Mail does not show emails in view, only "Loading" grey graphic

Try this, worked for me:

1.In Finder, open your Utilities folder and double-click Keychain Access

2.Once Keychain Access loads, in the menubar, click "Keychain Access" -> "Preferences"

3.In the Preferences window, click "Certificates"

4.Change the dropdown for "Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP):" to "Off"

5.Change the dropdown for "Certificate Revocation List (CRL):" to "Off"

6.Close the Preferences window

7.Quit Keychain Access

8.And you're done!

Had exactly the same problem on one of my 4 mail accounts. Since one week, no way to upload past mails.
The mails of any date after the LION update display correctly, but none of the mails before.

Strangely, the other mail accounts do display (most of) the mails contained, but some older ones not: there is no pattern as to which date the cut-off is - it is different for each account. The entire Macbook was re-indexed (with Spotlight) after the LION installation, so the searching Dot within the spotlight lense no longer appears.

Major bug from a user perspective, as effectively all previous mails become inaccessible.

Any other users with similar problem?

I tried the solution proposed by DoctorDee - very well explained, was easy to do. I did subsequently close mail and restart the Macbook. However, it did not solve the problem,

Solutions?

Hi,

I've had EXACTLY the same problem on my 2010 MacBook Air which I upgraded to Lion a couple of days after Lion came out.

The laptop is used as a companion machine to my main Mac Pro and as such I had the 2 POP3 accounts which are on it configured to not delete messages from the server.

As I had all the old e-mails on my Mac Pro (which I've kept on Snow Leopard for fear of losing access to my existing e-mails) I simply deleted all the existing e-mails on the MacBook Air. I realise this solution won't be suitable for everybody!

All new e-mails arrive fine.

Today I have been contacted by a colleague who has recently updated their MacBook to Lion and experienced EXACTLY the same issue. Unfortunately in their case, they have no other machine with the e-mails on so are now completely unable to access existing e-mails, instead they just get the "Loading..." message (exactly as shown above). My colleague uses POP3 accounts but does not have them configured to leave the messages on the server.

This is a serious issue - is there a reason for it or a real solution (reverting to Snow Leopard as mentioned above doesn't fix this issue, it just overcomes it by ignoring it).

If DocterDee's solution is effective - can you please explain why this is so?

Many thanks,

Richard.

Ok - Had the same issue: Loading gear in the message viewer window:

Very simple solution.

In the Menu Bar select: Mailbox> Rebuild

You will have to do this for each mail box individually, but all my messages have populated, and it only takes a few moments for each mailbox. Hope this helps!

Your suggestion either deletes the old emails in any folder you Rebuild, or the are not visible. Can't figure out if they are gone or not visible, however, your suggestion does NOT work & until we figure this out, do not rebuild any mailbox with old mail or it will vaporize before your eyes...