After Rebuild, some messages don't show

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Level 2

215 points

After Rebuild, some messages don't show

Hi all,

I did a "Rebuild" on one of my mailboxes in Mail 2.1.3 in OS 10.4.11 (I'm using POP mail.), after it was done, about 5 months of my most recent messages do not appear in the list.

Checking in the Library where the messages were stored, I can see that the messages are indeed there (ie not erased). I can click on them and open them up, yet they do not appear in the inbox. Any ideas why this would happen?

I tried putting my backup back in there and it showed up fine. However, that mailbox seemed to be running very slow with displaying and I thought a rebuild would help it out. I haven't lost anything, just hoping to speed things up a bit.

The rebuilt mailbox does indeed run a lot snappier, though. I'd like to work with that and yet force my recent messages to display.

Can anyone tell me how to pull this off? Thanks.

-john

Dual 1ghz G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on May 8, 2008 9:59 AM

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Answer 1

John Garrett Author

Level 2

215 points

May 9, 2008 6:41 AM in response to John Garrett

Any thoughts, anyone? Thanks again.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

239,357 points

May 9, 2008 7:46 AM in response to John Garrett

First I'd backup your whole Mail folder.

Try trashing this file first, then logout/in...

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

If that doesn't work try the .plists in...

/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/

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Answer 3

John Garrett Author

Level 2

215 points

May 9, 2008 8:38 AM in response to BDAqua

Hey BD, thanks for the response.

Unfortunately, though, that didn't work.

For some reason, Mail is just being a stubborn, unruly pig about showing those messages which *+clearly exist+* in the inbox folder. Very, very strange.

I tried removing a bunch of different files, but none of them seemed to be able to get Mail to wake up and realize that there were a bunch more emails to display. Curses. I hate when something goes unresolved.

So for now, I have restored my backup, and I can again see all the emails, but as I mentioned, I am experiencing slower display speeds in that mailbox. It's a shame that the rebuild caused this problem because it sure helped with the speed.

I think I'll try archiving out some more emails in my inbox, maybe there's just too many in there. I have over 2000 in there now. I just won't try rebuild again, though.

Thanks for the help.

Message was edited by: John Garrett

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Answer 4

May 9, 2008 10:02 AM in response to John Garrett

John,

Quit Mail

Back up your ~/Library/Mail directory. You don't have to do this, really, but in a minute you'll be scared.

In ~/Library/Mail move 'Envelope Index' to the Desktop.

Start Mail.

Do not be afraid. It will tell you that Mail needs to input your messages. All that means is it needs to rebuild the index. I will. Then you should find all your messages.

-fred

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Answer 5

John Garrett Author

Level 2

215 points

May 9, 2008 12:04 PM in response to Frederick Avolio

Hey Frederick,

thanks for lending a hand!

Alas, it did not work for me. Everything happened just as you said, but when it was done re-building the index, I was left with even fewer messages than before(!) Namely the emails that I had received today.

I replaced the old 'Envelope Index' and the messages returned.

I'm beginning to suspect that something else may be wrong here with my Mail installation. I checked and there are no more updates for the Tiger version of Mail, so that's not it.

All in all, I guess it could have played out worse had I not had backups.

Thanks again for your help.

-john

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Answer 6

May 19, 2008 7:33 AM in response to John Garrett

Hi John,

I got exactly the same problem and I am still trying to solve it. I can see the mails in the folder, but they just don't show up in Mail.
I was wondering if this was not related to the name of the smtp server.
I had to modify the name of the SMTP server for this mail account even though it had the same domain name server.... A "word" had to be removed from the smtp name. Maybe Mail has a problem with this...

Did you solve your problem ?

Thanks,

Christian

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Answer 7

May 19, 2008 9:39 AM in response to John Garrett

Hi John.

I'm just wondering, if it's possible to create another Mail Box, and put half of
the mail in it. Then use the cleanup app to to get rid of all the messages that
you no longer need.

The other lads would be much more knowledgeable on this topic, but it's
just a thought. Good luck.

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Answer 8

John Garrett Author

Level 2

215 points

May 19, 2008 10:00 AM in response to Christian Bastien

Hey Christian,

I don't think that's my problem here. Everyone else in my building here is using Mail with the same settings, and theirs are working fine. The only thing different is that I get a ton more emails than them, so it seems to be getting a bit unwieldy...

and my main problem has not been solved yet...thanks for the suggestion though.

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Answer 9

John Garrett Author

Level 2

215 points

May 19, 2008 10:03 AM in response to jimocallaghan

Hey Jim,

you know I might try something along those lines. That sounds likely to speed up performance for me. I'll definitely avoid rebuilding the mailboxes in the future, I can say that much...thanks for the suggestion!

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Answer 10

dewshi

Level 1

55 points

May 21, 2008 5:01 AM in response to John Garrett

Hi John,

I had weird mailbox behaviour on an account and solved it by "revirginizing" the Mail folder and importing back in all my mailboxes.

Shut down Mail. Move the Mail folder in home/Library to the desktop, then open Mail.
Mail rebuilds the folder in your Library and you have a clean empty(!) slate in the interface!!
Import your mailboxes one by one via File>Import Mailboxes, navigating to the folder(s) bearing your account name(s) on your desktop.
Reorganize the contents back into their correct folders from within the Mail interface, i.e sent mail into the default Sent folder etc.
With a POP account, you'll need to clear all the messages on your server first so it doesn't download them all again. (I'm not sure how to best handle an IMAP account, but I suspect you'll need to copy back from the desktop the "MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded" files...)
Likewise, your preferences (including account details) will remain intact but you might want to copy back your MessageRules.p.lists and Signatures from the desktop.

If you don't want to do the full thing, try simply importing a copy of the mailbox that is giving you issues: Copy the entire Mail folder from home/Library/Mail onto your desktop. (Mail needs to recognise that the folder with your messages in it is in fact an OSX Mailbox so I don't think you can just copy it alone to the desktop).
Then import the required Mailbox into a new folder from the Mail interface. If all goes well, you can delete the original mailbox.

At the risk of stating the obvious, don't forget to do a backup on an external drive first!!

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Answer 11

May 21, 2008 6:36 AM in response to dewshi

I'm just amazed at the word "revirginizing."

-fred

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Answer 12

dewshi

Level 1

55 points

May 21, 2008 7:16 AM in response to Frederick Avolio

i nicked the coinage, but it seems to be the right term.

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Answer 13

May 21, 2008 7:15 AM in response to dewshi

Brilliant. 🙂

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Answer 14

IMRAN

Level 3

502 points

Jul 19, 2008 10:57 PM in response to John Garrett

John

I too am sick of having Mail crap out - making me re-import all my messages, then failing to display them in preview pane unless - and this is what may redisplay your messages - I manually rebuild the hundreds of mail folders individually. Then clicking on a message will show it in preview panes also.

BUT, Mail is an ugly piece of garbage getting even worse with every OS upgrade.

Instead of it letting this be the end of the problems it THEN actually starts creating duplicate, triplicate and even more copies of the messages in the mail lis AND in the email folders on the hard disk. I am sick of Apple Mail.

In Finder, inside my mail folders .mbox etc. I now have not just the Messages folder I have several folders with names like Messages-T0x15e763e0-kBL0fx etc. If my original Messages folder had 20 emails in it, Mail's display of that shows 60. If I rebuild, it shows 20 again. But, if checking in the Finder I find Mail actually PHYSICALLY re-created email message files, so the folder of 20 message files now has 60 or 80... Multiply that by 50+ mail folders I have and my 2GB of mail has turned into a 10GB folder of duplicated and triplicated files sitting in weird folders besides folders named Message. And there is no way to find out why these folders are there and how to get rid of them.

I HATE Mail in Leopard.

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