Loss of Message Content in Mail Account.

MavoMac · Feb 9, 2014

Yesterday, because my email addresses are changing, I modified the settings to my accounts in the email application Mail so that they properly connect to the new email addresses and settings.

Most of the accounts are working fine. However, in one of them, it appears the content of nearly all the messages (both received and sent) are missing or not displaying. The program sees that there are different messages and lists them properly in the Inbox and Sent sections but when I try to preview or open them, a blank white screen with the message "Loading..." appears where the message content should.

I did not delete anything that would have affected these accounts in this way, yet this is happening. I tried restarting Mail but the same problem persists. Again my other accounts in Mail seem to be fine.

BTW, I use Mac OS X v. 10.7.5 (Lion).

What can I do to restore the messages?

MavoMac · Feb 9, 2014

One more question: How do I backup my messages from Mail? Not necessarily the entire computer, just my email messages. Thanks.

chscag · Feb 9, 2014

You can use the "export" feature to backup your Mailboxes. See the following Apple KB article: LINK The article refers to Mountain Lion but the procedure is the same for Mavericks.

MavoMac · Feb 9, 2014

chscag said:
You can use the "export" feature to backup your Mailboxes. See the following Apple KB article: LINK The article refers to Mountain Lion but the procedure is the same for Mavericks.

Thanks, chscag.

Any idea why my messages are not displaying and/or what I can do to fix that situation?

Would rebuilding the mailbox help? Or have people not had a good experience with that?

chscag · Feb 9, 2014

You can try to use the rebuild function to see if it will restore the mail content. The reason why I didn't suggest it before is that I have not had good results when doing that. In my situation the only way I got my mail back was to re-download it from the server. I leave my mail on the server just for that reason. Lot's of work though.

Exodist · Feb 9, 2014

I have had issues with Mac Mail deleting messages randomly. Its really tested my nerve trying to figure out why. The only solution I have found is it create a Keeps folder and put any and everything you don't want to randomly vanish into thin air into that folder. You can name it anything you wish, but expect over time Mac Mail to play Houdini with anything in you regular inbox.

MavoMac · Feb 11, 2014

Thanks for the tips.

I actually wonder if a different email client would be more reliable on the Mac computer than Mail. Would it? Are there any particular email programs you would recommend for the Mac?

chscag · Feb 11, 2014

I like Mac Mail the best, however, the free Mozilla Thunderbird is a real good mail client that works with all the popular ISPs including Google, Yahoo, MS, and so on. The download link is here. By the way, Thunderbird also does NNTP news on those servers that support it.

MavoMac · Feb 11, 2014

chscag said:
You can try to use the rebuild function to see if it will restore the mail content. The reason why I didn't suggest it before is that I have not had good results when doing that. In my situation the only way I got my mail back was to re-download it from the server. I leave my mail on the server just for that reason. Lot's of work though.

When you say you did not have good results with rebuilding the mailbox, was it simply that the problems did not improve after rebuilding or that they grew worse?

Exodist · Feb 11, 2014

chscag said:
I like Mac Mail the best, however, the free Mozilla Thunderbird is a real good mail client that works with all the popular ISPs including Google, Yahoo, MS, and so on. The download link is here. By the way, Thunderbird also does NNTP news on those servers that support it.

Yea I was going to recommend Thunderbird also.

I actually have it downloaded and plan to move over to it. But currently have a lot of flagged items I am expecting to be shipped in to me. So waiting on those items to come in so I can un-flag and delete them before making the move to TB.

MavoMac · Feb 11, 2014

Thanks for the tip about Thunderbird, chscag.

A couple more questions...

Where exactly on the hard drive does Mail usually store the message content? Can other email clients, like Thunderbird, be set up to access those areas or the files copied from those areas to the folders that other clients use. Maybe I could regain access to the content that way. Since, Mail still lists the messages (but doesn't show the content), I'm hopeful the content has not just vanished.

Also: I use my Android smartphone to access the same email account and don't really delete anything of interest. Would it be possible to transfer the email messages from my Android phone to my Mac computer so that my desktop email application can access them? How exactly would I do that?

I'm just trying to figure out ways to restore these messages.

Thanks very much.

chscag · Feb 11, 2014

MavoMac said:
Thanks for the tip about Thunderbird, chscag.

Where exactly on the hard drive does Mail usually store the message content? Can other email clients, like Thunderbird, be set up to access those areas or the files copied from those areas to the folders that other clients use. Maybe I could regain access to the content that way. Since, Mail still lists the messages (but doesn't show the content), I'm hopeful the content has not just vanished.

Your mail data is stored in mailboxes which are located here on your hard drive:

Macintosh HD/Users/your user name/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes/Mailbox Name

Unfortunately, Thunderbird will be unable to directly access those files. It can import your mail data only if it exists. You would still have the same problem.

MavoMac said:
Also: I use my Android smartphone to access the same email account and don't really delete anything of interest. Would it be possible to transfer the email messages from my Android phone to my Mac computer so that my desktop email application can access them? How exactly would I do that?

I'm just trying to figure out ways to restore these messages.

Thanks very much.

You can setup an account on Google and sync your Android mail to and from there back to your Mac. That should in theory work. Also you asked about rebuilding the mail boxes in a previous post.... Rebuilding may or may not work. As I stated before, I have not had much luck in reviving lost mail that way. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try it.

Let us know how you're coming along.

MavoMac · Feb 11, 2014

chscag said:
Your mail data is stored in mailboxes which are located here on your hard drive:

Macintosh HD/Users/your user name/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes/Mailbox Name

Unfortunately, Thunderbird will be unable to directly access those files. It can import your mail data only if it exists. You would still have the same problem.

Let us know how you're coming along.

As a way of "backing up" the information, I'm trying to copy the Mail folder from the location you indicated above into a folder on a completely different hard drive. However the Library folder and all the files inside it are apparently considered "invisible" and the operating system won't let me copy them. (With your help, I located them with a little file search program called EasyFind.)

How can I copy these files?

chscag · Feb 11, 2014

The "mailboxes" have several sub folders beneath them each with the ending "mbox". After that a long string of numbers and letters listed as a folder. And below that you should have a folder named "data". Below the data folder will be another folder named "messages". It's that folder that you need to copy since everything listed in there are your mail messages. The mail message has a file extension of "emix".

It's a long complicated string of folders and sub folders that you have to wade through. I'm using a file manager program which shows all files including those that are hidden. You can unhide a file or folder by removing the "." from in front of the name.

Your best bet might be to use your Android as a backup and try to sync the mail back to your Mac from Google by setting up an account with them. Take a look at this thread which more or less details how you can get your mail from the Android to your Mac. Although it talks about a Nokia phone and iPhone, the procedure would be the same. Once you've setup the account, you can email those messages back to yourself so that they'll appear in Mail on your Mac.

MavoMac · Feb 11, 2014

chscag said:
The "mailboxes" have several sub folders beneath them each with the ending "mbox". After that a long string of numbers and letters listed as a folder. And below that you should have a folder named "data". Below the data folder will be another folder named "messages". It's that folder that you need to copy since everything listed in there are your mail messages. The mail message has a file extension of "emix".

It's a long complicated string of folders and sub folders that you have to wade through. I'm using a file manager program which shows all files including those that are hidden. You can unhide a file or folder by removing the "." from in front of the name.

Your best bet might be to use your Android as a backup and try to sync the mail back to your Mac from Google by setting up an account with them. Take a look at this thread which more or less details how you can get your mail from the Android to your Mac. Although it talks about a Nokia phone and iPhone, the procedure would be the same. Once you've setup the account, you can email those messages back to yourself so that they'll appear in Mail on your Mac.

Thanks for info. I tried rebuilding the mailbox but with no success. The most I was able to retrieve from the server was about a week's worth of email. And forget about the email I sent from that account. I think I'll try Thunderbird after this experience.

MavoMac · Mar 1, 2014

I tried Thunderbird briefly but the application runs rather slowly on my machine for some reason, so I've been relying on Mail again.

But, today I noticed that Mail is again losing messages without explanation from a couple of my accounts. Messages I just sent or received within the last week or more recently are gone. Mail had always been reliable until recently. What is happening? This is becoming truly infuriating.

Maybe I'll try Outlook.

Loss of Message Content in Mail Account.

MavoMac

MavoMac

chscag

Well-known member

MavoMac

chscag

Well-known member

Exodist

MavoMac

chscag

Well-known member

MavoMac

Exodist

MavoMac

chscag

Well-known member

MavoMac

chscag

Well-known member

MavoMac

MavoMac

Shop Amazon