I posted this on the Time Machine forum and they sent me here. I have several issues, one of which is Mail going offline frequently throughout the day when I have not instructed it to do so, and refusing to go on-line when I request it. I have to close the program, reopen it, and it's back on-line. A few minutes later, it's offline again. I read in the Discussions to trash the prefs and re-enter all my account info. I didn't get that far because as soon as I trashed the prefs all my Sent mails were gone. I went into Time Machine to retrieve them and they aren't there. I've tried rebuilding the Mailboxes, no go. I also dragged the prefs out of the Trash and put them back. Still nothing. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong and where my e-mails went? Thanks.
Whenever you remove the com.apple.mail.plist file, the proper procedure to avoid loss of standard mailboxes for accounts is to re-enter the account info, DECLINE when asked if you want to Import anything, and then Mail should rediscover the existing account folders, no messages should be lost.
Well, as I said, I never got that far (re-entering account info). But it's odd because all my Sent mail is there except for one account--a POP account if that matters. I'm not sure what other info you need, I'm sorry.
Do you have both IMAP and POP accounts? It sounds like you may not have actually removed the com.apple.mail.plist file? If you have a MobileMe account, the info for that is also available in System Preferences and when you remove the plist, it grabs the MobileMe account info from that source. Do you have a MobileMe account in addition to the POP account?
In the Finder, open Home/Library/Mail and locate the POP account folder for this account -- is there one? If so, and you open it, does it have a Sent Messages.mbox folder within?
The POP account is there, with a Sent folder, with 3 messages in it which are the 3 messages that show up in the mailbox. There should be hundreds of them.
Again in the Finder, open the POP account folder, and then open the Sent Messages.mbox folder. Are you reporting that you then opened the Messages folder within, and it only has 3 xxxx.emlx files?
Look in the Mail folder at the Mailboxes folder -- is there any other Sent Messages.mbox folder there?
This issue sounds suspiciously similar to my recent post ... Mail 4.2 is "deleting" all of my downloaded POP Inbox and Sent messages older than 30 days and these are not available in my Time Machine either.
I was always able to access old messages well beyond 30 days (even 2 years old) but now it appears that the only things left are the headers in those mail boxes. I just noticed this this week.
Check out my post and share any thoughts ... thanks so much, Greg
I suspect they are still around but not displaying due to an indexing problem. There is no function or setting in Mail to ever delete messages from a POP Inbox on your computer. Did you use the Finder to check the number of xxxx.emlx files in the Messages folder of this INBOX.mbox folder in the POP account folder?
The POP account Sent Messages folder has only 3 xxxxx.emix files, that is correct. The In box messages are there. I have scoured every folder to do with Mail and Mailboxes and I cannot find them. Also, why are they not on my Time Machine?
If some action deleted the messages, then on the next backup by TM they may be gone depending on how many cycles of backup have taken place. TM does not preserve into perpetuity.
In Mail Preferences/Accounts/Mailbox Behaviors, confirm that Never is selected for when to remove Sent messages?
Do you have any other backup software or Mail enhancement plugins or applications installed?
Thanks for still working on this, Ernie! Correct that Never is selected for when to remove Sent messages. I have no other backup software or Mail enhancement plugins or apps installed.