LJBrado
Level 1 (4 points)
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Q: Apple Mail: Offline Folders Gone

Good day,

 

I am using OS X Yosemite v.10.10.4 (14E46); the Apple Mail version is 8.2 (2102). I am on a work-provided computer and do have some access to Administrator functions, but not all.

 

I experienced an issue whereby I was told that the Mail was unable to read my folders (which are kept on an external drive) and that I needed to reformat it. I made backups of all the data on my external drive, formatted, and then replaced the files. Mail would no longer read them at all (and I did create a new symlink in ~/Library/).

 

I ended up having to re-create my Account, but in doing so I have apparently lost all of my offline folders (of which I had MANY).

 

The emails were not lost; I simply now have approx. 56,000 emails all in my All Mail box, which, of course, is a little daunting...

 

I have found that my e-mails from the offline folders seem to be in folders themselves, among the Mail folders:

 

Screen Shot 2016-08-26 at 7.56.21 AM.png

 

 

It just seems that the new account is not reading those as folders.

 

Would anyone have any ideas about how I could get these back into folders, in Mail, without my having to create new offline folders and re-organize through every single e-mail?

 

Thank you, in advance, for any help you can give!

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), Apple Mail Version 8.2 (2102)

Posted on Aug 26, 2016 8:00 AM

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LJBrado

Q: Apple Mail: Offline Folders Gone

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 26, 2016 8:12 AM in response to LJBrado
    Level 9 (69,599 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 26, 2016 8:12 AM in response to LJBrado

    Try rebuilding the mailbox.

     

    Rebuild mailbox

     

    If that doesn't work, 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.

     

    Reindex messages (2)        See post by Linc Davis

  • by LJBrado,

    LJBrado LJBrado Aug 26, 2016 8:15 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 26, 2016 8:15 AM in response to Eric Root

    Hi Eric,

     

    Thanks so much for your reply! Is there a specific location that those folders should be in when I perform the rebuild? Right now, those folders are in my backup location.

     

    Thanks again!

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 26, 2016 9:02 AM in response to LJBrado
    Level 9 (69,599 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 26, 2016 9:02 AM in response to LJBrado

    You are welcome. If the mailbox that contained the e-mails isn't visible, skip the rebuild step.

     

    Right now, those folders are in my backup location.

     

    I'm not sure I understand what you mean. In reading your first post, I thought your entire user Mail folder was on an external drive. Do you have the same folder on your internal drive?

  • by LJBrado,

    LJBrado LJBrado Aug 26, 2016 9:11 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 26, 2016 9:11 AM in response to Eric Root

    I apologize for the confusion. I'll try to explain; originally, my mail folders were on an external drive. However, once I reformatted the drive, my symlink would no longer work, so I moved the mail folders to my internal drive (~/Library/Mail). This is where the Mail app is currently reading from.

     

    I have been unable to get the Mail app to read my offline mail in their original folders, but at some point in my testing (placing the mail folders among the new account folders, etc), it DID read that there were additional e-mails and pulled them all in under All Mail (ignoring the folders).

     

    The image I posted, above, is the old mail folder, on my backup drive; the Mail app is NOT reading from this at all. My current mail folders look like this:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-08-26 at 9.09.51 AM.png

     

    As you can see, there do seem to be folders, there, but I have no idea whether or not those are the folders I created or it's some other organizational system set up by the Mail app.

     

    Thanks, again, for your help and also for your patience with me!

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 26, 2016 9:26 AM in response to LJBrado
    Level 9 (69,599 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 26, 2016 9:26 AM in response to LJBrado

    You are welcome. No need to apologize. That appears to be the Gmail All Mail folder. Try the reindexing. It shouldn't hurt anything even if it doesn't solve the problem.

  • by LJBrado,

    LJBrado LJBrado Aug 26, 2016 9:30 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 26, 2016 9:30 AM in response to Eric Root

    Can do; should I move that folder somewhere among the ~/Library/Mail folders before I do it?

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 26, 2016 9:46 AM in response to LJBrado
    Level 9 (69,599 points)
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    Aug 26, 2016 9:46 AM in response to LJBrado

    I wouldn't as it might mess up your Gmail account.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 26, 2016 10:26 AM in response to LJBrado
    Level 9 (69,599 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 26, 2016 10:26 AM in response to LJBrado

    Do a backup 1st.

  • by LJBrado,

    LJBrado LJBrado Aug 26, 2016 11:39 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 26, 2016 11:39 AM in response to Eric Root

    Hi Eric,

     

    I did the backup and then rebuilt; no change. Thank you for the suggestion!

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 26, 2016 11:53 AM in response to LJBrado
    Level 9 (69,599 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 26, 2016 11:53 AM in response to LJBrado

    You are welcome. Did you rebuild the mailbox or reindex Mail?

  • by LJBrado,

    LJBrado LJBrado Aug 26, 2016 12:03 PM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 26, 2016 12:03 PM in response to Eric Root

    I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was a difference, but clearly I shouldn't have assumed! I looked up how to perform the Reindexing and completed the task; still no change.

     

    Thanks!

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 26, 2016 12:21 PM in response to LJBrado
    Level 9 (69,599 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 26, 2016 12:21 PM in response to LJBrado

    You are welcome. Rereading your first post, you have apparently found the e-mails. Copy the folders to your Desktop, then Mail/File/Import. If that doesn't work, Mail/Mailbox/New Mailbox and choose On My Mac. Select the e-mails on the Desktop and drag/copy them to the new mailbox.

  • by LJBrado,

    LJBrado LJBrado Aug 29, 2016 8:18 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (4 points)
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    Aug 29, 2016 8:18 AM in response to Eric Root

    Hi Eric,

     

    Well, I attempted both of those and the program wouldn't read them. I was able to find a small application that takes the .emlx files and makes them a mailbox; those files imported fine, but it can't handle folders so I have to go into each individual number folder and convert, then import them.

     

    I don't mind doing that, at all, except that the files in the number folders don't seem to be a structure that's useful which means I still basically have to go through and re-organize them all, one by one.

     

    Does anyone know anything about the structure that Mail uses for these folders and how it translates to what we see in Mail?

     

    EX:

     

    Screen Shot 2016-08-29 at 8.16.12 AM.png

     

    Thanks so much for your help, Eric, and thanks to anyone else, in advance!