resetting mail preferences in mountain lion

From the Finder. Hold down the option key and select Go from the menu>select Library. Then Preferences folder. Delete the file "com.apple.mail.plist." Then relaunch Mail. Of course you could just do it from Mail menu: Mail>Preferences>Accounts.

I can't find "com.apple.mail.plist" on user/library/preferences folder!

There's only "com.apple.mail.plist.lockfile"...

Is there other place to look?

Try this:

If Mail is open, quit and re-launch.

Open Mail Prefs and change something, save the change, then open Mail Prefs again and change it back.

Quit Mail

Restart.

Repair Permissions

Restart.

sorry but it still doesn't working...

Sorry about that. It was worth a try.

Something else you could do:

Make note of various prefs in each account in Mail/Prefs/Accounts, then delete each account and set up anew.

Like you, I also only see a apple.mail.plist.lockfile preference file. I'm unable to update changes in mail preferences.

You are running what operating system? If ML it's not there. Try Library>Preferences>Application Support>Mail>OnlineAccountTypes>com.apple.updated.mailaccounts folder.

Did you ever find the Apple Mail preference .plist ? I also can't send email?

Chuck

I know this is an old thread, but maybe will help someone. In order to find the 'com.apple.mail' folder in Mountain Lion, you have to go to Library>Containers, and you should see the 'com.apple.mail' folder in there. Delete the entire folder, launch your Mail app, and your Mail app should create a new 'com.apple.mail' folder and function properly again.

I'm running 10.8.3, and it seems like it has some kind of bug that is knocking all of these programs for a loop, including iPhoto and iWork, where preferences have to be trashed in order for the app to work again.

Hope that helps.

Additionally, or alternatively, I have found it helpful to rebuild mailboxes, which avoids the need to find the plist. Simply select a mailbox (or category of mailboxes) in Mail sidebar and from the Mailbox menu choose "Rebuild."

To repair an iPhoto library, quit iPhoto, then press and hold Cmd-Opt, click and hold iPhoto icon and choose Open, keeping Cmd-Opt pressed until Photo First Aid screen appears.

Thanks for that. Unfortunately, I tried both of those prior to trashing the preferences. In mail, the rebuild button was greyed out and was not an option. Cmd-Opt in iPhoto continued to open iPhoto to the same error screen that was being caused by the dysfuntional preferences and cached items.

I've never had any kind of issues like this with any previous version of OSX. Based on the changes/issues I've seen in iTunes, Maps, and these OS issues, seems like Apple's design and quality control isn't what it used to be when launching new software.

Thanks. I should have written "sometimes avoids the need to find the plist."

Recent OS updates do seem to be especially sensitive to third-party login items and preference panes.

Does really nobody know where exactly Apple Mail in version 6.3 saves it's preferences files (all off them please!)?

I need to restore my whole mail database from an time machine backup.

When I just restore the Mail folder in the library folder the account settings aren't restored, too.

I found it by myself.

These files should be restored to fully recover a previous mail database (incl. settings etc.):

• /Application Support/Mail

• /Mail

• /Containers/com.apple.mail

• /Application Support/SyncServices/local/FSM/com.apple.mailAccountsConfiguration

I hope I could help others with the same problem!