Cannot rename mailbox I created

Question

Level 1

55 points

Cannot rename mailbox I created

I am trying to rename a mailbox that is a sub-mailbox to another, both of which I originally created to store email messages. I can highlight the name and type a new one, or I can go to the Mailbox menu and select Rename Mailbox, then type the new name. In both cases I get the following error message:

Mail was unable to rename “~/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes/AFS.mbox/EBO”.

Has anyone seen this type of problem? Is there a solution for it? I've not been able to find anything online.

Macbook Pro 15" 2 GHz Intel Core i7-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 4 GB RAM

Posted on Feb 23, 2012 9:40 AM

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Answer 1

aah98

Level 1

13 points

Jun 16, 2012 9:16 AM in response to GAdams

I had the same problem, and was finally able to rename mailboxes by doing this:

In Mail, click out of the folder you're trying to rename. I went to the Inbox.
Close Mail.
Go to Finder...Library...Mail...Mailboxes.
Single-click on the mailbox you want to rename.
Single-click on the mailbox's name.
Type in the new name.
Single-click to the right of the name you entered.
Close Finder.
Re-open Mail.
Wait. Within about 5 seconds, the folders will update, and you'll see the name change. You may have to manually re-order them if you're an alphabetizer, though.

This was harder than it needed to be, and even once I thought I had the process figured out, it was a bit squirrelly. I tried it once without having closed Finder (at step 8), and the new name wouldn't appear in Mail. Also, double-clicking on the mailbox (at step 5) led me back to the same error GAdams described. And hitting "return" after typing the new name instead of single-clicking (at step 7) gave me a failed attempt, too.

Hopefully, Apple will correct the problem in an upcoming software update, but in the meantime, it's a usable workaround. Good luck!

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Answer 2

Dec 24, 2016 4:21 AM in response to GAdams

aah98 response helped me actually.

Had a similar problem. Couldn't MOVE folders. Exported mail boxes from Apple Mail OS X Yosemite and imported in a new fresh install on OS X Sierra. Got the same error message with "MCMailErrorDomain 1033" error code.

Going into Library » Mail » V4 » 1E6818E0-1521-462F-9182-46FF9C142F75 (replace folder name you find your folders structure in) I found folders with the same name previously deleted in Mail but for some reason still present on the disk.

Quitting Mail, Deleting (with Finder) these and Opening Mail again, I was then able to move and rename the folders within Apple Mail.

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