KentNeil

Q: My mailboxes on my Mac HD have all 'disappeared' since upgrading to el capitan. There were years worth of messages on there and I need the info in a great many of them. How do I get these back?

since upgrading to el capitan I see no mail folders anymore, these were messages stored locally on my HD. There were years worth of messages on there and I need the info in a great many of them. How do I get these back?

Posted on Oct 11, 2015 5:52 AM

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Q: My mailboxes on my Mac HD have all 'disappeared' since upgrading to el capitan. There were years worth of messages on there and I ... more

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  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Oct 11, 2015 4:42 PM in response to KentNeil
    Level 10 (208,017 points)
    Applications
    Oct 11, 2015 4:42 PM in response to KentNeil

    The mailbox list is divided into categories with headings such as On My Mac. When you hover the cursor over one of those headings (except for Mailboxes), you should see the word Show or Hide on the right. Click Show. The  Mailboxes category can't be hidden.

    In each category, the mailboxes are arranged in groups, such as Inbox. To the left of each group is a small disclosure triangle. If the triangle points to the right, click it so that it points down.

    Note also that you may have to scroll the mailbox list up or down to see all of it.

  • by KentNeil,

    KentNeil KentNeil Oct 11, 2015 10:52 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 11, 2015 10:52 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Thanks Linc

    however the 'On My Mac' bit is what has disappeared - it is not there to hover over to show or hide. I can create new folders under the category On My Mac but the folders I have had on the same mac are all gone

  • by f1eng,

    f1eng f1eng Oct 12, 2015 2:43 AM in response to KentNeil
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 2:43 AM in response to KentNeil

    I had the same problem. I went back to OSX10.10 using the time machine backup I did immediately before the update.

    I don't leave anything important on iCloud or email servers. Everything of any consequence is on my Macpro and backed up locally.

    I wait with interest to see what the solution is to this problem on OSX10.11!

    Sorry not to be more help but for me, the solution is to reject El Capitain until this fault is resolved.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Oct 12, 2015 9:50 AM in response to KentNeil
    Level 10 (208,017 points)
    Applications
    Oct 12, 2015 9:50 AM in response to KentNeil

    What backups do you have?

  • by KentNeil,

    KentNeil KentNeil Oct 13, 2015 10:38 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2015 10:38 AM in response to Linc Davis

    I have Time Machine backups from before and after the upgrade

  • by KentNeil,

    KentNeil KentNeil Oct 13, 2015 10:41 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2015 10:41 AM in response to Linc Davis

    I have Time Machine backups from before and after the upgrade

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Oct 13, 2015 12:12 PM in response to KentNeil
    Level 9 (73,351 points)
    iTunes
    Oct 13, 2015 12:12 PM in response to KentNeil

    Try re-indexing the mailboxes. This can take awhile if you have a lot of mail.

     

    Reindex messages           For El Capitan, try looking in V3.

  • by Linc Davis,Solvedanswer

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Oct 14, 2015 1:08 PM in response to KentNeil
    Level 10 (208,017 points)
    Applications
    Oct 14, 2015 1:08 PM in response to KentNeil

    Although you can restore messages from a Time Machine snapshot within the Mail application, it generally won't work with messages that were saved by an obsolete version of Mail. In that case, you have to use an alternative method.

    Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

    ~/Library/Mail

    Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

              Services ▹ Open

    from the contextual menu.* A folder should open.

    Enter Time Machine and scroll back to the snapshot you want to restore from. Inside the folder named "Mail" are subfolders named "V2" and/or "V3" (depending on the version of OS X that was in use at the time the snapshot was taken.) Inside one of those subfolders are more subfolders representing your Mail accounts. The names refer to the email addresses you use. Select the account folders you want and then select  Restore ... to... from the action menu (gear icon) in the toolbar of the snapshot window. Restore the folders to the Desktop, not to their original location.

    From the Mail menu bar, select

              File ▹ Import Mailboxes...

    Choose Apple Mail as the format and import from the mailboxes in the folders you restored to the Desktop. The imported messages will appear in a new mailbox. Move the ones you want to keep wherever you like and delete the rest. Then delete the folders on the Desktop.

    *If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

              Go Go to Folder...

    from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You may not see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

  • by waybacmac,

    waybacmac waybacmac Oct 15, 2015 12:52 PM in response to KentNeil
    Level 1 (19 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 15, 2015 12:52 PM in response to KentNeil

    I just finished restoring all my "On My Mac" mailboxes working off suggestions from Linc and others. Here's what I learned:

     

    1. You may not need to go to a TimeMachine backup. I found that all the contents of my mailboxes were intact and residing in ~/Library/Mail/V3/Mailboxes. I just could not get mail to recognize them.

     

    2. Following on Linc's suggestion I copied the "Mailboxes" folder to my desktop (being careful to copy and not move the folder). You can then import the mailbox files into Mail just as Linc described…BUT there is one little catch. If you have sub-mailboxes they won't be imported. The mailboxes copied to the desktop work similarly to folders in that if you have a sub-box there will be a small arrow next to the top-level mailbox you can click on to see the sub-box. But mailboxes are not really folders so you cannot get to the sub-boxes when using Mail's "Import Mailboxes…". Instead, I copied the sub-boxes to another desktop folder and imported them separately. Once imported I just dragged them to their original position as a sub-box. (Hope I haven't lost anyone)

     

    3. Last step - I went to the Apple Feedback site to complain about the situation. They probably already know about this but I figure the more people who complain, the higher repair priority.

  • by KentNeil,

    KentNeil KentNeil Oct 15, 2015 1:52 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 15, 2015 1:52 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Thank you very much Linc, that did it exactly for me

  • by KentNeil,

    KentNeil KentNeil Oct 15, 2015 2:00 PM in response to waybacmac
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 15, 2015 2:00 PM in response to waybacmac

    Thanks, had already done as Linc suggested but nice to know there is an alternate way

  • by Carolef2,

    Carolef2 Carolef2 Oct 16, 2015 1:33 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 16, 2015 1:33 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Thank you, thank you!  

     

    I had the same issue as KentNeil.  I had a large number of messages saved in folders "On My Mac" because of ISP changes.  After I upgraded to OS X El Capitan, all of these files vanished!  I followed your instructions and was able to recover them.  They are no longer arranged the enclosing folders as before, but who cares?  I thought that they were lost in cyber space, so I am glad to have them back in a jumble.

  • by melissazazmmit,Helpful

    melissazazmmit melissazazmmit Nov 8, 2015 7:07 AM in response to KentNeil
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 8, 2015 7:07 AM in response to KentNeil

    Hello, all. This worked for me. I firstly clicked on all the existing mailboxes & pressed rebuild. Don't worry, nothing happens. I then deleted the mailbox that says 'Today'. All of a sudden all the missing mailboxes "on my imac" reappeared.

    Hope this helps.