Missing Mailbox

Hi Karl Eggestad, thanks for your suggestion. After my previous problem (see above -- edit: oh! it's below!) I ran into the same thing you experienced. However, I can't seem to identify the file that's not readable. How did you do it?

My console gives me the message:
Mail[1019] failed to get body for message <LibraryMessage: 0x4fbccd0, library id: 810>
Mail[1019] failed to get body for message <LibraryMessage: 0x4fbd040, library id: 814>
Mail[1019] failed to get body for message <LibraryMessage: 0x4fbd180, library id: 815>
With a long list above it with the same message for different library IDs

And after rebuild:
Sep 14 11:18:45 tasmins-powerbook-g4 mdimportserver[1006]: error deserializing message property list: XML parser error:\n Unexpected character R at line 1\nOld-style plist parser error:\n Unexpected ';' or '=' after key at line 2\n
2007-09-14 11:19:03.282 Mail[1019] couldn't load body for <RecoveredMessage: 0x4f9ba90>, aborting

I'm not sure how to know which .emlx file this concerns. Mail has created another "Messages" folder in the .mbox folder next to the original "Messages" folder for some reason called "Messages-T0x4f021f0-rOfA6s". The former contains a list of 152 .emlx mails with names ranging from 6614 to 9927, and the latter 630 mails with names ranging from 197 to 826...

Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks,
Tasmin

Message was edited by: Tasmin

Tasmin,

What other folders and file are in this mailbox, besides the two Messages folders. Also, use Get Info in each of the Messages folders, and report the date they were created.

Did this mailbox originate in a version of Mail earlier than Mail 2.x?

Ernie

Thanks for your reply Ernie,

Within the INBOX.mbox folder of my main account, which is the mailbox causing problems, there are only the two Messages folders and the Info.plist file. The "Messages" folder was created January 22nd 2007, and the "Messages-T0x4f021f0-rOfA6s" was created today at 11:14. Here's what the console has to say for around that time:

(... long list of similar error messages ...)
2007-09-14 11:12:48.858 Mail[1014] couldn't load body for <LibraryMessage: 0x4e6f340, library id: 211>, aborting
2007-09-14 11:12:49.191 Mail[1014] Failed to get message data for <LibraryMessage: 0x4e70e90, library id: 214>
2007-09-14 11:12:49.191 Mail[1014] couldn't load body for <LibraryMessage: 0x4e70e90, library id: 214>, aborting
2007-09-14 11:15:35.210 Mail[1019] error deserializing message property list: XML parser error:
Unexpected character R at line 1
Old-style plist parser error:
Unexpected ';' or '=' after key at line 2
2007-09-14 11:17:04.148 Mail[1019] couldn't load body for <RecoveredMessage: 0x4f4b8e0>, aborting
2007-09-14 11:17:50.881 Mail[1019] couldn't load body for <RecoveredMessage: 0x4f5d920>, aborting

I've always had this mailbox... Mail has been updated since it was created but a week or so ago it was properly re-imported from a back up of my /user/library/Mail folder after harddisk failure (due to longterm use of faulty SDRAM (now replaced)) and erase & re-install of everything.

Tasmin

Tasmin,

My guess at this point, but which seems very likely, is that the index was botched during the restore from backup. If doing a total restore from a backup, you should have a backup copy of both the Mail folder, and the com.apple.mail.plist file from the Preferences folder. How was yours done? I think the Envelope Index has problems with more than one mailbox, and that is why Rebuild of one alone would not resolve.

Make a copy of both of these Messages folders, or better yet the entire Mail folder, although, hopefully the next step will fully resolve.

The next step is to remove the Envelope Index file (and any other with Envelope in the name) from the Mail folder. To do this, quit Mail, and then follow the instructions in the article at the link below:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303803

If you have any IMAP accounts, then you can remove the IMAP accounts, and they can later be restored, or you can do the drag thing in the article. I do not especially like the support write ups on this, but they give you the idea. When you relaunch Mail after removing the Envelope Index file, Mail will normally announce it is ready to Import your mailboxes. However, it does import anything, but rather reindexes ALL the mailboxes in the Mail folder.

Ask any questions, and don't do anything until you are comfortable with what must be done.

Ernie

Ernie, thank you very much for your elaborate reply,

My back up was done with the Mail folder and com.apple.mail.plist as well. And after I imported all my mailboxes I did even also remove the Envelope Index (was the only file with 'envelope' in the name) and went through the whole reindexing thing just to be sure...

When I ran into these troubles I did it all again a number of times (because the first go didn't solve anything and I was convinced it should have worked), removing two 'envelope' files each go, and also rebuilt the one mailbox on its own and when that didn't work I thought it might be a similar problem to the one Karl Eggestad was having (see posts above). I'm sorry I should have mentioned it, I didn't realise it wasn't obvious.

Tasmin

P.S. I don't have any IMAP accounts, just POP accounts which I set to delete from server (stupid stupid me)...

Message was edited by: Tasmin

I should also have mentioned:

After reindexing all the mailboxes all the mails indeed reappear in in my main mailbox, but they all have the 'not downloaded from server' error message. That is why I rebuilt the mailbox on its own from within Mail.

However after rebuild all the messages disappear and count is set to 0.

I just did it all again to be super-sure, and the same thing happened.

I can read the e-mails if I open the .emlx files one by one directly from the finder by double clicking (they open into Mail of course), so I know the contents is there somewhere...

Tasmin,

In the Finder, again open the Mail folder, and locate this mailbox -- use Get Info to check its size?

Open this mailbox, and then open its Messages folder (is there now one or two) and report the number of files it is said to contain?

Ernie

The INBOX.mbox is 59.9 MB and now contains three -!- "Message" folders.

-The original one containing the 152 files previously mentioned;
-The second one there was last time called "Messages-T0x4f021f0-rOfA6s" which is now emtpy;
-A third one called "Messages-T0x4f03340-ckSvEe" containing the 630 items that were previously in the "Messages-T0x4f021f0-rOfA6s".

Weird

Tasmin,

Create an ordinary folder on the Desktop. In the Finder open each of these Messages folders (those with content), Select All files in there and copy. Then Paste them into this folder on the Desktop. Once a copy of every xxxx.emlx file is this folder, create another folder, and place this folder within it. Rename the inner folder Messages. Rename the outer folder to have the extension .mbox. Next create another folder on the Desktop, and place the newly named xxxxx.mbox folder in it.

Next, in Mail, click on File, and then Import and target this new folder, choosing Mac OSX mailbox type. Go only to the outer folder on the Desktop before clicking Choose-- you should then see a dialogue showing one mailbox ready to Import. Import it, and see if Mail can open it and display the messages.

Ernie

Ernie Stamper wrote:
Once a copy of every xxxx.emlx file is this folder, create another folder, and place this folder within it.

With that, do you mean create a folder within the one on the desktop next to all the .emlx files? Or above them, meaning I'd have to create the new folder, call it xxx.mbox and put all the .emlx files inside that? The latter would seem more logical to me but it's not quite what you said...

Tasmin,

A little confusing, perhaps, since I used multiple renaming steps. Basically, you need to put a copy of all the xxxx.emlx files into a folder named Messages, and in turn put that Messages folder into another folder, which subsequently you rename to include the extension .mbox. Then strictly for convenience to use Import, put the new yyyy.mbox into another ordinary folder. Your result is a folder AAAA that contains BBBB.mbox, that contains Messages folder that contains all the xxxx.emlx files. Then when you use Import, the sequence is File/Import Mailboxes, then choose Mail for OSX type, navigate to where only AAAA folder is highlighted, click Choose, which then results in an Import window showing BBBB.mbox with a box with a check mark beside it, and you click Continue. This is all done because the first step to choose a folder to Import must stop before choosing the actual mbox folder.

Hope this is clear, now.

Ernie

Okay that's what I thought you meant. Just checking, thanks for the extra explanation.

It did not work. What happened was Mail pretended to import the mailbox happily (recognised it and everything), and after clicking 'import' it just skipped the usual progress bar and said the emails were to be found in the mailbox named 'import'. It hadn't actually created that mailbox though... It's strange because it does do proper real imports if I copy the entire "Messages" folder containing 'inbox.mbox' to the desktop and import from that.

The same thing happens as after re-indexing though: all mails from august and september save the most recent september ones aren't there, and what is there has the 'not dowloaded from server' error. After rebuild mailbox appears to be empty.

I have however seen the missing mails from aug/sept in the Messages folder in finder and can open and read them perfectly. I tried saving them which won't work as email, but when I open a 'missing' .emlx file directly from Finder into Mail I can select "Move to" from the "Message" dropdown menu. If I move it to Inbox that's where it appears. And then when I rebuild the inbox (because after re-indexing all mails have the 'not downloaded' error), that moved email is the only one left in the inbox.

In other words, the missing mails are there and even readable... It's a mystery to me why they won't show up, and also why the inbox empties after rebuild.

I hope there's an easier way to fix this than to manually open all the .emlx files and move them into a mailbox within Mail one by one...

Perhaps there are one or two messages that are the problem, and prevents completion?

Ernie

That was my thought too, and why I associated my problem with the one Karl Eggestad was having. He managed to find out which of the files was causing the error he saw in the console... I also found an error in the console but couldn't figure out how to know which email message was related to it. (Hence my original query to Karl.)

I guess there's nothing else to it than to try to open each and every single one of the .emlx files one by one.

Thanks enormously for your wonderful support Ernie