Disappearing IMAP Inbox messages

I'm having the same problem and use only POP accounts. Can anyone recommend an alternative email app? I tried Eudora but find it very diiffiicult to use (perhaps that's due to old age).

I wasn't sure if I should join this thread or start a new one. I, too, am experiencing disappearing IMAP messages -- but from my "Saved" folder (not my Inbox).

I'm running Tiger (10.4.2) with Mail 2.0.2.

I have 3 different IMAP accounts, and only this one is displaying this problem. I routinely save several messages a day, but just realized today, that Mail is not displaying any saved messages from this one account past July 15. However, when I look in...

~/Library/Mail/IMAP-[AccountName]@imap.aol.com/Saved.imapmbox/Messages

...there are a few messages that are dated past Juluy 15 -- but not nearly as many as there should be. (Conservatively, I save 5-10 messages a day from that account. So for 30 days, there should be at least 150 messages since July 15. But there are only about 12.

NOW HERE'S THE CLINCHER: With the "Messages" folder open in the Finder, I sent myself a test message, then dragged it in Mail to the Saved folder. And I saw a new document appear in the Messages folder window. I thought that was great news! But when I double-clicked on that new document in the finder window -- it disappeared!!! Uh, hello?!? Bug!!!

TEST, PART 2: Sent myself another test message. This time, in the Messages folder, I clicked once on the new document and duplicated it (Command-D). Then I double-clicked the copy. It opened just fine. Then I double-clicked the document which I had just duplicated -- and it DISAPPEARED, just like the previous one!!!

What the...??? This is beyond unacceptable.... I shudder to think of the messages over the last month that are simply gone. GONE!

The only thing I can think to add is that the misbehaving account's Saved folder has 2,959 messages, while the behaving ones have 1,599 and 2,692 messages, respectively. That alone is obviously not enough to say that the bug is related to the number of messages, but I'm including it in case it's helpful in any way.

I'm a totally loyal Apple guy -- 5 Macs at my place -- but these Mail issues absolutely MUST be fixed!

I have exatly the same problem !!!

I hope Apple will solve the problem soon !

Mozilla Thunderbird is a great app, I use it now for my IMAP mail ..... and also for the news, because Mail doesn't support nntp.

The coming next 1.1 release will be more MAc OS look and feel, and if you want it already more Mac OS looking tell me.

Well guess what - Mail is now working normally. I certainly didn't fix it. There have been two OS updates since the problem began, so I reckon one of them contained the fix.

me it doesn't work with all messages. For some of them, they are still not displayed correctly and still have to use Thunderbird ....

Since installing the two recent "security updates," my Mail problem seems to be fixed, as well. (Knock on wood.)

Seems odd that an update containing actual bug fixes would be called a "security update." I was anticipating a "maintenance update" and almost skipped these two, due to the nomenclature!

Anyway, although I'll never retrieve the 5 weeks of messages that disappeared between July 15 and today, I'm hoping this issue is now resolved for good. If others' issues were also resolved, I hope they'll take a moment to say so, just so we know the status.

So -- thanks, Apple, for addressing this issue.

Well, so much for knocking on wood. Yesterday I reported that my disappearing messages problem had gone away. I'd put a test message in my Saved box, and it stayed put. Then another, then another. So I put several messages in -- and they stayed put. So I put the rest of the old messages I'd been "hoarding" into the Saved folder, then reported here that the problem was fixed.

Well, it's NOT fixed. Today those messages are all gone -- plus a bunch more are gone.

This is ABSOLUTELY UNREAL AND UNACCEPTABLE, Apple.

WHY CAN'T YOU FIX THIS???????????

I have had the disappearing Inbox experience for the past 2 days after reinstalling Tiger 10.4.2. I just fixed it when I looked at the General pane on the Mail Preferences. The "Default Email Reader" said it was using Mail (2.0) but there was a sliding selection for Mail (2.0.2). I didn't understand why it wasn't using the latest Mail since I had just reloaded and updated everything. I checked the Mail app in the Applications folder and it was indead 2.0.

So I went into the Previous System folder that was made by the MacOS X installer and found the Mail 2.0.2 app there, drug it over to replace the Mail 2.0 app in the current system. Opened the Mail app and...walla! it works. I've opened it several times and it seems fine.

Looks like the automatic system updaters didn't update the Mail app so it couldn't access the Inbox.

Hope this works for you.

Tanya

Although it says it's a security update, once you update and then open Mail you'll find you now have version 2.0.3.

Could be a security issue was causing the malfunction, but everyone should check what version of mail they have, then install the update and check again.