Missing emails in Mail - Lion deleting them?

I can't belive that after all these months that Apple haven't fixed this issue.

If my mail has been missed as a back up on Time Machine then I'm screwed, and how do I explain that to my customers?

C'mon Apple pull your finger out and get this "trivial" item fixed now!

FWIW here is my feedback:

Looking in the ~LibraryMail>V2>GMail account - I can see that there is a second (new) folder that's been created.

The original is "INBOX.mbox.

The duplicate is: "INBOX-2.mbox - and it's in this one I've found my missing email.

I can open and view them but so far haven't got the ones in the Mail app to work properly.

I don't want to screw this but later on will try drag and drop from new to old email box to see if that gets the mail back.

Apple really need to fix this soon and I can't understand why it's taking so long...

Bingo!

All the "missing" mails in the "INBOX-2.mbox" open and view fine.

I tested by dragging one across into the INBOX.mbox" and that worked fine.

- Deleted the (now) duplicate in the "INBOX-2.mbox" and that email now

views and opens fine in Mail.

- Repated with the rest.

- Deleted all remaining folders in the "INBOX-2.mbox" after checking that there was nothing in them I needed.

- Checked all emaisl still viewing OK in Mail and deleted "INBOX-2.mbox".

- Quit Mail

- Opened Mail and all emails viewing OK.

N.b: works for me but TEST ONE AT A TIME WITH A COPY BEFORE YOU COMMIT TO ANY DELETION.

I have the same problem. I'm in transit between two email addresses. One, a POP account, has its own hierarchy of mailboxes with email from various people and companies filtering into them. The other is a Gmail account using IMAP, also with its own hierarchy of mailboxes. I'm gradually stopping using the first account and moving to Gmail.

I was using Mailplane for my Gmail, but that meant leaving mail on the server, so I decided to switch it to Mail. Bad, bad idea. Mail makes certain emails invisible, seemingly at random. For instance, mails from the members of a certain group filter into their own Workshop folder.

In Mailplane, I can open this folder and see around 30 mails, from me and from the other members of the group - all of them. In Mail, there are perhaps 8 mails. An email from one particular person is invisible - which is to say, I can't see it (in Mail) by looking at the list of mails from various people in the Workshop folder. But if I search for her name, the email comes up as the search result - and shows its location as the Workshop folder. In Mailplane, her mail is visible.

Bizarre, and very dangerous for a sole trader for whom email is an essential tool. Apple, please remove your thumb from where you have it stored, and fix this program.

Normally a Gmail account will default to setup as an IMAP account, and as such everything is supposed to remain on the server. Setting Gmail up as POP requires special settings -- have you tended to those?

Ernie

I left it as IMAP, because my sources tell me POP is insecure.

I don't think there is any dimension of insecurity. Gmail is neither pure IMAP nor pure POP. It is designed to be a web based email system, and only begrudgingly allows access as IMAP or POP. With IMAP all the folders are seen in Mail, but the All Mail and some others can be disabled for Mail, but would still be on the Gmail server.

In Mail, control-click on the Inbox of the Gmail account and choose Get Account Info -- does this folder show in the list, and if so, how many messages is it said to contain?

Ernie

The folder shows in Get Account Info, Ernie, and it is listed as containing 36 messages. When that dialogue finished doing its stuff with the mailboxes I went to the Workshop mailbox and clicked the top email, and went from that to the bottom one, to count how many there were: 10.

With the Workshop folder open, click on Mailbox at the top menu, and choose Rebuild. Does anything change after Rebuild has run?

The issue is likely one of an indexing nature. Do you have anything installed that might be moving messages from other than in Mail?

Ernie

Nopes.

Is this in answer to both the above questions?

Ae you familiar with how to make your Library folder visible in Lion?

Ernie

I am not.

But I was reading about it today - make a folder on the Desktop, shut everything, alt-click on the folder, invoke Shadrach and Melchisadech.... something like that, isn't it?

Not really😁

Hold down the option key and select it from the Go menu in Finder.

If you need constant access to it, drag it to the sidebar.

Before doing that, Quit Mail. Now make the Library in your Home folder visible as above, open the Mail folder found within and then remove the IMAP account folder for this Gmail account -- dragging it to the Desktop for the time being will do.

Now relaunch Mail, and it will reindex your Gmail account completely as it restores the account folder for it. Should get things back to good health. If not, it might be necessary to do this again, but this time also removing the file named Envelope Index. I would want to be sure you only have the two account -- one POP and the one Gmail before you do that.

Ernie

Thanks, Ernie, it put the heart crossways in me by gobbling up everything and disappearing the Gmail stuff altogether, but this has now reappeared and it's munching away at it.... so far, so good...

Nope; 11 messages now showing in the Workshop folder.

I was about to write that I only had two accounts, but hmmm.

*In Mail* only two accounts are set up. But in my SysPrefs (Mail, Contacts & Calendars) there are also Me.com and iCloud accounts showing. Does this make a difference?