elih

Q: Mail Rules Missing

Since Mail was updated to version 6.5, my mail rules have disappeared.

 

Are the rules stored in a particular file or are they part of the Mail.app package? Can they be restored from a previous version stored in Time Machine?

 

Thanks,

Eli

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jun 12, 2013 7:29 AM

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Q: Mail Rules Missing

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  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jun 12, 2013 10:04 AM in response to elih
    Level 10 (207,978 points)
    Applications
    Jun 12, 2013 10:04 AM in response to elih

    Triple-click the line below to select it:

    ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData

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

    Services Open

    from the contextual menu.* A folder should open. Quit the application if it's running. Enter Time Machine and select the snapshot from which you want to restore. Restore the file named "MessageRules.plist" in the open folder.

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

    Go Go to Folder...

    from the menu bar, paste into the box that opens (command-V). You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

  • by elih,

    elih elih Jun 12, 2013 11:58 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 12, 2013 11:58 AM in response to Linc Davis

    I replaced the MessageRules.plist file with one from last week. Nothing changed. I tried it again with one from April. Again nothing changed.

     

    I have no idea what happened to my rules. I know they were there about 2 weeks ago. I was checking my Junk Mail rule. And I know they were working as of Monday morning of this week. Sometime late on Monday I installed the latest Mountain Lion update and that apparently included updating Mail from 6.3 to 6.5. Now I no longer have any of my rules.

     

    Is it possible that the rule information is stored in a different file?

     

    Thanks,

    Eli

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jun 12, 2013 12:12 PM in response to elih
    Level 10 (207,978 points)
    Applications
    Jun 12, 2013 12:12 PM in response to elih

    Restore this item from the same snapshot:

     

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail

  • by elih,

    elih elih Jun 13, 2013 11:28 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 13, 2013 11:28 AM in response to Linc Davis

    I've restored both the MessageRules.plist and the com.apple.mail folder (from the backup of the same day), and still not luck getting the rules to reappear.

     

    I have since noticed that my Signature files are also missing.

     

    I have also scanned my computer for viruses and trogans. It is clean. I'm surprised i haven't seen any other posts regarding this issue. I don't think it was something I did.

     

    Unless there are other suggestions out there, I'm now left with recreating my rules and signatures.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jun 13, 2013 11:39 AM in response to elih
    Level 10 (207,978 points)
    Applications
    Jun 13, 2013 11:39 AM in response to elih

    Problems such as yours are sometimes caused by files that should belong to you but are locked or have wrong permissions. This procedure will check for such files. It makes no changes and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.

    First, empty the Trash.

    Triple-click the line below to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):

    find ~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 -o -acl \) 2> /dev/null | wc -l

    Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

    Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.

    The output of this command, on a line directly below what you entered, will be a number such as "41." Please post it in a reply.

  • by elih,

    elih elih Jun 16, 2013 8:38 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 16, 2013 8:38 AM in response to Linc Davis

    The output is: 637

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jun 16, 2013 8:48 AM in response to elih
    Level 10 (207,978 points)
    Applications
    Jun 16, 2013 8:48 AM in response to elih

    Back up all data. Don't continue unless you're sure you can restore from a backup, even if you're unable to log in.

    This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership and access-control lists to the default. If you've set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it.

     

    Step 1

    If you have more than one user account, and the one in question is not an administrator account, then temporarily promote it to administrator status in the Users & Groups preference pane. To do that, unlock the preference pane using the credentials of an administrator, check the box marked Allow user to administer this computer, then reboot. You can demote the problem account back to standard status when this step has been completed.

    Enter the following command in the Terminal window in the same way as before (triple-click, copy, and paste):

    { sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; } 2> /dev/null

    This time you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.

     

    The command will take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear, then quit Terminal.

    Step 2 (optional)

     

    Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1 or if it doesn't solve the problem.

    Boot into Recovery. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select

    Utilities Terminal

    from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open.

    In the Terminal window, type this:

    res

     

    Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:

    resetpassword

     

    Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not  going to reset a password.

    Select your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.

    Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.

    Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.

    Select

    Restart

    from the menu bar.

  • by Ravenmoon,

    Ravenmoon Ravenmoon Aug 27, 2013 9:55 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (11 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 27, 2013 9:55 AM in response to Linc Davis

    OK, I'm having the same issue, and I've repaired permissions, etc. I ran this code and got "304" What variable does this value represent, and what does "304" tell you?

  • by Robman,

    Robman Robman Sep 4, 2013 9:37 AM in response to elih
    Level 1 (99 points)
    Sep 4, 2013 9:37 AM in response to elih

    I'm having the same type of problem.

    I've been running 10.8.4 since it was released. And Mail 6.5 since that was last updated.

    Everything worked fine Tuesday, Sep 3, yesterday. I restarted my machine as I do every night as I left work. This morning, no Rules or Signatures. I restored the entire Mail folder from Thursday August 29th. (my last Time Machine Backup) and no luck. Mail Opens, and imports 98,000 items or so, but no Signatures, no Rules, nothing that I needed. Now the Mail Folders for the O365 corporate acount are all empty. I don't mind erasing and re-downloading the Office 365 account and folders, they all still exist in the Cloud. I just don't want to have to re-create the 20 or so rules I use. I can easily re-do the signature by copying it from a old e-mail.

    I am a local Admin (I'm the IT Manager, and it's my machine)

    I ran the above terminal command and recieved a return code of 2146

     

    Any ideas?

  • by Nicky McCatty,

    Nicky McCatty Nicky McCatty Dec 17, 2015 6:03 AM in response to elih
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 17, 2015 6:03 AM in response to elih

    Hi elih,

     

    Were you able to fix your message rules? Hope so.

     

    Thanks,

    Nicky

  • by Nicky McCatty,

    Nicky McCatty Nicky McCatty Dec 23, 2015 6:52 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 23, 2015 6:52 AM in response to Linc Davis

    Hi Linc,

     

    I have a question about what to do if the procedures you have outlined don't succeed in reinstating rules and signatures. It's what I have thought about during the past couple of weeks as I have search for remedies that appear to have some certainty.

     

    What if I restore my Mail folder to December 6, the day before the plist vaporized, and then re-import my emails from the ensuing two weeks? Is it possible to do that?

     

    Thanks,

    Nicky

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Dec 24, 2015 8:28 AM in response to Nicky McCatty
    Level 9 (71,492 points)
    iTunes
    Dec 24, 2015 8:28 AM in response to Nicky McCatty

    Yes. Mail/Mailbox/Export Mailbox. Restore your Mail folder. Then Mail/File/Import Mailbox. You will then need to drag the imported e-mails where you want them.

  • by Nicky McCatty,

    Nicky McCatty Nicky McCatty Jan 7, 2016 5:17 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 7, 2016 5:17 AM in response to Eric Root

    I ran the diagnostic that Linc suggested, and the result is 104. How can I find out what it means, and find out what to do next?

  • by Nicky McCatty,

    Nicky McCatty Nicky McCatty Jan 11, 2016 1:06 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (44 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 11, 2016 1:06 PM in response to Eric Root

    Thanks for this one too.