Mail on mac stuck 'moving messages'

I have the same issue. The solution worked for me ...

I manage a Gmail and an MSN mail account via Apple Mail. At odd times the app gets stuck in "Moving Messages xx of yy", which never seems to end.

I deleted first the Gmail account - the problem persisted. Re-defined the Gmail account.

I then deleted the MSN account, which resolved the problem. I re-defined the MSN account, and the problem did not recur, at least for some time.

Now, every time this issue arises I delete and re-define the MSN mail account - not perfect, but it works for me.

I found I can often get it in the "Moving Messages" state where it is no longer syncing between O365 by doing a command-z (undo) from a delete or move.

Sometimes I can restore by rebuilding the involved mailboxes and restarting mail. Other times I have to delete and re-install the account. Then read through thousands of messages to catch up again. Not sure I'll be using the product much longer.

Thans for that and my problem was also on an Exchange server. I have, however, now sorted out my problems and no idea how I thought up the system but it works!

In Mail I have a work account and two personal accounts one being my iCloud email account that I hardly ever use. If I now have emails that I can't delete on my work Exchange account, or even move, I simply highlight them and drag them into my iCloud email folder Once there, now sitting in the Inbox , they can be deleted or moved anywhere else.

I'm voting up this; the URL reference is dated (V4, vs V7 currently), however, stopping mail, removing the envelope index files, relaunching mail to force an index seems to have resolved the problem. I also changed the settings to use local storage for drafts, deletions, etc. was done to see if I can prevent this in the future. There's clearly a problem running Mail and Outlook on the same account to change Mail's assumption on where things are.

I'm forced to use Outlook on my corporate account because of the interaction with Forms, Calendar, and other Microsoft things. I'd just use Mail if I could.

I had success with "Erase Deleted Items". Right click on your mail Trash can. Also "Erase Junk Mail".

Hello Dan RubCR and welcome to Apple Support Communities.

I see you're having some issues with syncing to an Exchange server using Mail on a Mac running Catalina.

Troubleshoot email problems in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

Start with the tips there. As this is an Exchange account and appears to be server related, your best step would be to remove the account and then add it again and see if syncing functionality returns. If it does not, then working with your IT department or whoever administers the Exchange server will be your next best step.

Cheers.

This advice doesn't work. There are a number of users expeirence this issue in environments that all have the same attributes. (Exchange, Mac Mail, Catalina or Mojave, etc . etc).

Please cross reference this case in opening your case. The more people who report this issue the more likely it is to get fixed.

101014877688

Even though I don't have an Exchange account, this "moving mail" issue has been bothering me for a long time.

Iv'e tried everything mentioned in this thread and the final solution was deleting the "Envelope index" files described here on Computerworld. Thank you lawryj.

I've had this problem ever since I installed Catalina and I've tried everything suggested here, as well as spending two hours on the phone with an Apple tech and doing everything again (about 12 restarts). The thing is that it's interfering with my work at this point. As a professional translator, I need to be able to download documents immediately to read them so that I can submit timely quotes. I also need to be able to read and respond to emails related to said quote. I wasn't able to do any of that. So I've fixed the problem by closing mail altogether and just opening icloud in safari and using that as my desktop mail. It's worked wonderfully and I plan to keep using it until Apple figures this nightmare out!

Hi DanRubCR.

That assumption is easy to understand. However, it's not totally unknown for a piece of software or network connection that worked on one version of an OS needing to be updated to work with a new version. Working with the Exchange administrator will be your best path forward on this.

Cheers.

Update - I now have 5 messages stuck.

I believe this has something to do with the way Rules handles the Exchange messages.

If I turn off all rules, the messages come in with all content. If I turn on a rule that moves the message from the Inbox to another folder, then the email message comes in blank (all black body, but the email subject and send time/date shows up).

Rules work fine on all other non-Exchange accounts.

I'll keep finagling with this until they update Mail.

I have the same problem with an Exchange account. I had 421 messages stuck, and just tried taking all accounts offline and then bringing them back, Exchange last. Now down to 41 messages, which is a huge improvement, so thank you! One thing I wonder: with my IMAP accounts, I see that I can control the mapping of mailboxes between my Mac and the server, but with Exchange, the 'Mailbox behaviors' area doesn't offer that option. So I wonder whether with Catalina, the mapping of local "trash" onto server "trash" or "deleted" or whatever gets disrupted? Maybe this is obvious (or obviously wrong!).

I'm not sure about that (mapping of folders). Did you put a trouble ticket in and reference the original ticket I posted above? Please do so if you can--the more folks that report this error the more likely it is Apple is going to fix it.

Also note: once suggestion that my new company tech support offered was to delete the account EVERYWHERE -- on the mac, the iphone, ipad, ianywhere and then reinstall it on the mac, let it fully sync and then, and only then, add it back to the iphone and other sources.

I did that it worked for the most part but only for about 4 weeks or so. Once there is an error or any kind of corruption it went back to it's old problems.

I really think Apple has an insidous problem here that they are not aware of.

Hello,

I have the same problem which I can only resolve by removing the enveloppe file and getting the mailbox rebuild. The same thing happened to me when I upgraded to the predecessor of Catalina. It took me months to get it fixed and it only happened when I wiped out my Mac and rebuilt everything. This was suggested by Apple Support. Took me 3/4 days to get back to normal working environment but could never confirmed that it is what made it worked because Apple released an intermediate upgrade at the same time. Here again Catalina upgrades triggers the same issue... soo I am hoping that one Catalina intermediate release will fix it.

I am seriously thinking of never upgrading again...

Apple knows about the issue but does not prioritise it because it is probably difficult for them to fix it and people can always use Outlook :-)

Best of luck!

This happened to me yesterday on my mac book pro, I was stuck on moving messages and savings drafts; I have two linked devices and whilst both would download new mail, neither would show deletions I made on my mac; As I knew the issue had arisen within those days I realised the offering file or instruction to move the file occurred in that time frame. I forced quit mail, went into Finder and located the mail folder; I then searched all files in the mail folder within the last two days which came up in descending file size, I started by deleting the larger files and then the corresponding folders, and also some of the others which I could identify as definitely unnecessary for me (although I would have deleted them all over that time frame to solve the problem) I did this a few times, each time then shutting down the mac, and repeating the process. At some stage I deleted the offending file as on the third time rebooting and opening mail, it started to delete drafts, move messages and started working again as it should. Good luck.