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Restore email from deleted account

Is there a way to restore email from a deleted account? I accidentally deleted an account off our MacBook Pro and set up a new account. When I went back in, all the old emails were gone. Any way to get them back?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.3), none

Posted on May 22, 2010 6:18 AM

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Posted on May 22, 2010 10:47 AM

If the deleted account was IMAP, that mail is still safely stored on the IMAP server. Assuming you still have login privileges to the IMAP server, just recreate the account. Your Mac will mirror your account on the IMAP server at next IMAP login, then you can just drag the messages out of there and put them into the mail folder that you want, then you can delete the account.

IF it was a POP account, and if you had the "leave messages on the server" checkbox checked, then the Mail should still be on that server, too. Then I think that you should be able to recreate the account and I think it would all redownload again.

If it was POP and it was configured to delete after downloading, hopefully you have a Time Capsule or other backup solution. If not, you will have to use some sort of data recovery application (sorry, I can make no recommendations in this regard) to see what you might be able to salvage off the hard drive. Be warned, though, that in such event, now that those data blocks have been made reavailable to be overwritten, the more you use your computer now, the greater the chances of that data being overwritten and rendered unrecoverable.
1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

May 22, 2010 10:47 AM in response to NF66

If the deleted account was IMAP, that mail is still safely stored on the IMAP server. Assuming you still have login privileges to the IMAP server, just recreate the account. Your Mac will mirror your account on the IMAP server at next IMAP login, then you can just drag the messages out of there and put them into the mail folder that you want, then you can delete the account.

IF it was a POP account, and if you had the "leave messages on the server" checkbox checked, then the Mail should still be on that server, too. Then I think that you should be able to recreate the account and I think it would all redownload again.

If it was POP and it was configured to delete after downloading, hopefully you have a Time Capsule or other backup solution. If not, you will have to use some sort of data recovery application (sorry, I can make no recommendations in this regard) to see what you might be able to salvage off the hard drive. Be warned, though, that in such event, now that those data blocks have been made reavailable to be overwritten, the more you use your computer now, the greater the chances of that data being overwritten and rendered unrecoverable.

Restore email from deleted account

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