I archive my important emails to icloud. Just now I selected a few mails and moved them to archive on icloud. They disappeared. I cannot find them in any mailbox. Please help how to retrieve them??? I thought the idea of icloud was to save mails securely. Is there any way to access emails stored on icloud?
MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)
If you have that option you have setup your email account incorrectly, that option (remove from server etc) is only available to POP systems, and mixing POP with Imap will cause exactly the symptons yu desribed.
Setup the account correctly on your Mac, here are the settings to use.
iCloud Server information
IMAP (Incoming Mail Server) information:
SMTP (outgoing mail server) information:
Note: If you receive errors using SSL, try using TLS instead. SSL is required for both IMAP and SMTP connection with iCloud. POP is not supported by iCloud.
iCloud email is Imap only, how did you manage to set it up as a POP system?
I did archive it using the archive command in the mail client on my Mac Pro. But it disappeared and didn't come back. I checked the Archive folder, the inbox. Force quit mail, came back and checked again. Logged into icloud with browser and checked all folders there. Nothing! All mail is gone. This is very upsetting! I thought iclpud is for remote backup to keep important mail safe. Instead it has lost all my important mail. And I see 1000s of similar queries over the past couple of years. There should've been a solution by now!
iCloud is NOT a backup system don't use it as such. That said your emails should be in the iCloud Archive folder (can you now confirm that you have iCloud email, an @me or @icloud address please)
Did you look in the Archive folder on the website, was there an Archive folder on the website?
That is news to me! If iCloud is not backup, what the **** is it?
Yes, I do have an iCloud.com email address. And I already checked in the archive folder both in Mac mail client and on iCloud.com, though it contains a few emails from other folders the emails I had just archived have disappeared.
Surprisingly I found some of those emails on my iPhone. Not sure how coz it is supposed to in sync too.
Any help in resolving this will be most appreciated.
muniraajmal wrote:
That is news to me! If iCloud is not backup, what the **** is it?
It is a data synchronization service, using it as a backup leads to disappointment usually. Shall I take it that you don't actually backup at the moment (Time Machine or some other) because you may need one right now.
muniraajmal wrote:
Yes, I do have an iCloud.com email address. And I already checked in the archive folder both in Mac mail client and on iCloud.com, though it contains a few emails from other folders the emails I had just archived have disappeared.
Surprisingly I found some of those emails on my iPhone. Not sure how coz it is supposed to in sync too.
Are any of your iCloud clients (Mac Mail, iPhone) actually in sync with the iCloud website (meaning that they are the same, not similar)
I wasn't actually using it as backup. But in the archive option, for a few important messages I chose to archive in iCloud thinking it'd be safer. Little did I know it'll eat up my mail :p
On synchronization, isn't it weird that done of the mail is there on iPhone but not Mac or iCloud?
If none are in sync you have problems to solve, working correctly it is not possible for the data on the server (website) to differ from the client, they all read from the same place.
Sign out of iCloud (on all clients) restart them and sign back in.
And do you have a backup or not?
They should've been identical as I kept them in sync. But appears like iPhone has gone out of sync recently for mail only. Calendar and contacts are alike everywhere. Will have to do a deep analysis to check what exactly is happening.
A copy of my email goes to gmail. But there could be emails sent using cloud.com email address which aren't stored anywhere else. I still don't understand why an option to archive in iCloud or send email as iCloud is given when it isn't even reliable.
muniraajmal wrote:
They should've been identical as I kept them in sync. But appears like iPhone has gone out of sync recently for mail only. Calendar and contacts are alike everywhere. Will have to do a deep analysis to check what exactly is happening.
A copy of my email goes to gmail. But there could be emails sent using cloud.com email address which aren't stored anywhere else. I still don't understand why an option to archive in iCloud or send email as iCloud is given when it isn't even reliable.
I think you need to slow down and try to understand how iCloud works.
The mail part is a standard Imap account, if it is providing different sets of data from client to client it is NOT working.
How does a copy of your email go to Gmail.
muniraajmal wrote:
They should've been identical as I kept them in sync
Are you sure that you are talking about iCloud, there is no mechanism available for you to 'keep them in sync' so tell me, what are you doing to 'keep them in sync'?
Contacts and Calendars are DAV servers and according to you they are working, so the issue is with email only? Correct?
You still have not answered the question I asked about whether you backup or not?
I'll check about that thoroughly.
However, my main issue here is: why did my mail vanish?
And this issue isn't specific to iCloud. It's a mail client issue, as once previously also while I was moving all messages from a smart mailbox to a sub-folder they vanished. Now too when I archived all messages in a smart mailbox to iCloud they vanished. Usually whenever you archive or move a message, it disappears for a sec but then reappears - which I guess is because of it being IMAP. Sometimes it doesn't appear and I have to switch folders and then switch back again to view it. But in these 2 instances the mail didn't appear in the folder again nor is to be found anywhere else.
What I've inferred from the scenario is that:
1. I should never bulk move/archive messages.
2. I should stop archiving to iCloud (why is the option even there then?)
3. Mac mail client is a crappy one with lots of bugs that haven't been resolved in years (I see similar complaints since ages but Apple doesn't pay heed)
No, I don't have a time machine. However, I use my personal server in addition to the icloud email and the incoming email to my personal server is forwarded to my gmail account also. Hence, I can search some of the messages there.
Regarding your query about sync, I checked my phonebook and all the latest entries I had to iphone are in my Macbook contacts also. I know calendar is synced coz I get same alerts on both phone and mac. For email I have the option in Mac to delete from server after a week and previously messages older than a week vanished from my iphone - since I have set iphone account as imap. However, recently I've noticed they don't vanish, at least not all. I'm confused really. Not sure how it's supposed to behave.
Not iCloud! That is imap. My personal server email account is set up as pop on Mac. But the emails belonging to this account I moved to archive on iCloud. I've been archiving this way for months. The purpose is to remove them from inbox, but whereas I archive most mail on Mac, some important ones I archive on iCloud so they are accessible from everywhere. This time when I selected all emails in the smart mailbox (some of them were previously archived to iCloud but there were some new ones in the same threads that weren't archived), all the emails vanished. I hope this clarifies things. I use multiple email accounts on my devices.
One question: are the smart mailboxes on iCloud or Mac? Because I mostly have smart mailboxes instead of sub-folders.
muniraajmal wrote:
I hope this clarifies things.
Yup, you have a non standard configuration and no backup.
Smart Mailboxes do not contain mail, they contain search results that point to the original mail, so if an email in the Inbox meets the Smart Box criteria it will appear (additionally) in the Smart Box. But it is the same email, moving it out of the Smart will move it from the original location.
Moving large amounts of email from local to internet storage takes a lot of time, and is prone to failure, move in small batches.
You are destined to lose some data if you choose not to backup, think about the value of your data.
It wasn't a big batch, hardly 20-25 emails I think and only few had attachments. I don't have any complaints from any apple software but their mail client has been giving me issues since beginning. From crashes to losing data and unable to complete actions... perhaps I should think about installing a better email client. Any suggestions?
As for backup, I plan to get time capsule eventually but unfortunately right now can afford a free solution only. And gmail surely is the best free solution right now.
Gmail is not a backup system, it's a mail system.
I'm beating a dead horse here, if you don't want to backup it's your choice, it also signifies how little you are prepared to do to safeguard your data, good luck.
Your emails are most likely lost.
Mail disappeared after archiving to iCloud
