[SOLUTION]Mail does not quit or show old messages after 10.4-10.5 migration

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[SOLUTION]Mail does not quit or show old messages after 10.4-10.5 migration

I work for an Apple Specialist in California and have found a solution to this relatively common issue. There is an interesting bug with mail I found that happens occasionally in a 10.4 (Tiger) to 10.5 (Leopard) migration. This bug will cause Mail to be unable to quit and all your messages will not appear in the mail window. I don't know if this problem manifests in any other situation but a 10.4-10.5 migration. I have seen this problem more than once since the release of 10.5.6. To fix this issue:

1. Navigate to your Library folder inside your home folder.

2. Locate the Mail folder and drag it to your desktop.

3. Launch the Mail application.

4. Mail will now ask you if you want import your messages. DO NOT HIT CONTINUE YET.

5. Navigate back to your Library folder inside your home folder. Notice there is a NEW mail folder that was created. You cannot delete this folder yet because it is in use by mail so we will just rename this folder Mail2.

6. Drag your OLD mail folder located on your desktop to your Library folder located in your home folder.

7. Go back to the Mail application and click continue. Your messages and settings should import fine now.

8. Verify that your messages and settings imported correctly and quit Mail. Navigate back to your home Library folder located in your home folder and delete the Mail2 folder.

9. Launch the Mail application again and make sure everything functions correctly.

I found a fix to this by just messing around with the issue for awhile. I have found NO good resolutions online for this bug. Good luck to you all.

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 2, 2009 3:29 PM

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Answer 1

raka

Level 1

5 points

Jan 4, 2009 11:10 AM in response to adamast

thank you thank you thank you!

just upgraded from tiger to leopard & was hit by this bug

i saw convoluted methods elsewhere that required a lot of re-entry & importing, but your very simle & easy solution worked like a charm!

the only casualties (as far as i can tell) were:

- rules were lost
- junk filtering got turned off

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Answer 2

HQP

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Jan 5, 2009 9:46 AM in response to adamast

Likewise, thanks for the tip. After updating a G5 iMac from 10.4 to 10.5.6, Mail would not function. It would launch, but all of the mail was missing. It would hang before it could download any new messages. The only way to quit Mail was via Force Quit.

Your solution put everything back to normal.

(Two other machines were updated at the same time (G4 iMac and Core 2 Duo iMac) did not have this problem.)

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Answer 3

Jan 5, 2009 10:30 AM in response to adamast

Thank you SOOO much, this was driving me crazy! I had found several other "solutions" none of which worked. Yours had me up and running in a few minutes. You Rock!

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Answer 4

lgobin

Level 1

0 points

Jan 5, 2009 10:50 AM in response to adamast

Thank you!

Lynn

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Answer 5

adamast Author

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Jan 5, 2009 12:56 PM in response to adamast

Glad this all helped you folks.

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Answer 6

DXS

Level 1

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Jan 5, 2009 6:44 PM in response to adamast

much appreciated - glad I only spent a half hour or so before I found your solution

Thanks again.

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Answer 7

Jan 5, 2009 9:43 PM in response to adamast

Worked Great! Thanks so much.

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Answer 8

Jan 5, 2009 11:11 PM in response to Shawn Eiken

Didn't work for me. I found that if I check the Activity viewer when Mail freezes it shows that mail gets stuck downloading a single email. If there's no incoming mail the app will quit normally. If I disconnect from the internet Mail will quit normally. Any unread mail will require a force quit. I give up. I've tried every solution proposed in Discussions, I've upgraded 3x and reverted to Tiger 3x. Unless anyone has a brilliant solution I haven't tried, I'm going back for good.

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Answer 9

Jan 6, 2009 4:23 AM in response to adamast

Brilliant! Thanks a million for solving a vexing issue. I've done 100s of Tiger->Leopard migrations and encountered this bug for the very first time today. A quick search brought up your solution, so no time wasted and everything up and running in a couple of minutes.

THANK YOU!!!!!!

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Answer 10

mdlunt

Level 1

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Jan 6, 2009 7:36 AM in response to adamast

After a very frustrating late-night session trying to figure out what I did wrong, I found your message and tried your fix. Worked perfectly. Thank you!

I should have known there was a problem when on the original startup after updating to 10.5, the "import messages" dialogue went from "continue" to "done" almost instantly. I had thousands of messages spread over various accounts.

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Answer 11

livius

Level 1

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Jan 6, 2009 8:50 AM in response to adamast

Great! Neither by an Applestore people knew anything about this matter.
I was on the verge to use another mail reader...

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Answer 12

adamast Author

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2009 1:57 PM in response to Peter Leitner

I am not sure exactly what could be causing this issue, if you have a crash report it would be helpful. In any case, this procedure should always work.

Create a test user. Check to see if the problem exists in this test user. If the problem persists then you have a bad system, look up the steps to perform and 'Archive and Install'. If the problem is resolved then verify that you have no 3rd party mail plugins installed and follow the steps below.

*This will destroy all your settings so you start from scratch. 90% of the time most people will have a copy of all their mail stored on the Mail server, you would not lose all your mail if this is the case. However if this is not the case you will lose ALL of your MAIL and PREFERENCES (USE CAUTION).*

Doublecheck to make sure there is no Mail preference file located in your MAIN Library folder (/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist), delete the Mail preference file from your USER folder (/Users/ username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist), and delete the Mail folder from your USER folder (/Users/ username/Library/Mail). Fix permissions in Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility) and reboot.

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Answer 13

adamast Author

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Jan 6, 2009 2:08 PM in response to Peter Leitner

If worse comes to worse you can always take your machine to an Apple Specialist =)

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Answer 14

Jan 6, 2009 5:22 PM in response to adamast

A million thanks, adamast. I have spent several painful hours on this problem. I just bought a new MacBook Pro 4 days ago and have been trying through various means (Backup, iDisc, MobileMe Sync) to migrate my mail from my PowerBook G4 (OS X 10.4.11). I tried other suggestions on the forum with no luck. I thought it had to be a problem with my .Mac (MobileMe) account and or a Sync problem. I never thought of a software bug and I certainly never associated the Mail app not quitting with my mail migration problem. This is a real solution to 2 problems at once.

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Answer 15

nolanz14

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2009 6:50 PM in response to Michael Metzger

Thanks for this! I've spend the last 4 hours trying to figure this out.

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