Email accounts and all inbox messages suddenly disappeared

Question

Email accounts and all inbox messages suddenly disappeared

Hello,

I just went to open my mail and was asked if I'd like to see new features in mail. I selected not now and the next thing I know my whole mail box had changed. I no longer have any of my mailboxes nor do I have any of my messages that were in my inbox. I also seem to have lost all of my sent mail. The whole thing looks brand new like I haven't used it. I have messages that were in my mac account but that's it. I checked in the preferences and my accounts don't show up. Can someone help me with this? Have I lost five years of business e-mails and correspondence?

Thanks in advance

Chad

Power Mac 11.2, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Nov 21, 2008 6:19 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 21, 2008 6:38 PM in response to Evil Medieval

Hi,

This can happen if you run short of temporary free space for Mail to use for its housekeeping tasks, or with a laptop if those tasks are not allowed to be completed before shutdown, or forced sleep. How much free space do you have on your hard drive, or if partitioned, on the boot partition?

The preference file gets corrupted or overwritten, and the account info that is entered/found at Mail Preferences/Accounts/Account Information (and under the Mailbox Behaviors and Advanced tabs) is lost -- OSX and Mail will not overwrite the actual message data. Check for the Mail folder at Home/Library/Mail and make a duplicate and drag the resulting copy to the Desktop for temporary backup.

Set the accounts back up in Mail Preferences, after being sure to DECLINE when prompted to import anything. Mail should than rediscover the existing account folders.

The MobileMe account is there because that info also resides at System Preferences/MobileMe, in addition to the Preferences.

Ernie

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Answer 2

Nov 21, 2008 7:18 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

Ernie, You da MAN!!!!

Thanks, I was sweating it a little there. I've done as you suggested and all of my e-mails seem to be rolling back in.

Thanks again.

Chad

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