Email in Exchange inbox disappear in Mail

Question

Level 1

15 points

Email in Exchange inbox disappear in Mail

I have a slightly different problem. Mail syncs with Exchange fine and I have not experienced the changed mail server issues the others have been experiencing. However, once in a while, the mail from my Exchange inbox would all disappear from Mail as if the whole Inbox is empty (save for emails from other servers like Gmail, iCloud). Originally, I thought it was a sync problem so I deleted the account and then set it up again and waited painfully for everything to sync back in. However, this phenomenom still happened randomly once in a while. This time, I just close the Mail program and restart it and then everything is back to normal.

While this is a workaround, it is nevertheless very annoying. Has anyone else experienced this with Mail and Exchange server 2007? Any ideas how this can be fixed? Thanks.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 29, 2012 7:43 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 29, 2012 8:02 PM in response to cclboss

I'm having a similar problem - mail displays in my inbox until I've opened it and then *like magic* disappears. If I can remember who it was from I can search for it and find it that way, but for all intents and purposes my inbox looks completely empty.

Unlike you deleting and reinstalling the account is not helping me at all.

There are lots of people asking questions about this on this forum and as yet I can't see any answers.

Apple - are you out there? - we could do with some help please.

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Answer 2

Jul 30, 2012 9:43 AM in response to corindagal

+1 - I'm having this same issue.

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Answer 3

D43m0ns

Level 1

4 points

Aug 1, 2012 1:46 PM in response to cclboss

+1 too. I'm having this exact same issue. When my Exchange inbox (2010) appears as empty in Mail, I click around in a few subfolders of that Exchange account (all is there, just the inbox is empty) and after some clicking around, the inbox wil display it's contents again. Quitting and opening Mail will also display the contents of the inbox of that Exchange account. Other accounts (Gmail and an iCloud address) don't show this behavior.

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Answer 4

Diedel

Level 1

14 points

Aug 2, 2012 8:57 AM in response to cclboss

+1 too. Exact te same behavior as D43m0ns described.

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Answer 5

cclboss Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 2, 2012 4:50 PM in response to Diedel

In addition to this intermittent disappearing of emails, I have noticed that the Inbox is not syncing properly with deleted emails. On one machine (like an iphone or ipad), I have read and deleted some emails but when I have check the Mail program on my ML machine, some of those deleted emails are still there but when you try to delete them, you get an error that says they cannot be deleted because the server no longer has them so it is just the local copy. I can rebuild the Inbox to overcome this but it takes a long time since my Inbox is very big and somehow the forced synchronization doesn't work as advertised.

Apple, please fix this! I don't want to have to go back to Outlook 2011.

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Answer 6

Aug 2, 2012 5:44 PM in response to cclboss

I have given up on mail. This has wrecked my productivity this week. Releasing a system that hasn't been properly tested is just rallies against apple culture. I'm really disappointed especially having read all the mail problems in so many different mail clients after mountain lion. In order to work efficiently I've had no choice but to install outlook - which was not cheap - is a horrible interface - but does work perfectly. My employer tolerates BYOD, suffers mac use in a pc workplace but draws the line at supporting Mail. I use mail because, until now Ive found it to be superior to any other mail client. Please fix this apple!

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Answer 7

cclboss Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 2, 2012 6:40 PM in response to corindagal

I agree this is pretty much a train wreck and not expected from Apple at all. I am now holding back on upgrading a couple of my other machines to ML to see if there is a patch or update from Apple soon.

In the mean time, I am noticing iCal has some issues with Exchange that did not happen before. Will start another thread to see if there are solutions to that as well.

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Answer 8

Diedel

Level 1

14 points

Aug 3, 2012 12:12 PM in response to cclboss

You can try to configure IMAP as a workaround till Apple releases a bugfix. Works pretty well on my hosted Exchange 2010. I had problems using "IMAP for Exchange" but "IMAP" works good.

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Answer 9

soloalfa

Level 1

4 points

Aug 4, 2012 10:45 AM in response to cclboss

POSSIBLE SOLUTION: I have the same problem everybody else is experiencing with Exchange.

I just found a way to make my inbox reappear permanently (at least I hope it stays that way).

Create a smart mailbox with the rule 'Any Recepient contains [your email address]'

in the new smart mailbox I see all my messages. Which are still totally invisible in the regular mailbox.

Hope this helps everybody while we wait for apple to address this crazy issue...

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Answer 10

cclboss Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 4, 2012 6:56 PM in response to soloalfa

Will give this a try as well but I did what Diedel suggested and configured one of my machines to access our company's Exchange as IMAP and that seems to be working so far. Not sure what the downside would be although I think there are some Exchange Servers that the administrators have not allowed access as IMAP servers.

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Answer 11

cclboss Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 5, 2012 9:35 PM in response to soloalfa

Ok, tried the Smart Mailbox solution on my work computer and seems to work. At least the Inbox emails are all showing here while the Exchange Server's Inbox shows nothing.

However, I have noticed another bug with Mail. On both occasions (the IMAP solution and the Smart Mailbox solution), once in a while some deleted emails remain visible on the local machine (but they have actually been deleted from the server) so when you try to delete it again, the error message comes up sayng "the message could not be moved to Trash on your exchange server". The only way I find to get past this is by rebuilding the mailbox but that takes a lot of time.

Anyone out there got any bright ideas on how to solve this? Best yet, is Apple out there coming up with a fix to all these problems?

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Answer 12

cclboss Author

Level 1

15 points

Aug 6, 2012 12:28 AM in response to soloalfa

Actually the Smart Mailbox solution has a slight drawback, if you are part of the distribution list on your company's Exchange server then the Smart Mailbox rule can't detect it since your email address is not actually part of the receipient list.😟

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Answer 13

ReSponz

Level 1

0 points

Aug 13, 2012 2:19 AM in response to cclboss

I have the same problems but all my new incoming emails arrive safely after I deleated and set up my Exchange account again. In order to get my old ones (still on the Exchange server) I did the IMAP version BUT with the addition of copying all inmails in IMAP inbox to the "regular" Exchange account inbox. Once there I deleted the IMAp account. Now I'm where I wanna be.

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Answer 14

Aug 24, 2012 7:43 AM in response to cclboss

Same problem as everyone else. 10.8.1 did not fix it, unfortunately. I have resorted to minimizing mail, not closing. That seems to help, and a few times per day quit/restart. Not ideal.

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Answer 15

Aug 25, 2012 1:27 AM in response to cclboss

Unfortunately I have the same issue with 10.8.1. And restarting Mail doesn't help.

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