Recover e-mails through TimeMachine problem

Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.

Back up all data. That means you know you can restore the Mail database, no matter what happens.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope Index

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder

from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens (command-V), then press return.

A Finder window will open with a file selected. Move the selected file to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have names that begin with "Envelope Index". Move those files, if any, to the Trash.

Log out and log back in. Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is damaged and that Mail has to quit. Click OK.

Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the file you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

Click on the Mailbox that you recovered to and select Mailbox->Rebuild.

You pasted into your web browser. You need to switch to the Finder. One way to do that is to click on the Desktop. Please review the instructions and try again.

You are ignoring my instructions and doing something else that you think will have the same effect. It won't.

Open the Library folder in your home folder by holding down the option key and selecting

Go ▹ Library

from the Finder menu bar. Navigate in the usual way to the folder indicated above.

I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, they may not work as described.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

ls -@Oaen L*/M*/*/M*D* | open -ef

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V.

Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.

A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. If the command produced no output, the window will be empty. Post the contents of the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window), if any — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.