Lion Mail missing folders

No, I'm talking about the server information in Mail --> Preferences --> Accounts. Each exchange account has an internal server and external server field. If you only have one exchange account I don't think you need to mess with this at all, but if you have two accounts it is best to use the server name (i.e. email.hostaccount.com) for one and the IP address (i.e. 120.149.132.47) for the other. Same entry in both internal and external server field, in each account. I do not remember how to find the IP address of a mail server though, I found a thread once that had a terminal command to achieve that, but there are also websites that'll do it...

I'll second what BrujoBelize is saying here. I recently got a new iMac with Mountan Lion on it and my folders started disappearing again. I remembered the above Terminal fix that I had seen posted and tried it out. It's been working fine for me since. No missing folders. No automator actions. No hassles.

Giving the Terminal command a shot. Hopefully this will keep my folders intact.

make sure you de-select (disable, turn off, whatever...) the "use autodiscovery" checkbox in the account information in Mail app preferences.

Yeah this seems to be more of a solution where as my suggestion is more of a jerry-rigged hack (aka Kluge). Thanks BrujoBelize!

BrujoBelize, thank you for discovering this!! It has been driving me NUTS for over a year, and, of course, I'm the only one who's ever seen any issues - because no one else uses two exchange accounts on the same server.

Come on Apple, whatever kludgy way you've implemented folder syncing, it obviously isn't very robust if it gets this easily confused. Please fix it. Only about, what, 90% of your business customers use Exchange!

Well, first and foremost, it proves that I'm not crazy! Because every single day, across all my machines, folders would just disappear for no apparent reason.

I have 2 exchange accounts on the same server, and other IMAP accounts scattered about as well. I've only ever had issues with the exchange accounts, using the Mac Mail client. I changed one of the servers (at the DNS level) so that they appear as different domains to Mail. This is the same as using an IP address for one of them. As long as they are different, it seems. Then, I disabled auto-discover and applied the defaults tweak for 100 day interval. It hasn't been 100 days, but I presume this will work as designed.

So far (a few days), no missing folders. Prior, I would see missing folders every single day. My daily workaround was to dig into the Accounts.plist and delete the FolderHierarchySyncState key, which would force Mail to re-sync mail. That at least got me my folders back for a day.

So, what has behaved for me, thus far, is:

1. use IP addy for one of your accounts

1b. this may cause certificate warnings, just Trust Always to suppress

2. Disable auto-discover in Mail (for both exchange accounts)

3. apply the 100 day autodiscover tweak

(BrujoBelize - do instruct us if we've missed other things across these 20 pages that are actually part of the solution and not just valid stabs in the dark to treat the symptoms)

PS: I should add that I have also had other exchange accounts on different servers, but I never saw any issues caused by that

Yup, all in one post, but for your convenience here it is:

FIX FOR TWO EXCHANGE ACCOUNTS (more than two won't work):

1) use the server name (whatever.server.com) for one account, and the IP address of the server for the other account (find the IP of your server using a site likehttp://www.mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx)

2) using terminal enter the following command without the quotation marks, which makes the autodiscovery active only after 100 days: "defaults write com.apple.mail ReautodiscoveryTimerInterval 864000"

Of course you have to disable the "autodiscover" box in the account setting in the Mac Mail preferences. But if you happen to see the toggles re-activate themselves in the future, it shouldn't make any difference, I've had no folders disappear since.

This has been working for me for months and months.

Message was edited by: BrujoBelize By the way, I actually found this fix someplace else, but I honestly cannot remember when. I think I found one half in one place, and the other half elsewhere, and combined them... but who can remember. Sorry for not giving proper credit where it might be due. I'm also not sure why the 100 day limit in the terminal tweak, but I've never felt like investigating after the months and months of pulling my hair out with this problem! :-)

Hi again, sorry for the lack of clarity...

1.

I'm referring to two mailboxes/accounts on ONE server. I have several domains hosted by Network Solutions, I used to have four Exchange mailboxes but for a variety of reasons (including this giant issue) I cut back to two. So the server is the same for both accounts/mailboxes. Hence the need to diversify one Mail account with the server name, and the other with the IP address. I am not sure, but I would guess that if the servers were different, the problem we've been experiencing would probably not arise... but someone will probably tell me otherwise.

2.

The terminal command is definitely key, because otherwise eventually the autodiscover will revert to the server name... I tried that in the past, before implementing the terminal command, and that is indeed what happened. So in all honesty I'm not sure if step two (terminal command) would be sufficient without having to change the server name to the IP address (or perhaps even work with more than two accounts), because by the time I got things workin I had spent entire days (cumulatively of course) on this problem, and was so fed up I didn't feel like experimenting. Plus my memory is a bit hazy at this point, but FOR SURE the terminal command is essential for the fix to work.

As to the problem of the fix only being good for three months, I also did not want to experiment with changing the 864000 value that I found in the other posting. However, I see no reason whatsoever why we shouldn't be able to re-enter the terminal command periodically, before the 100 days expire, thereby "resetting the clock".

Good luck, and thank you for your perseverance and input with this issue. It was actually your original post that brought me to getting things to work. I hope others find it, this problem has disillusioned me about Apple, kinda sad.

Thank you for this solution.

I am running Mail 5.3 on 10.7.5. I cannot find the autodiscover option in Mail preferences. Can someone kindly post a screenprint.

There may not be an autodiscover checkbox in 5.3/10.7.5, I don't remember with what update it was added. You may want to update your OS and get on the latest, to make the fix work. Here's the screenshot:

Thank you. You are right, 10.7 does not have that option. I have also been informed by my exchange hosting company that they cannot provide the IP address as "it is behind a firewall using load balancing so the IP can vary". They have suggested that I run one of the mailboxes under IMAP.

I think I may have to go back to Outlook for Mac.

Well, I would try the Terminal command before giving up, unless going to Outlook is no big deal for you, as it "may" be sufficient to fix the issue. If you decide to try the Terminal tweak, I would suggest that after doing so you also disable (not delete, just disable by unclicking the "enable this account" checkbox) the the exchange accounts in Mail, quit, shut down, restart your computer, open Mail, and re-enable the accounts, thus making them sync with the servers more fully. Good luck!