Q: Mail does not find accounts, asks "Choose a mail account to add..." despite accounts already being setup
Using OS X Yosemite, iMac late 2013.
I've been using the Mail app with an Exchange Web Server account. This morning, when I opened the Mail app, I get the pop up window "Choose a mail account to add..." I thought, that's weird, why did it suddenly FORGET the mail account I always use? When I entered in my account info, it said the new account was added, but did not load any email. The top bar says "Inbox (Read Only)". Interestingly, my "Smart Mailboxes" appear in the side panel (just their names, no content) but no other mail, mailboxes, anything.
When I go to Mail--> Accounts, my Exchange account appears just fine with all my other internet accounts (which seem to be working fine in messages, calendar, etc.). "Mail" is indeed checked for that account.
In ~/Library/Mail/V2, I have folders for Mailboxes, MailData, and EWS-myaccount@mymail.edu. In the EWS folder, all my normal mailboxes are listed as .mbox files. Here's a bit of info on one such file with ls -lh:
Inbox.mbox:
total 8
drwx------ 3 julia staff 102B Sep 22 2014 3DA1B2DA-3E2B-4F07-AA56-92A229577715
-rw-r--r--@ 1 julia staff 1.4K Sep 4 15:37 Info.plist
Since I last used Mail just fine, my computer was not restarted (checked the uptime), and it doesn't look like any new updates were installed according to the App store history. I did restart once to try to fix it, no go. Upgraded from 10.10.4 to 10.10.5 with restart, still the same issue.
Sorry for weird formatting - copy and pasted text in order to restart.
iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)
Posted on Sep 8, 2015 10:34 AM
Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.
Back up all data before proceeding.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData
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. Paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V, then press return.
A folder window will open. Inside it there should be files with names as follows:
Envelope Index
ExternalUpdates.storedata
Move those files to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have longer names that begin as above. Move those files, if any, to the Trash.
Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is damaged and that Mail has to quit. Click OK. Typically, the process takes a few minutes, but it may take hours if you have gigantic mailboxes. In that case, you may be able to speed things up by temporarily adding your home folder to the Privacy list in the Spotlight preference pane. Remove it when Mail has finished importing.
If the import operation stalls or fails with an error message, quit Mail, delete the two new index files (keeping the original ones that you moved to the Desktop), and try again. According to many reports, the second attempt may succeed after the first one has failed.
Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the files you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.
Posted on Sep 8, 2015 6:33 PM