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Local mail folders disappeared (Mojave)

Today I've noted that all my local folder in Mac Mail are missing. How can I get them back?

Yesterday I've installed the latest Mojave update (security) and everything looked fine. But I can't remember if Mail has all the local folder (there are many, as I keep and organize my eMail in local folders) shown.

Any help is welcome. Thanks.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Dec 28, 2021 2:12 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 29, 2021 10:18 AM

I've checked and compared the local disk with backup; all the folders are in place on my macs SSD. So I wonder why Apple Mail "forgets" that there are local folders and where they are located? Such links shouldn't break just-because!

Elsewhere I found an article on how to import Apple Mail local folders but it is tricky to figure out which of the .mbox folders contains the actual emails.

Anyway my folders are back but they are now located inside a newly created 'import' folder and they are sorted alphabetically, not the way I had them arranged.

Hope this doesn't happen every week or so ;-)


7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 29, 2021 10:18 AM in response to Matti Haveri

I've checked and compared the local disk with backup; all the folders are in place on my macs SSD. So I wonder why Apple Mail "forgets" that there are local folders and where they are located? Such links shouldn't break just-because!

Elsewhere I found an article on how to import Apple Mail local folders but it is tricky to figure out which of the .mbox folders contains the actual emails.

Anyway my folders are back but they are now located inside a newly created 'import' folder and they are sorted alphabetically, not the way I had them arranged.

Hope this doesn't happen every week or so ;-)


Dec 29, 2021 10:53 AM in response to uhu

Start with this if IntelMac...


Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

Jan 5, 2022 1:11 PM in response to uhu

When I type in ~/Library/Mail on my current Mac I get 4 folders: Mail lost and found, V2, V7, V9 and a property list called PersistenceInfo.plist. Inside Mail lost and found is another folder called Mailboxes and inside that is all the folders I had previously set up for my offline emails. So how do I get those back into my mail application?

Jan 5, 2022 1:53 PM in response to JohnnyAbunai

as I mentioned in my response: if you find your local mails (usually stored in various folder) then you can import these local mails within the Mail program.

Under the File menu you find an item down below reading "Postfächer importieren.." in German, might be "Import mailboxes...".


All my stored emails are located in a folder named "V6" (V6 was the one for Mojave), I just selected V6 and then started the import. This worked for me. Unfortunately all these folder were put into a folder labeled "Imported Mails" and my folders inside were sorted alphabetically. So I had to reposition them, and move them out of the "Imported Mails" folder. But at least my local emails are now back again.


Local mail folders disappeared (Mojave)

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