I accidentally [!*] deleted all my mail from the web and therefor also on my local mail app on my MacBookPro.
I do time-machine backups regularly. Can I retrieve those emails from a backup?
Thank you! I am running Sonoma 14.5, not sure what version of Sonoma I was running when I deleted the the mail from Gmail on the web.
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 14.5
To restore mailbox:
Open Finder
Click “GO” in top menu bar then click option key
Click on Library
Open mail folder
Open V9 or V10 (or similar) folder
Then find the folders labeled with cryptic titles (at this point you could open TM if you want to go back in time)
Look down through those folders to find a mailbox (note: there may be more than one with same label).
If it contains email you want you can copy the entire folder to your desktop
Go back into mail and import that folder from your desktop
Check your Trash folder in the email software first for folders deleted.
If you used IMAP, and did not store folders on your Mac, your provider's backups are probably the only place you are going to find those emails.
Finder Go menu -> Go to folder and type in the navigation dialog either the first line or second line:
~/Library/Mail
~/Library/Mail Downloads
may reveal mailbox files. If it doesn't then you don't have it stored under Mac OS mail.
If you use another email program such as Outlook or Thunderbird, they have their own storage location.
Thanks for your answer. The emails were deleted from the Gmail account and therefore from my local mail app.
They are not in trash. I want to know where all my emails are stored in the backups on timemachine... Assuming they are stored.
where are emails stored on my computer and also in my time-machine backups?
