Hi,
I have absolutely no idea how it happened but i have suddenly got upwards of 1000 deleted emails showing in my Inbox, greyed-out. I cant move them or do anything else with them, much less remove them.
I tried Cmd-Z when it happened, nothing happened, then I listed them by sender (Facebook) and tried to move them to Trash with no luck either.
Anyone got a suggestion?
Helen.
early 2006 mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 1.5GHz Intel, 1Gb 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Select the Mailbox, then from the Menu>Mailbox>Rebuild.
Select the Mailbox, then from the Menu>Mailbox>Rebuild.
Although it helped in un-greying the mails in the Inbox, WZZZ, the moment I tried dragging them into mailbox folders they went greyed-out..
In that case, it's time to try stronger medicine. First quit Mail, then go to your home folder Library/Mail and drag the Envelope Index file out to the desktop; this will force all the mailboxes to be re-indexed (what Rebuild did for that single Mailbox.) Start Mail back up and you will get a message about files being re-indexed. May take a few minutes.
Before doing this, with Mail quit, I would recommend first making a backup of your entire Mail folder. Hold down Option (alt) and drag the entire Mail folder to the Desktop. You will see a + inside a circle, indicating it's copying. The original will stay where it is.
Despite following your instructions to the letter, WZZZ, my emails are stuck in my Inbox.
If I don't try to move/copy them they are the usual black but if I try to move them they are greyed-out.
However If I copy them into a folder they copy then I can move them without problem, but I still have the originals in my Inbox!
Just discovered I have the same problem with the contents of my Junk folder as well as Sent. Any ideas welcome.
Helen
One more thing to try, but make sure you have your Mail folder backed up. You already did, so no need to do it again. But also make a backup copy of the Mail Downloads folder as well. It's nearby.
Navigate to your Home Folder Library, this time to Preferences, and move the file com.apple.mail.plist to the Trash. Important, don't empty the Trash. If this doesn't work you can use File>Put Back to restore everything the way it was.
Doing this will bring you to the initial Mail setup and you will have to redo all your accounts, rules, mailboxes, whatever. Before doing this, it's probably a good idea to make screenshots of everything you will need again (Cmd-Shift-4) It's a PITA, but it may fix the problem. All your mail messages should be intact, but if there's a problem along the way, you just use Put Back for that .plist file. And, you have the Mail and Mail Downloads folders backed up, which you would move/drag back to their original locations.
I havent got com.apple.mail.plist WZZZ! Tried finding it by eye, then I copy'n'pasted the filename into the search box in Finder, but no luck.
Then you must be in the wrong Library (there are three.) It has to be there. You want the Library/Preferences in your home folder, the little house icon. Spotlight won't search those files, by default.
Just stumbled across this thread and tried it and it worked for my Inbox but not for Sent and Junk. And, WZZZ, I was looking in the correct directory!
Didn't you already try the Rebuild option, or am I missing something? And you must have that file. Get EasyFind and search for it. Much better than Spotlight for searching user and system files.
http://www.devontechnologies.com/products/freeware/
This is the one you're looking for
/Users/yourusername/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
Try: View > Hide Deleted Messages
To follow up on this suggestion, maybe this?
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1605208?start=0&tstart=0
Helen, be sure this is set in Mail>Preferences>Accounts>Mailbox Behaviors. And check to see the setting you have chosen for "permanently erase deleted messages when...."
deleted emails greyed out in Inbox
