Missing emails in Mail - Lion deleting them?

I'm having the exact same problem that you describe. In some cases incoming mail appears in the inbox for a few seconds, but then dissappears and I'm unable to find it anywhere.

And I have the same problem with mail disappearing. Sent mail has also disappeared. Checking my e-mail with a web interface, I see the missing e-mails on the server. Searching for them in Mail gives empty results. This after I had earlier read them in Mail.

I am experiencing this as well. I have had several folders dissapear, then re-apear (sometimes), before just deleting the account and starting over by re-importing it. This seems to work sometimes but only for a bit before it happens all over again. Even the "new mail indicator number" on one of my inboxes is not displaying a number when there is several new mail waiting (of course this is happening for 1 account while the others still work). One more little issue I have experienced is I will receive a new email which i can view the header clearly, however the message body is blank. My iphone can see the entire message fine (I will admit this last bug I was experiencing in Snow Leopard as well).

In short, there seems to be a bunch of little things messed up here, and I hope this gets resolved soon. I am forced to use Outlook Web Access or my ipad/iphone to manage my email and it's killing me!

Adam, do you use SpamSieve or other 3rd party spam filter? Have you checked you Spam folder for missing emails? I have and just found most missing emails, hoping an updated SpamSieve plugin fixes my problem. I'll let you know.

I am having the same issue. Any ideas on how to fix this?

What type of account -- POP or IMAP?

Ernie

For me, Google and Yahoo, as well as AOL (I believe). They all seem to be doing it, but I am 100 percent sure that Google and Yahoo are a problem.

Same problem here. Have had to turn off mail on my mac and only use my iphone for e-mail. Otherwise I can hear e-mail arriving on my mac, (ding noise on a glass) both .me and pop3 accounts, but they tend to dissappear instantly, completely deleted, never to be found. Kind of horrified!!! Rang for support and was told to rebuild mail. This did nothing. Awaiting a call from apple support tuesday evening. Will update. You expect the odd glitch with a new OS but this is truly awful. I lost important emails today about stuff that matters. Embarrasing having to call people up and say did you e-mail me, can you send again, so I can turn off my computer and respond on my phone!!!

Same problem here with IMAP, POP, .mac/me, and Google accounts. The problem comes and goes with no pattern that I have been able to track. Some emails can be viewed by opening them in a new window instead of viewing them in the preview pane.

Message was edited by: Lori B. Added info about new window vs. preview pane.

Ditto,

I have an Exchange, 5 IMAP, and a POP account. I only have the exchange and an IMAP set up on my phone and iPad, so I only know that those are acting odd for sure. Not really sure what the problem is. The emails are showing up in searches. I have a special "ding" for when my wife emails me and that sounds, but I can only see it if I search for it. The message, along with, most, others wont show up in my inbox...

I'm a part of the developers beta for iCloud and have iOS 5 beta on my iPad but not my iPhone. Not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I figured I should mention.

I really have no idea where to start to fix this bug. Maybe adding and removing the account, but if it's a problem spanning multiple accounts, that doesn't seem likely and with the number of email I have, it'd require quite a while to sync up again.

Hi,

The fix that worked for me. Close all apps. Create a new file on your desktop. Then finder, go Press & hold alt and library appears, then go down to mail. Move mail and find com.apple.mail.plist and move both to the empty folder. This empties your email accounts from mail into the file for safe keeping incase the fix does not work. Then reopen mail which will be a blank new mail and go to preferences and maunually re-enter each e-mail account by adding new accounts. Doing this has worked on both my mobile me & pop 3 e-mail addresses. All is working fine again. The file on your desktop containing your old settings can be kept until you are certain all is good again, before deleting. Think I will wait a few days!

In Lion, my emails are showing up in the column on the left side of the screen, but when I select them to see the preview… they appear blank. Opening those same emails on my iPhone works just fine.

I am going to try mleedham's fix to re-create my email accounts. I'll let you all know how it works out for me.

I looks like that took care of it for me!

Can you elaborate on where to find these files and how to move them? I am having troubles following your intructions to rebuild themail database. Thanks.

I'm having the same problem, plus a whole bunch of others after upgrading to Lion.

1) new email arrived, then a few minutes later it disappeared. Fortunately it is still in my yahoo web mail.

2) click on inbox for individual account, no emails displayed. (Restarting mail fixes this).

3) reply to a message, but the message does not display a "replied to" arrow afterwards.

4) message status returns to "new" even though it has been read. This reoccurs several times.

These are huge problems, especially considering that I upgraded to Lion for Mac Mail.