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Mail import fails repeatedly

Hi,


My computer's hard drive failed, so I've been recovering from a backup. (The computer is an iMac running mojave 10.14.6.)


I installed Mojave on a new external drive, then restored from a time machine backup onto that drive, and am booting from the external drive, while I sort out fixing the painful-to-access internal one.


Things are (partly) recovering, except when I try to open the apple Mail client. Mail had worked fine previously, and I'm using the same OS version as on the backup, however it now insists "Mail needs to import your messages. This might take a few minutes...." It takes several hours, with the bar graph inching up until the very end then tells me that the import "failed" and offers a very unhelpful message to the effect that I should make sure that I have enough space in my home folder. (I have several TB.) This occurs repeatedly.


Any ideas? My old e-mail is critical....


Thanks!


-Mike

iMac 27″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Aug 31, 2020 7:04 PM

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9 replies

Aug 31, 2020 10:11 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,


Sorry, I’m not importing from the corrupted drive. I’ve migrated the contents of an (apparently-uncorrupted) time machine backup to a new disk and booted on that disk. All is fine until I try to open Mail and on first open, Mail says it needs to “import” the already-present mail data into the latest format. (This is odd given that I don’t think the OS version changed....) And that process keeps failing.


Some of the messages are local only — e.g., archived — rather than IMAP.


Thanks,


Mike

Sep 1, 2020 7:41 AM in response to Mike G.

Hmmm, 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.


If still no good Disconnect from the Internet, then start Mail, look for the last rec'd eMail.


Does Mail crash if no internet?


Quit Mail & login to your WebMail in a Browser, if possible delete any later eMails there after the last rec'd one on the Mac.


If you have no POP accounts & they’re all IMAP accounts then in Mail’s Mailbox menu choose Rebuild.

Sep 4, 2020 11:58 AM in response to BDAqua

Thank you! This worked!


I tried unchecking "Mail" from a handful of the accounts, then re-opening the Mail app. It went through the same lengthy import/upgrade process (because I had left as checked a main account with a large quantity of mail in it), but at the end it completed successfully and Mail actually opened. I then re-enabled the other accounts.


Notably all the "on my mac" mail seems to be intact (though Mail seems to have taken it upon itself to mark a bunch of it as "junk", but kept it in the correct folder at least.)


Thanks!

Mail import fails repeatedly

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