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Blank emails

I have a very serious problem with my Apple Mail. I have a large archive of emails, stored in hundreds of nested folders as I have used it for for over 15 years.


I'm finding that when moving emails between folders (stored locally, not downloading over IMAP) that some emails are losing their entire message body. The sender and titles appear but the messages appear blank.


When I do a Mailbox rebuild the problematic messages vanish completely.


This means I am now losing some very important old correspondence.


Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.15

Posted on May 24, 2020 12:12 PM

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4 replies

May 24, 2020 2:50 PM in response to MagicRW

Don't Rebuild if Any POP Accounts, only IMAP.


Are these foldersOn the Server or On My Mac?


Start with this...


Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

May 25, 2020 9:01 AM in response to BDAqua

Thank you BDAqua, I tried restarting in Safe Mode but this did not solve the problem.


The blank emails are in local folders On My Mac, not IMAP or POP emails in the Inbox.


Mail appears to corrupt emails that I have moved off the server into local folders.


I've lost some very important older messages.


Thanks, RW

May 25, 2020 4:44 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks BDAqua,


I'm afraid it would be much too complicated to restore from Time Machine, as these are individual emails scattered between hundreds of different email folders. And I have no idea how long ago each of them might have become corrupted.


I'm really not sure Apple Mail's database system is robust enough to handle large email archives.


It's a pity, as it's a good programme in other respects. I'm going to try migrating to Outlook, much as it pains me to do so.


Thanks

Blank emails

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