Retrieve Deleted email account emails.

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Hi there,

1st of all i do apologies as i don't know my way around a Mac as I'm a PC user.

We have a client that as decided to delete his POP3 account on his Mac and recreate the account again, (Client said he was having problem with his emails).

He backed up his inbox but not his sent items so when he has imported his emails only his inbox is there.

Is there anywhere on the Mac where the old account would be so we can retrieve his sent items or when he has deleted his account it has deleted all his emails as well.

Any help would be much appreciated as he needs his sent items back.

Thanks for you time

Regards

Karl
 

Raz0rEdge

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How did the user back up the Inbox? Through Mail itself or externally? Can they check in <user>/Library/Mail to see what it contains now..
 
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Hi Raz0rEdge,

The client backed the emails up through mail, (Don't know how as like i said I'm not a Mac user) and imported the emails back via mail.

I have had a look in the >/Library/Mail folder and the only thing that is in there is the account which he has created. Within the folder there is only Inbox and Draft i think there was, No sent items folder ??? does this make sense.

Again sorry for not haven't any more info.

Regards

Karl
 

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OK, I had guessed as much. So when the user backed up the e-mails, they just grabbed the Inbox folder, and ignored the Sent folder. When the account was re-created, looks like the old data was removed to make place for the new data in the same place.

So sorry to say, it looks like the Sent folder is gone and with it all the e-mails.

If the /Library/Mail folder wasn't modified in anyway, a data recovery application might have been able to recover stuff in there, but since it's been modified, not sure if that would be successful..
 
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Yes only selected the inbox and not the sent items.

Also looking at the date of the account that is created in the mail folder it is todays date so I'm guessing he has lost all his sent items.

I just didn't know if the mac would of created an hidden file anywhere and put a (2) at the end of the folder as it realizes there is already a folder in there with the same name like a pc does. I'm guessing not?

Regards

Karl
 

Raz0rEdge

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The mail is held in the mbox format, so basically various folders with files in them. Mail wouldn't presume to know your intention when you choose to delete your accounts, so it wouldn't hide copies of stuff anywhere else (can you imagine if you had a hidden copy of your very large mailbox folder taking space that you can't somehow fix??).

Did this person by any chance of Time Machine running to back up all of your data? If so, they can always go back to Time Machine and retrieve the old /Library/Mail folder with it's sub-folders/files and get the Sent folder back..
 
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Does the Time Machine program run automatically or do you need to set it up.

The user isn't very good with technology as most people aren't now days so if it doesn't automatically I'm guessing he wont know what the program is never mind running it.

If he has lost his emails and there is nothing else we can do, don't worry but thanks for your time and help on this topic.

Regards

Karl
 

Raz0rEdge

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Depending on the version of OS X (I think Time Machine came in around 10.5 Leopard time frame), Time Machine (TM) is built into OS X. All that is needed to be done is to find an external HDD and plug it in and then go to TM, turn it on and point it to the external HD and TM will start doing backups on an hourly basis automatically.

If the user didn't at least do that, then I'm afraid the information is lost..

Might be a good thing to recommend (since it is so easy to setup) for them to setup TM to backup their data to avoid this sort of thing in the future..
 
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Hi Raz0rEdge,

Ignore most of the stuff i have said (Dam users) !!

After talking to him in more details, this is what he has done.

When he found out that his emails wasn't work, he created a new account and made sure everything was working ok.

He then highlighted everything and moved his inbox to his new account inbox.

When he was happy that everything was working, he then went into accounts on mail and removed his old account (Where all his sent items where), forgetting to copy his sent items as well. So at one point both accounts would of been on his mac.

But still when going into his "user / library / mail" it is only showing his new account.

So the question should be in affect when you delete an email account from Mail, does it delete the the folder account where the emails are stored as well?

Sorry to be a pain.
 

Raz0rEdge

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I'd have to play around with Mac Mail to see if deleting the account in Mail also deletes the associated files. But since you've already looked in the /Library/Mail folder and didn't find the missing folders, I guess that might be the case and there might not be a way to recover the data..
 
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chas_m

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It's possible -- but unlikely -- that some of his sent emails are still on the POP server, which you can access via the ISP's webmail. Don't hold your breath on this, however.
 
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Hi Chas_M

Thanks for your input but we have already checked, there is only 80 odd emails in the sent items that was downloaded, he is missing 1000+ emails.

Thanks for both of your help, I think he will just have to cut his losses,

Again thanks for your help.
 

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