Mail crashes when trying to open Time Machine since upgrade to Catalina

https://www.apple.com/contact/

Then start the online process, specify the kind of problem, etc. Keep following the prompts and they will offer to call you. Then an Apple tech tries to solve by phone, and after some troubleshooting (which will not work for this problem) - you are assigned a Case number. I email with my case # every few weeks for an update. Always the same - aware of and working on it. But the more complainers, the faster it gets fixed

Yes, I have installed the latest update and "No" it hasn't solved this problem. I still can't use time machine to locate old emails. I am still hoping that soemone in Apple is going to come up with a solution.

FYI... I was successful in recovering my lost email from Time Machine by using the "actual" .MBOX file. Per the instructions in the link below.

In Finder Home Folder, choose Enter Time Machine from the Time Machine system menu and select the day in the past where the mailbox containing the missing email is available.

You then navigate to the ~/Library folder then the Mail Folder then "V7" - starts with V.

At this point you should be able to OPEN folders until you find the MBOX that you are looking for. Not hard.

You can select the MBOX (which can include multiple MBOX below it) and then RESTORE.

CAUTION: It will RESTORE to the current ~Library location where you may already have that folder name. I choose to rename my current mail boxes (that will be restored) in Mac Mail first so that I would not create duplicates.

I then moved the restored MBOX files to a safe location.

I then renamed my current mail boxes back to the real mail box names.

Then you do a IMPORT MAILBOX from the restored MBOX files which are put in your "on the mac" location in Mail under the folder name of Import. You can then easy move the mail messages them to the correct folder.

https://www.macworld.com/article/3272250/how-to-recover-a-mail-folder-from-time-machine-in-macos.html

Same problem here, I was hoping the latest update (10.15.2) would fix this problem but mail keeps crashing ...

d21mike's / macworld solution is to recover a Mail folder however, the problem is that mail just crashes when I start time machine.

@Apple: I (we) urgently need a solution for this problem !

Totally agree. It is very frustrating to not have access to time machine ... having this facility was a major factor in changing to Apple for work. Apple do need to address this problem and tell users when a fix is targeted for.

Richard.... I believe you misunderstood my solution. You still can not "Enter Time Machine" while in the Mail App. Mine crashes there as well. My solution, which I got from someone else is to use "FINDER" starting from the Home Folder. Then navigate to the Mail Folders "IN FINDER" then restore the mail box folders you want. You need to read my complete instructions for some things to watch out for.

However, maybe this will not work for your Time Machine Backup if it is located on a Network Storage Device (NAS). Mine is located on a directly attached backup usb drive. If yours is on a network server it might not have the same level of folder structure. But maybe another option similar to what I did.

I completely agree Apple needs to address this. But I simply could not wait and I found a workaround that worked for me and wanted to share with others that require access to older emails.

It's been a long run with Apple. About 18 years since I switched my home computer from Windows. It's time to switch back. RIP Mr. Jobs. Since he's gone, the company could care less about quality products - yes he delivered late with his obsession with quality but the products worked. Not only is Apple silent on this Time Machine issue with their own Mail app, I can no longer play iTunes music that I uploaded from CDs on my Apple TVs. Decades of music collection trapped (or held hostage by Apple) on my Mac and iPhone. I have to subscribe to some lame app (iTunes Match) and pay for it to get something I've had for almost 20 years. Why should I have to pay Apple to share music I own across my devices? I'm an old Apple (Jobs) guy - I like to own my music, not rent it. Also I'm just not a cloud guy. I like my Mac and things stored on it and backed up by me. This is just the latest change by Apple that's pulled me back to the more simple (albeit less elegant) Windows.

I have the same issue that began after Catalina was installed. I reported it to Apple, support collected a data file from my computer and referred the file to engineering. I am not aware of any work arounds.

Well good luck to you all. I really hope that Apple begins to respond the way they did years ago before Cook. I've moved on. Already bought my HP tower and have begun transferring everything including my email from my Mac 27. 18 years was a good run with Apple but times have changed under this leadership.

I posted on another forum that I found a solution that worked for me. This required me to start my "Enter Time Machine" from Finder and not the Mail App.

In Finder /Users/your userid/Mail/V7 (probably V7) .....

You will see your Mailbox's as folders which are being backed up to Time Machine. You can grab these folders from the TM Backup and place them here - maybe after renaming the affected mail boxes first before starting. Also, should close MAIL before starting (after rename).

I was able to recover my emails with above.

I wish I could give the give credit for this solution to the person that I found it from but I can not find that post. Like everything I have learned on the Internet it is nice to pass it forward when I can.

Thanks for that tip. As for me, last week I gave up on Apple Mail and bought the Postbox mail program. I'm not sure if I can get individual emails from it via Time Machine but if not, I can live without it. In all the years of using macOS, I think only twice I had to find an important email.

I've been dealing with this problem as well. It's infuriating. How can a company approve an OS update without knowing how it would effect its own applications? It's unacceptable. Just one more drop in the bucket. In the past couple years, I saw Apple get rid of the aux port on the iPhone, the USB port, and a train wreck release of their newest OS.

This issue was originally reported in October of last year. It's been 4 months and there is still no solution. The problem persists. I've decided it is the beginning of the end for my relationship with Apple.

I've switched to Postbox. It does NOT work with TM but it is not that hard to backup the entire mail database.

https://support.postbox-inc.com/hc/en-us/articles/202199540

Apple Mail has been buggy since Catalina so I've just given up on it.