Mail on mac stuck 'moving messages'

Question

Mail on mac stuck 'moving messages'

I copied this from a 2020 posting that was made inactive. I was having basically the same problem, using Apple's Mail under Tahoe. I was able to resolve the issue, with information in that previous thread, which I'll post below, in case anyone is having the same issue. I do have an email account hosted by GoDaddy that uses Microsoft Exchange, which I think is the source of the issue.

"I use Mac Mail for emails, synced with an Exchange account. Ever since the Catalina upgrade, when I move an email from the inbox to other folders, or when I try to delete them, the Mail app gets stuck in 'moving messages' and so I would see the movement or deletion of the message locally, but it will not make the change in the server and the change will not sync to my other devices.

I tried restarting with no success. Also deleting the account from the app and adding it again. This did solve the issue for a day and then the problem returned.

This is a recurring issue. Please help."

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Oct 13, 2025 12:02 PM

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Answer 1

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patrickfromsanta barbara Author

Level 1

52 points

Oct 13, 2025 12:21 PM in response to patrickfromsanta barbara

I've quoted the reply below to that 2020 thread, that helped me solve my issue. In my Library folder, I the specific MailData files I was looking for were in the V10 folder, not the V2 folder. I did make backups of them, in case I needed to reinstall them, as a safety measure. Also, I find it easier to get to the Library by clicking on the desktop (to get into the Finder), then click/hold on the Go column in the menu bar at the top of the screen, then pressing the Option key to make the Library show up.

The reindexing process took a matter of hours instead of minutes, but all seems to be up and running correctly now.

"Repair & Reindex All Messages in Mac OS X Mail App

The user gets a message after following above steps that the mailbox must be repaired but you have to do it manually. So, the steps are:

Get out of the mail app & go to the Finder
Hit the command+shift+g & go to the path: ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/
Delete all the files that begin with Envelope Index (Also take a backup of these files before deleting)
Close the MailData Window & then Relaunch the Mail App to force re-indexing."

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Answer 2

AlWeir

Level 5

5,103 points

Oct 13, 2025 12:16 PM in response to patrickfromsanta barbara

I use the Outlook.app for Microsoft emails like Hotmail and Outlook and Mail for everything else. Found it works better than having everything on Mail.

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