missing mailbox

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Level 1

35 points

missing mailbox

I have created several mailboxes in Apple Mail on my iMac to organize email messages. One of those mailboxes no longer shows up in the sidebar. I can search for emails from the person whose messages I have stored in that local mailbox and I get a list of the messages, all of which show that they are in that mailbox, but I no longer see the mailbox. I tried restarting the computer, but the issue persists.

Any ideas on how to restore the mailbox?

Mail Version 11.5 (3445.9.1)

iMac 27 late 2015

OSX 10.13.6

iMac 27", macOS 10.13

Posted on Mar 13, 2019 8:34 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,612 points

Mar 13, 2019 12:58 PM in response to FH678

Please ensure you are looking in all of your folders in the sidebar, is it possible you put the mailbox in a folder that you are not looking in?

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Answer 2

FH678 Author

Level 1

35 points

Mar 13, 2019 1:29 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Doh! I thought I had done that—and I had— but there was a folder way at the bottom of the sidebar that I had neglected to look in. Found it. Thanks for the suggestion.

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,612 points

Mar 13, 2019 8:48 AM in response to FH678

Use your Time Machine backup to restore the mailbox. Here is an article that explains how, Restore mailboxes and their content in Mail on Mac located at https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/restore-mailboxes-and-their-content-mail15172/mac

Hopefully you have been using Time Machine to backup your computer. If you have not then this is precisely why using Time Machine is absolutely critical. If you are not familiar with TM, please review Back up your Mac with Time Machine https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250

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Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,612 points

Mar 13, 2019 12:07 PM in response to FH678

When using Time Machine you have to go back early enough to a time when you are certain the mailbox was there. Most times a mailbox disappears is due to user error, otherwise they don't just "go away."

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Answer 5

FH678 Author

Level 1

35 points

Mar 13, 2019 11:55 AM in response to rkaufmann87

I do use Time Machine, but it didn't show any of my local mailboxes. A popup on the article you mention refers to the "On my Mac" section of the sidebar in Mail. That heading is also missing from my sidebar, but most of the mailboxes I've created are shown. There is an On My Mac section under Sent, Trash, and Junk, but not a standalone section of the sidebar.

There was no information in the article about why a mailbox would go missing; any ideas about that, or other things to try to get the mailbox back?

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Answer 6

FH678 Author

Level 1

35 points

Mar 13, 2019 12:48 PM in response to rkaufmann87

I went back as far is it would go (October 2018). As I said, Time Machine doesn't show ANY of my local mailboxes, including the 20 or so that do show in the sidebar in Mail.

And I can search for the emails that are in the missing mailbox and get a list of them, so I assume the mailbox is there somewhere but not visible for some reason. I'm not saying it isn't user error, but is there a way I could have made a mailbox invisible without deleting it?

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Answer 7

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,612 points

Mar 13, 2019 1:39 PM in response to FH678

Your welcome. Glad that was it.

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missing mailbox

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