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Q: Time machine not restoring email file

Using Mountain Lion on MacbookPro.  When I try to restore en email, I go through the procedure and hit restore on the selected email in the selected TM backup.  TIme Machine reverts to the current Mail as usual but does not create the restored email.  Mail screen says Mailbox Not Selected.  There is no time machine folder in On My Mac and no recovered files subfolder under that.  On my older MacbookPro Time Machine created these and the recovered file shows up there.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 25, 2013 3:20 PM

by Linc Davis,Solvedanswer
Linc Davis Linc Davis
Level 10 (207,936 points)
Applications
A:

Although you can restore messages from a Time Machine snapshot within the Mail application, it generally won't work with messages that were saved by an older version of Mail. In that case, you have to use an alternative method.
   
Triple-click the line below to select it:

~/Library/Mail/V2
 
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
 
Services ▹ Reveal

from the contextual menu. A Finder window should open with a folder selected. Inside that folder are subfolders representing your Mail accounts. The names refer to the email addresses you use. Decide which ones you want to restore messages from.

Enter Time Machine and scroll back to the snapshot you want. Select the account folders you want and then select  Restore ... to... from the action menu (gear icon) in the toolbar of the snapshot window. Restore the folders to the Desktop, not to their original location.

From the Mail menu bar, select

File ▹ Import Mailboxes...

Import from the mailboxes in the folders you restored to the Desktop. The imported messages will appear in a new mailbox. Move the ones you want to keep wherever you like and delete the rest. Then delete the folders on the Desktop.

Posted on Jan 25, 2013 4:59 PM

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Q: Time machine not restoring email file

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Linc Davis,Solvedanswer

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jan 25, 2013 4:59 PM in response to Cat's away
    Level 10 (207,936 points)
    Applications
    Jan 25, 2013 4:59 PM in response to Cat's away

    Although you can restore messages from a Time Machine snapshot within the Mail application, it generally won't work with messages that were saved by an older version of Mail. In that case, you have to use an alternative method.
       
    Triple-click the line below to select it:

    ~/Library/Mail/V2
     
    Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
     
    Services ▹ Reveal

    from the contextual menu. A Finder window should open with a folder selected. Inside that folder are subfolders representing your Mail accounts. The names refer to the email addresses you use. Decide which ones you want to restore messages from.

    Enter Time Machine and scroll back to the snapshot you want. Select the account folders you want and then select  Restore ... to... from the action menu (gear icon) in the toolbar of the snapshot window. Restore the folders to the Desktop, not to their original location.

    From the Mail menu bar, select

    File ▹ Import Mailboxes...

    Import from the mailboxes in the folders you restored to the Desktop. The imported messages will appear in a new mailbox. Move the ones you want to keep wherever you like and delete the rest. Then delete the folders on the Desktop.

  • by Cat's away,

    Cat's away Cat's away Jan 27, 2013 3:27 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 27, 2013 3:27 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Hello Linc,

     

    Sorry for the delay in replying.

     

    Thanks very much for the advice - much appreciated.  I followed and all good now.

  • by Werner Goldbach,

    Werner Goldbach Werner Goldbach Feb 6, 2013 5:13 AM in response to Cat's away
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Feb 6, 2013 5:13 AM in response to Cat's away

    Hello Linc,

     

    I'm sorry, but you answer seems rather a tricky workaround than a real solution. Although it works, most surely TimeMachine isn't supposed to work like that! At least it should not...

     

    I have exactly the same problem here and it has nothing to do with the version of Mail.app used when your data got backed up. I'm using ML since day one but when I try to recover a mail form last month the "official Apple way" through Mail.app, after clicking the "Recover" button, nothing happens. There should appear a folder "TimeMachine" in Mail.app's sidebar, but nothing happens! Looks like a bug to me. Has anyone found a solution for this?

     

    Thanks,

    Werner

  • by TimboRubio,

    TimboRubio TimboRubio Feb 16, 2013 4:34 AM in response to Werner Goldbach
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 16, 2013 4:34 AM in response to Werner Goldbach

    Thanks Linc, your advice worked for me, but I agree with Werner - this is a bug in Time Machine and we shouldn't have to resort to restoring mailbox files then importing them to get round it.

    I deleted an e-mail account prematurely just a few days ago, and haven't updated Mail or anything like that in the meantime.

    I was able to find the old mailbox in Time Machine, hit the restore button, Time Machine exits and a box appears stating 'Restoring Mailbox', but then it goes away and.. nothing - no folders created in Mail or anywhere else with restored messages.

    Apple need to fix this or provide some advice.

    Tim.

  • by Rembo1974,

    Rembo1974 Rembo1974 Jun 24, 2013 4:39 AM in response to TimboRubio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 24, 2013 4:39 AM in response to TimboRubio

    Mail does exit after being done restoring your mail. It is a bug BUT mail has been restored. Try making a smart mailbox. Use the criteria . "Contains all messages that match 'ALL' of the following conditions" select "Message is in Mailbox" scroll to "On my Mac" there you will see a folder "Time Machine" containing your restored emails/folders.

     

    After closing your new smart selection you will see the recoverd messages.

     

    All you have to do now is create a new mailbox and move the found messages from your smart selection.

  • by voiceness,

    voiceness voiceness Dec 7, 2015 10:27 PM in response to Rembo1974
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 7, 2015 10:27 PM in response to Rembo1974

    I had the same issue.  Wow.  That was much easier than re-importing.  Thanks Rembo.

    I would love to know where that time machine folder is on the mac so I can clear it out.

     

    Chuck

  • by fiberhome,

    fiberhome fiberhome Mar 2, 2016 7:12 AM in response to Rembo1974
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 2, 2016 7:12 AM in response to Rembo1974

    Rembo's trick was easy and helps some, but I'm not sure how much good it really did for me. After an email meltdown yesterday, I attempted Time Machine recoveries three times of an Inbox from one email account and got nowhere. The box had nearly 10,000 emails, so I thought it had overwhelmed Time Machine, and instead imported the email files buried in the Library folder of an external clone of the hard disk. Cumbersome, but it got the missing emails.

     

    Today I tried Rembo's trick and found that the "Time Machine" folder actually contained three folders -- one called Recovery, a second called INBOX and a third called INBOX-1. I used separate Smart Mailboxes to import all three, and found that the first one (from Recovery) recovered a few mails (making it look like a partial recovery I tried and abandoned), and the last two recovered the same large numbers of mails. But the second two recoveries pretty much matched those from the Import. Neither seems to have captured SENT mail although I asked for it in the second case.

     

    Were the folders inside the Time Machine folder from the three different recovery attempts? This all seems a rather odd way to do things.