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Q: mail folders disappeared on OS X El Capitan

Having just installed the new El Capitan i've found an issue... when opening mail, all the folders previously associated with my iCloud account are not showing. when I choose 'Get Account Info' they are all listed but will not display in the mailbox. If I then click show messages in one of the folders in the 'get account info'. All the folders are then displayed in the mailbox which I thought had fixed the issue... seemingly not! when I close and reopen mail - they're all missing again.

 

Is there another way of ensuring that my iCloud folders are permanently displayed?

 

Thanks

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Sep 30, 2015 11:22 PM

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Q: mail folders disappeared on OS X El Capitan

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  • by blongwor,

    blongwor blongwor Oct 2, 2015 1:42 PM in response to Pammyf
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 2, 2015 1:42 PM in response to Pammyf

    Happened to me. Enabling accounts does bring them back but it hast transferred over one of my e-mail accounts at all so there's no account to enable. More serious is that it has lost all of my sub folders that have saved e-mails in them. Going to have to either reinstall my original Yosemite system from Time Machine, or just bring over the e-mail folders. But I am somewhat amazed and annoyed that this has happened. Black mark to Apple for this upgrade, however good El Capitan is, the upgrade should not wipe out stored e-mails and accounts.

  • by DebSaks,

    DebSaks DebSaks Oct 2, 2015 2:20 PM in response to Pammyf
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Oct 2, 2015 2:20 PM in response to Pammyf

    I have the same problem.  Unchecking and rechecking was entertaining, but it didn't work.

     

    I am missing over 6,000 messages!  WTH?

  • by Andrew1201,

    Andrew1201 Andrew1201 Oct 3, 2015 1:21 AM in response to Pammyf
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 1:21 AM in response to Pammyf

    Same has happened to me. It was all fine on my iMac, although I had trouble reconnecting our BTInternet mail accounts. That's sorted now. The main issue is with my MacBookPro. All mailboxes have disappeared including all subfolders. In Accounts, all have gone with the exception of my wife's BTInternet account which I can longer connect to, eventough the password I'm entering is correct.

     

    I'm an IT Test Manager and can't believe this version of the operating system has been released with such a critical bug in it. Poor QA on the part of Apple and really diappointed with them.

     

    I also had problems reconnecting my USB keyboard to the iMac. I found a way round it and will post a response in any relevant thread.

  • by blongwor,

    blongwor blongwor Oct 3, 2015 1:41 AM in response to Andrew1201
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 1:41 AM in response to Andrew1201

    My problem was also on a Macbook. I have left my iMac for now and until Apple come up with a fix for this. I'd backed up onto Time Machine before the update and have recovered all the mail folders from Time Machine, so in that sense nothing has been lost. Like you I'm amazed that Apple has released this software with such a critical bug.

  • by Andrew1201,

    Andrew1201 Andrew1201 Oct 3, 2015 2:18 AM in response to blongwor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 2:18 AM in response to blongwor

    Unfortunately my MacbookPro was not backed up, although my iMac is regularly. Luckily most of the mail is filed away on the iMac. Do you or anyone else know Is there a way to sync the Mailboxes and sub-folders on the iMac with my MacbookPro Mail?

  • by Nickk in UK,Helpful

    Nickk in UK Nickk in UK Oct 3, 2015 2:19 AM in response to DebSaks
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 2:19 AM in response to DebSaks

    I had this problem too on my iMac, but not on my MBP. I recovered the mailboxes as follows:

     

    In Finder go to your Library

    Add the Mail folder that shows there to your sidebar shortcuts

    In Mail go to Import Mailboxes - under the File menu

    The finder window that appears will have Mail in its side panel

    Navigate to Mail/V3/Mailboxes

    you will find all of your mbox files here

     

    Select the one you want and import (you can do them all together).

     

    They will show up in Mail - although they will all be under an "Import folder" which you can rename

     

    Hope this helps

  • by Pammyf,

    Pammyf Pammyf Oct 3, 2015 2:43 AM in response to Nickk in UK
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 2:43 AM in response to Nickk in UK

    Hello Nickk

     

    I'm sure yours is an excellent suggestion and will help others.

     

    My problem is that the Mail folder does not show up in my Library.

     

    I've attempted to retrieve from Time Machine. I have located my missing On My Mac mail folders.

     

    I go back to Mail and attempt to Import a mailbox. I go to Time Machine, and weirdly, even though I can see Mail (and the V2 / V3 folders you mention) when I open Time Machine, there is no Mail folder from which to choose.

     

    BTW, when I'm in Finder and in the Go menu, I can choose ~/Library and then the Mail folder appears in the listing. However, when I try to import, I can't get to this Library listing. I'm not savvy enough to figure out a work around.

     

    I'm really stuck. I think there are others who have spent years developing a 'filing system' of their own that involved moving emails messages to folders created On My Mac. How can it be that these cannot be 'seen' and retrieved with relative ease?

     

    I'm grateful and appreciative of any suggestions.

     

    PS - I'm a BT customer through and set up as IMAP accounts. Does this matter?

  • by blongwor,

    blongwor blongwor Oct 3, 2015 3:05 AM in response to Pammyf
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 3:05 AM in response to Pammyf

    Hello Pammyf

     

    You need to first open Mail, then with Mail still open "Enter Time Machine" and locate the last back up before installing El Capitan.  You should then see the Mail window with all the old folders. You'll need to click on each folder and then restore, then repeat for each missing folder.  The missing folders will show in your current Mail window in the Mailboxes side bar under "On My Mac"

     

    Frustratingly this advice is hard to find on the Support page, but I remembered having to go through this route because of a previous problem with my BT account.

     

    Hope this works.

  • by Pammyf,

    Pammyf Pammyf Oct 3, 2015 3:26 AM in response to blongwor
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 3:26 AM in response to blongwor

    Hello blongwor

    Oh dear. Something weird has happened. When I looked in my Time Machine folder, I could see all of the Mail folders I want to put back into Mail. What I hadn't known is how to "enter' Time Machine. So I when to that app and entered this way and found my screen bringing up the list etc. as I'm sure you are familiar.

     

    Now, I do not see the Mail folder in my Library listing on Time Machine. I fear I may have lost all of this back up.

     

    Would you know why my Mail folder no longer shows up on Time Machine? I'm very confused now.

     

    I'm sure it's something to do with Library vs ~/Library. It's being able to access ~/Library from apps such as Mail and Time Machine.

     

    Thanks in advance for any help you may offer

  • by rosemj2,

    rosemj2 rosemj2 Oct 3, 2015 3:31 AM in response to Pammyf
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 3:31 AM in response to Pammyf

    HI, I don't know if this will help you, but I lost two local mail folders after upgrading. I recovered them my simply recreating the mailboxes within mail making sure I used the same folder names. When I did this all the saved messages reappeared.

  • by Pammyf,

    Pammyf Pammyf Oct 3, 2015 3:47 AM in response to rosemj2
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 3:47 AM in response to rosemj2

    Hello rosemj2

     

    How did you do this? I can create new mail folders On My Mac, but cannot import any that I've saved. The Mail import doesn't allow me to import from ~/Library, where I find the Mail folders and V2 / V3 folders.

     

    If you could provide a step by step account, I'd be grateful.

  • by Nickk in UK,

    Nickk in UK Nickk in UK Oct 3, 2015 4:04 AM in response to Pammyf
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 4:04 AM in response to Pammyf

    Hi pammyf

     

    Remember ~/Library is hidden - this is where the Mail folder is. That's why I created a shortcut to ~/Library/Mail in my Folder sidebar - it shows up wherever Finder is used (Mail Import, Time Machine etc) and gives a quick way to get to the hidden folder. That is your work around you mentioned if you can't use the Go menu in the Finder at this point.

     

    As Blongwor says opening Time Machine while Finder has that folder open will also do the trick...

     

    However, I have found additional weirdness since my earlier post. If you have nested mbox folders only the top level gets imported. I have an Insurance mailbox with lots of different sub folders for different insurance policy emails so it was pretty important for me to recover this. I restored these mailboxes to my desktop, and like you suggested Mail didn't show up. The cause was Library is hidden - even when a copy is restored.

     

    In terminal the command "chflags nohidden ~/your_path_to_restored_folders/Library" fixes that and you can then use finder easily to navigate through the restored Library folder and drag the Mail subfolders with mail accounts to the Desktop or wherever, and then import them into mail and delete the restored files (because the mails have been copied across during the import).

     

    Any use in solving your problems?

  • by Pammyf,

    Pammyf Pammyf Oct 3, 2015 4:12 AM in response to Nickk in UK
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 4:12 AM in response to Nickk in UK

    Hello Nickk

     

    I think you're speaking my language, to an extent. Before I get to the scary (to me) bit, could you please explain how to create a shortcut to ~/Library/Mail and in which Folder sidebar do you put it?

     

    This is probably rudimentary stuff but before I get to the terminal command (I'm shaking thinking about doing this, very afraid!) I need to do this step, as you suggest.

     

    Many thanks

  • by mad_kiwi_novice,

    mad_kiwi_novice mad_kiwi_novice Oct 3, 2015 4:20 AM in response to Nickk in UK
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 4:20 AM in response to Nickk in UK

    Hi Nickk,

     

    Thanks for msg.  I seem to be able to as per Pammyf in terms of where I can remember the name of a folder and its nested subfolders.  Unfortunately I had loads of folders and there's no way I will remember them all - is there any way of finding this structure or even name of the sub folders without Time Machine?

     

    Any suggestions/help would be great,

     

    Darryl

  • by Nickk in UK,

    Nickk in UK Nickk in UK Oct 3, 2015 4:20 AM in response to Pammyf
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Oct 3, 2015 4:20 AM in response to Pammyf

    Hi pammyf

     

    Shortcut is straightforward and can't do any harm.

    In Finder use the Go menu to see ~/Library

    scroll down so you can see the Mail folder

    drag it across the Mail folder to where your favourites show. This will create a shortcut, and it will be visible when you are using Finder in the other places like mail Import and Time Machine

    That's all there is to it.

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