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Disappearing IMAP Inbox messages

Since upgrading to Tiger (10.4.x) I've had trouble with disappearing
messages in my Mail inbox. After first connecting to my mail account
several recently received messages appear in the Mail inbox, but many
older messages fail to be listed. If I select another folder, then
return to the inbox, it appears to be empty. Accessing my account
with a different IMAP client (Mail from 10.3, Pine, Squirrelmail)
shows the "disappeared" inbox messages to be intact - so this is an
OSX/Tiger problem.

I have seen several other references to this and similar problems on
this and other lists. I am running the most recent Mail update
(Version 2.0.2 732/733) with the most recent version of Tiger
(10.4.2). My problem is not die to an out-of-date Mail app, and it
can't be solved by trashing the com.apple.mail.plist preferences file
and Mail preferences folder and reconfiguring from scratch. Just
waiting doesn't help either.

The Mail app in 10.3 works fine. Other IMAP mail clients work fine.
Tiger mail is seriously broken. Is anyone from Apple listening?

More Detail:

I have a single mail account that uses authenticated IMAP and SMTP. I
have 222 saved mail folders and about three thousand messages in my
send-mail folder. If I replace my ~/mail folder on the mail server
with an empty folder, then the Tiger Mail app appears to function
normally. I've only looked at this for a few minutes, so it seems
promising. However, this isn't a solution to the problem. I need my
mail client to work properly with all of my mail - saved and new.

Thanks,

Chance

Posted on Aug 2, 2005 11:56 AM

33 replies

Kevin Horn

Level 4

1,836 points

Aug 28, 2005 10:28 PM in response to Chance Reschke

Someone on another discussion (my memory fails me as to where, sorry), said he seemed to have problems when his saved emails went over 150 so maybe the high quantity of your mail is the problem.

Can you save your emails in another folder or would that be too inconvenient? My only suggestion would be to use Thunderbird which you can find for free at mozilla.org, other than that I don't know what to do.

Using Mail is only an advantage if you have a dot mac account, otherwise any mail client will do, especially if it works better.

Aug 30, 2005 11:23 AM in response to Chance Reschke

I've been having the same issue, except it was happening since 10.3.8, before I upgraded. I have a POP account, and messages disappear after about 2 weeks. The loss-time has become increasingly recent; it started at about two months, then went to a month, now my messages disappear from the inbox after 2 weeks. I can actually visually see them disappear every time I open the Mail program. I have 10.4.2, Mail version 2.0.2 (haven't installed the "Security" update). I am planning on doing an erase & install and importing backed-up messages into the mail app after running all of the updates. Hopefully this will resolve the issue, if not, it's Thunderbird for me.

Oct 6, 2005 6:07 AM in response to Chance Reschke

Having essentially the same problem.. now running Mail 2.0.3 but still mail disappears as before..

Has anyone figured out what the problem is or how to fix it?

Disappearing IMAP Inbox messages