Mail all ahoo

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Level 1

15 points

Mail all ahoo

I am getting more concerned about Mail's ability to keep its sanity - and mine - all the time. This morning it tells me I have one message unread, so I look for it; cannot be found. Next to the little "Inbox" icon is a circle with the number 1 in it. If I click on the little arrow next to "Inbox" I see my two imap accounts, one has the little circle next to it but it is blank, no number. The other has no circle next to it at all. I cannot find an unread message.

I have "Rebuilt" the mailboxes - no change.

If I look in one of the inbox accounts I find many messages that actually belong in the other account. In other words, in my work account, I find many messages that should be in my me.com account. If I go to my work mail browser and check the mail that exists there, I find messages sent to me.com on my work imap server. They can ONLY have got there I think if mail had somehow synchronized with my work imap and me.com imap and got messages all mixed up.

In short, things are all over the place and I have no way of knowing what is missing or why messages are in the wrong places.

Can anyone offer any suggestions? Mail is a critical tool for me and the fact that messages are going places they have no reason to go, and I am being told I have phantom mail I cannot find, is a very major concern.

Thanks - Lawrence

2 x MacMini, Mac Book Pro 17", 24" iMac and a panic of PCs, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on May 4, 2009 7:24 AM

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Answer 1

May 4, 2009 9:29 AM in response to LawrenceHare

Are both accounts set up as Type IMAP?

Ernie

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Answer 2

LawrenceHare Author

Level 1

15 points

May 4, 2009 10:44 AM in response to LawrenceHare

Yes...

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Answer 3

May 4, 2009 11:01 AM in response to LawrenceHare

May I assume, then, that all folders related only to the accounts are on the server? If so, simply remove the two accounts, and then set them back up. This will allow Mail to properly index both accounts and their messages.

The alternative, and perhaps better is to force a reindexing -- Note the special instructions when forcing the reindexing of IMAP or Exchange accounts in the following:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mail/3.0/en/14019.html

This will force the reindexing of all mailboxes, but with regard to the IMAP accounts, the practical result of this action of removing the account folders, is that with the IMAP accounts still set up in the Preferences, Mail will connect to the IMAP servers and create a new account folder for each, and while doing so will index the messages in the mailbox folders of the IMAP accounts on the server.

Keep me posted.

Ernie

Btw, have you ever done anything previously to remove the Envelope Index and force reindexing? If so, the procedure requires removal of the account folders.

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Answer 4

LawrenceHare Author

Level 1

15 points

May 4, 2009 11:43 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Thanks for your help and your assumption is correct, all folders relate to server based accounts. I have an "Archive" folder on "My Mac" that I manually move stuff to as required but that is outside of the scope of the two IMAP accounts.

I did a full reindex by removing IMAP- and Mac- files along with the Envelope Index. The result was an empty input folder which I assume was intentional, so I did a synchronize mailbox and that filled both IMAP inboxes, but exactly as before. On my work inbox there is still 1 phantom, unread and invisible message. The handful of messages that were sent to me.com are still resident in my work IMAP account. As the are physically present on my work IMAP server, I would expect Mail to keep them there and make no change, and - of course - I could change them manually by moving them. The question that concerns me is how did they get there in the first place?

And I still have the single phantom message I cannot get rid of or read.

So, in short, I am back where I was.

It worries me I confess, mail is too important to mess up.

Thanks for your help and if you can think of anything else I would be grateful - especially how to get rid of this annoying message that cannot be found.

Lawrence

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