Missing emails in Mail - Lion deleting them?

Would love to be able to try this on my ATT.net account, but the "Use IDLE command if the server supports it." option is grayed out so that I can't uncheck it. My iCloud account has it available for modification and I have unchecked it with no success. Every one of my IMAP accounts exhibits this behavior where the email disappears from all my iOS devices as soon as it is downloaded to Mac Mail on my iMac running OSX 10.8.2 (can't remember the stupid cat name that's supposed to be attached to that number, hate cats anyway. What's wrong with a simple and readily understandable number system?) No trouble whatsoever with POP accounts, but seem to have no option for setting up ATT.net, or iCloud for that matter, as POP account. Maddening!

DirtyDawg wrote:

Would love to be able to try this on my ATT.net account, but the "Use IDLE command if the server supports it." option is grayed out so that I can't uncheck it. My iCloud account has it available for modification and I have unchecked it with no success. Every one of my IMAP accounts exhibits this behavior where the email disappears from all my iOS devices as soon as it is downloaded to Mac Mail on my iMac running OSX 10.8.2 (can't remember the stupid cat name that's supposed to be attached to that number, hate cats anyway. What's wrong with a simple and readily understandable number system?) No trouble whatsoever with POP accounts, but seem to have no option for setting up ATT.net, or iCloud for that matter, as POP account. Maddening!

iCloud is Imap only, so it will take a very long time to force it to be POP. ATT is simply crap and behaves that way.

Thanks for the help. Long discussion with ATT tech support tonight and he assures me they still do POP, only Mac Mail 6.2 doesn't seem to want to allow me to set up an ATT account as a POP. I was able to setup my comcast as a POP, but not AT&T. I had always assumed it was an issue with ATT, but now I see it's with the Mail client. There ought to be a way to manually declare what type of account you want to setup.

AT&T is POP only and Mail supports POP just fine.

Doesn't change the fact that AT&T POP systems are awful though.

What version of OSX are you using (it helps if you include that info as my crystal ball is in the shop)

OK, forget that, I see it in your post so: go to Mail, Contacts and Calendars and choose the 'Add Other Account' option and enter the account. Do Not enter the account directly in Mail itself.

wow, I know I had a reply from my publicist that I kept for safe keeping in my inbox for about 5 days until I could respond to it. When going to my inbox today, it was gone. I did a search under her name and found the previous email threads, but that latest reply did not show up in the search in eithe Trash or Inbox.

I have 4 account in mail, my iCloud, a Gmail, and two different business accounts from One.com.

I thought I had seen this problem before, but now I know Im not going crazy.

Is there a fix to this?

I am considering using Entourage instead.

If the missing email was received in an IMAP account, make sure that every computer or other device having that account is set up as IMAP also. If just one happens to have the account set up as POP, then unintended results will easily result.

Ernie

Look on the providers website for the missing mail.

In future you should save important emails, the inbox is not a secure location.

Thanks Ernie, I will look at that.

Thanks Csound. Unfortunately, my provider for this email account, One.com, doesnt store the mail. It goes directly to my Mac. I will change those settings.

When you are on the road though, you don't have time to make folders, sort, file emails. It would be nice to rely on the inbox to just keep the emails that come in, right?

Thanks though.

SilentAlex wrote:

Thanks Csound. Unfortunately, my provider for this email account, One.com, doesnt store the mail. It goes directly to my Mac. I will change those settings.

When you are on the road though, you don't have time to make folders, sort, file emails. It would be nice to rely on the inbox to just keep the emails that come in, right?

Thanks though.

I don't disagree that it would be convenient, but losing a piece of Mail will show the error of that approach.

Csound,

Using IMAP is meant for keeping email on a server so that it can be viewed from more than one device. Moving or copying to an On My Mac mailbox can defeat that purpose. Placing, with IMAP, in a folder established on the server can be a good plan.

But I have numerous IMAP accounts, and have not lost any emails kept in the Inbox. Some services will archive to another folder, and one may appear to be lost from the Inbox.

Ernie

Ernie Stamper wrote:

Csound,

Using IMAP is meant for keeping email on a server so that it can be viewed from more than one device. Moving or copying to an On My Mac mailbox can defeat that purpose. Placing, with IMAP, in a folder established on the server can be a good plan.

But I have numerous IMAP accounts, and have not lost any emails kept in the Inbox. Some services will archive to another folder, and one may appear to be lost from the Inbox.

Ernie

Yes I know thanks. That does not stop you from copying one email to the desktop (saving) for safekeeping.

I actively avoid POP systems (and the OP's provider One is POP only) , I use only Exchange and Imap and also do not lose mail.

I grow weary of POP accounts -- so much so that I have chosen to not check some of them from some of my iOS devices. If I am going to have to process them later as Unread on my primary computer, I just wait. But if traveling, I do have them all available on some device, either iPad or laptop.

Ernie

There is one POP account that I need to look at occasionally, so I POP it into Exchange, and then it syncs everywhere.

I have thought of doing something like that, but the one I would most want to check has a lot of unnecessary traffic. Would need a Rule or Rules to only choose a few important senders.

Ernie