accidentally deleted emails mac mail

porlockmr wrote:

Working on so many emails, I have occasionally accidentally deleted messages while reading them by pressing backspace. a silly mistake, but the messages are nowhere to be found. how can i recover them? I've followed online tips on recovering emails, but can never find the emails I've lost.

i just experimented, pressing backspace on an email i sent to myself. it has been deleted from the inbox and the sent box. grateful for any help.

Look in the trash ?

if you do not see the trash, add it in

Verify your Mail>Preferences>Accounts>Mailbox Behavior

Mail User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

Good to hear that you have recovered at least some functionality.

I have read of other users reporting the missing Bin(s) or Junk folders before as a consequence of accidentally deleting the "Bin" rather than the contents of the Bin.

The Apple Mail app is a part of the Apple OS and you could always start the Mac in recovery mode and choose to reinstall the OS, which would put a fresh copy of Apple Mail, and all the included Apple applications on your machine, whilst keeping your data and settings intact.

There is always a very small risk that something will go awry during a OS reinstall and it is recommended that you have a fresh Time Machine backup on an external drive to fall back on, just in case your data is lost when reinstalling the OS.

Your might also be able to reset Apple Mail by booting the Mac into Safe Mode one time, which clears out several system cache files associated with Apple applications.

There is no need to do anything in Safe-Mode, just start the Mac in Safe-Mode, allow it to boot to your user desktop view, leave the Mac alone for ten minutes while hidden background tasks complete and then restart the Mac.

These two links explain how to reinstall the macOS from recovery mode and how to carry out a Safe-Mode boot:

About macOS Recovery on Intel-based Mac computers – Apple Support (UK)

How to use safe mode on your Mac – Apple Support (UK)

Will.

Hi porlockmr

Can you provide a cropped screenshot of your Favourites list in Mail?

Be careful not to reveal any private information when taking a screenshot.

When you hover the mouse over the "Favourites" heading and click on the small circle with the "+" symbol to enter the Favourites setup you should see the list of folders that you can add.

Folders that are already in the Favourites list are "greyed" out, as in the snapshot of my mail Favourites setup page, shown below, mailboxes not yet added to Favourites are shown brightly, click on any brightly highlighted folder in the Favourites setup tab to add a Folder or Bin to your Mail Favourites folders listing.

All deleted mail should appear in both the respective Bins or Junk folder for each account and the "All Bins" or "All Junk" mailbox, as in my setup.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the Favourites setup tab you can open your individual email accounts and add separate Bins or Folders from those accounts to your Favourites list too.

All deleted mail should be automatically placed in either the "All Bins" folder or the "All Junk" folder.

If you aren't seeing those folders, or the Bin and Junk folders are present under your Favourites but contain no deleted mail then something else is not configured correctly in Mail, or you have a corrupted macOS installation. But first verify that you are seeing those Bin and Junk folders under your Mail Favourites listing and if not can you add them as described above?

HTH

Will.

You would look for the deleted folder (or inbox) in your Mail/library/V9 directory. You will have to work down through the folders to find it. Then copy to desktop and then once back in mail import.

You may find them by following this advice:

Import or export mailboxes in Mail on Mac – Apple Support (UK)