com.apple.mail.plist missing

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Level 1

14 points

com.apple.mail.plist missing

I need to move my Mail settings & messages to a new macbook pro via a USB drive, but I cannot find the mail.plist file anywhere. I know where it should be (Username/Library/Preferences), but it's not there. The last Time Machine backup is from July 27, but recovering the file or deleting it doesn't affect the app. The weirdest part is that Mail seems to work just fine without the file. Any ideas where it can be if it's not in the Preferences folder?

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Aug 7, 2012 2:09 AM

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Answer 1

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Jarek S Author

Level 1

14 points

Aug 7, 2012 2:36 AM in response to Jarek S

Found it! Indeed, it was in Mail's sandbox container, but it wasn't showing up in Spotlight results.

For future reference, I found it in username/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences

Thanks a lot, Soehn

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Answer 2

soehn

Level 2

195 points

Aug 7, 2012 2:13 AM in response to Jarek S

Search with spotlight. Maybe it is in mails sandbox container.

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Answer 3

Jarek S Author

Level 1

14 points

Aug 7, 2012 2:18 AM in response to soehn

Tried it already. Nothing.

I also tried looking through hidden files.

And there's a com.apple.mail.plist.lockfile where it should be, but it's empty (as lockfiles usually are) and deleting it doesn't change anything.

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Answer 4

Chukk707

Level 1

4 points

Aug 11, 2012 9:06 AM in response to Jarek S

Jarek,

So glad I caught this post, I was having fits trying to find mail.plist. It looks as if you and I are doing just about the same thing- moving mail to a new machine without migration assistant?

See my post for background on my issue;

Apple Mail Manual Migration 10.6 to 10.8

I am hoping that you got your machine squared away and could give me any insight on moving things over. Now that I now where to find that silly mail.plist file, I am planning on moving my old mail.plist into the container folder and then again copying all my old mail data into Library/Mail. Did that work for you? Did you have to modify anything else in the container folder? Any help is appreciated.

Cheers,

D

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Answer 5

atobteam

Level 1

39 points

Apr 4, 2013 6:22 AM in response to Chukk707

Hi, Jarek & Chukk707,

My Mail's working fine (and I have three machines I'm on frequently), but I just got a new MacBook Air. What I want to do is this: transfer all my Mail software (not iCloud online) signatures and rules (Preferences within the Mail Application, that is) to my new Air without manually having to recreate them. Is it the username/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences file that I need to copy from another of my machines and place in my Air to replace the new machine's same file? Does that file contain what I'm looking for, and will that work? Thanks!

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