discouraged with this entire process. Except, wait . . . this is my primary computer and the Mini can't hack my workload. It has occurred to me to wipe out the iMac's hard drive, reinstall OS X, update it and then try some other method to get the Mini's data transferred. The thing is: everything else transferred beautifully (even, at first glance, the virtual machine). It's only the exact things for which I use the Mac that didn't transfer: all email and all internet research. I don't use a single other application on the Mac - not the calendar, word processing, etc.!
LeslieT
 

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