There is a problem with your mailboxes!

Yes, I have a another user profile, which I rarely use, but which apparently stores the same exact photos which I import from my camera into my default user profile. I didn't know this until I went onto the other user profile last night. So I assume that my two user profiles previously must have taken photos from the same library, but for some reason my "upgraded" default profile is using another library now.

I can't seem to find the "switch to library", but when I go into the File > Import to Library, it will not allow me to chose to import the iphoto library file which is on my user > pictures. So is it perhaps a question of rights somewhere that I need to change?

Maybe you can't find it because you are using an older version. It may be under iPhoto preferences, advanced. You will need to see which file path you are using. Perhaps it was always using the profile of the other user to store. iPhoto will not store pictures to separate libraries at one time. Something was not right. If they are in the other user, copy them to another location as I said so you can replace the library of the default user. Then you should be able to open them up in the main user. Just be sure the file path is correct to that library.

Ok - I will give it a try later. I have changed some permissions (as I couldn't paste onto my default user profile from the other profile) and have now run into problems with not enough storage space. I need to go now but will try again this afternoon and let you know how it goes. Oh - and on my to-do list for today is also to buy a new Time Capsule 🙂

You can't paste directly into the other user's folder except to the desktop of the other user. That should change the permissions for the other user to open from the desktop. Or, copy to an external drive and copy to the other user when logged into that user.

Problem totally solved. I did as you said.. copied the file to desktop and then "switched libraries" by holding down the option key while iphoto was starting up. Thanks again for your help. I hope I won't need your help again any time soon :-) Have a great evening.

Your welcome. Glad

it worked out.

Hello Glenn,

I'm also having a similar issue to W. Harrison and have tried both of your suggested fixes but neither of them seems to work for me. I'm hoping you might have another trick or two up your sleeve 😉

The 'Library/Mail/V2/MailData' file directory doesn't exist when I go via my Finder menu. My disk verification check wasn't OK and I don't have the original disk to run disk repair as advised, so I downloaded Apple Jack and completed disk repair as per their instructions. Now when I hold down CMD + r during boot to try to get to the Mac OS X Utilities screen nothing happens.. I'm just taken though to the standard log in page.

I can open Mail now, but I have lost all previous messages. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Sounds like you may have different issues going on including a corrupted disk that you had to repair.

Do you have a Time Machine backup? If not, you should backup your data before you loose all. If you have your mail stored locally, you may have lost it with the hard drive repair if that was the damaged sector. You should be able to retrieve it from a backup.

The user Library home folder is hidden in Lion. In the Finder, select Go in the menu and hold the Option key down. Library will appear in the list. Select it and a window will open in your Home Library where your user settings are stored.

If you can't boot from command r, then you may have lost that partion on your drive unless you have a newer computer with it built in. If you have a TM backup, that also should have a recovery boot within. Restart the computer and hold the Option key down. If you have a TM recovery boot, I believe it will be listed as Mac OSX (not sure exactly), but you should be able to distinguish it from your regular startup drive.

Apologies for the late reply, the holidays well and truly got in the way!

In the end Time Machine backup saved me, I was able to easily rebuild each mailbox and folder that way. Thanks very much for your assistance while I was panicking 🙂

Glenn Thank you for posting this I know it was over a year ago but it fixed my problem today! Only question now is what do I do with my envelope index files (I had 15 of them by the way 😮)

The purpose of moving them out of the Maildata folder is so Mail won't see them and it will create new files to replace those. Once you move the envelope index files out of that folder to the desktop or trash, when you start Mail, it will create new files. You can then trash the old ones you moved out.

I don't understand why you had 15 of them. You should have only had 3 different ones. Check the Maildata folder and that's all you should see. As I said, delete all the others you moved out.

Worked ror me too Glen, manty thanks..

... now just got to sort out quick look helper going nuts every now and then and using 100+ % cpu

Don't suppose you have a solution to that one ? nobody else seems to..

thanks again

DM

Glad that helped you.

I don't have an answer for Quick Look (assuming you are referring to quick view). That would probably be part of the system. If it a constant problem you could move preference files to the desktop and restart. See if the behavior continues. You can put them back after. You might also create a new user and see if the problem happens there also. If it doesn't, then you will know it is in your user library preference files. If it does happen with the new user, then it will be a main system file problem.

Try booting in safe mode. This would disconnect third party software which could be causing a problem.

You might also check your memory with Activity monitor. If you are using all free memory and have a lot of page outs, then you may not have enough memory.

Just trying to give you some direction to narrow the problem. Maybe create a new post with that specific problem if you hadn't done so already. Someone will eventually be able to help you.

Thanks Glen

I shall run through these troubleshooting steps sometime over the next few days or so.

If you narrow the problem to your user account and the problem is specific to the Mail application, then you might try moving the Mail preference files from the preference folder of your user account to the desktop. Make sure you quit Mail first. Mail will go back to the application's default preferences. It may fix your problem. Good luck.