I didn't know what REBUILD was, as I was exploring my mailbox commands, thought that there would be a drop down from that button, but when I hit it, suddenly the mail app started downloading messages, (it says there's 5K + messages) so I quickly shut down the mail app. Can I undo hitting that button??
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
It's not downloading messages. It is indexing the ones stored on your Mac that have already been downloaded.
All of the things you see in Mail are driven by a database. That database gathers all of the information about the raw messages stored on your Mac and uses that information to rapidly display and search the raw messages. Rebuild tells Mail to delete the database and reindex the raw messages.
Despite what it says, it is not downloading anything.
You basically have two choices at this point:
I would suggest the first option over the second.
Ref: Rebuild mailboxes in Mail on Mac - Apple Support
Thanks for your answer. I didn't have a backup. However...I turned off the mail app and I am now backing up in time machine. So, I don't know if it will work, but I am going to finish the backup now, then allow all of the emails to download, and hopefully then restore the backup that is happening now without all of the emails downloaded from the Rebuild. Hard to explain, but I will give it a try. I won't know if it worked until the time machine backup is completed and then again restored.
beebells7964 wrote:
Thanks for your answer. I didn't have a backup. However...I turned off the mail app and I am now backing up in time machine. So, I don't know if it will work, but I am going to finish the backup now, then allow all of the emails to download, and hopefully then restore the backup that is happening now without all of the emails downloaded from the Rebuild. Hard to explain, but I will give it a try. I won't know if it worked until the time machine backup is completed and then again restored.
There is no harm done in Rebuilding a mailbox.
Typically this is done if you are having issues... to sort things out, and get back to normal.
REBUILD button hit by accident in MAIL app
