IMAP mail disappearing from desktop/laptop mail program, but OK on iPhone and IPad mail program

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Level 1

15 points

IMAP mail disappearing from desktop/laptop mail program, but OK on iPhone and IPad mail program

I have a problem that is driving me crazy. I search the mac help forums and the Google, but no solution was found. Looks like lots of other people have similiar issues.

I have an IMAP mail acccount that is accessed on my 4 apple devices. I have OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 on my iMac and MBA. I have iOS 7.1 on my iPhone and iPad.

All mail accounts are configured the same way for the subject IMAP account. Sending/Receiving/Viewing the IMAP email on my iOS devices works as it is supposed to.

However, on my OS X mail devices (laptop and desktop), my IMAP inbox mail keeps disappearing and (usually) reappearing later in the day. The mail in the IMAP Sent and Trash folders is always present; it's just the Inbox mail that keeps disappearing. This is causing me a lot of frustration. Anybody else have this problem? Anybody have a solution?

iOS IMAP mail works great. OS X IMAP mail does not.

Thanks.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Apr 8, 2014 10:10 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Apr 9, 2014 12:50 PM in response to Steve Kaylor

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

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder

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

A folder window will open. Inside it there should be files with names as follows:

Envelope Index
ExternalUpdates.storedata

Move those files to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have longer names that begin as above. 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. Typically, the process takes a few minutes, but it may take hours if you have gigantic mailboxes. In that case, you may be able to speed things up by temporarily adding your home folder to the Privacy list in the Spotlight preference pane. Remove it when Mail has finished importing.

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

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Answer 2

debeenus

Level 1

9 points

Apr 9, 2014 2:11 PM in response to Linc Davis

Hi Linc,

would this trick also solve the issue I am having? I am using iMAP accounts as well (GMail), currently two things are happening

1. It sometimes takes a long time for my mail to be loaded (sometimes I have to Quick and restart Mail to make it happen)

2. My search tool in the upper right corner doesn't find emails any more, sometimes a few out of hundreds that needed to be found.

Thank you :-)

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Answer 3

Steve Kaylor Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 15, 2014 12:26 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for the suggestion Linc.

My apology for the delayed response. I was travelling and needed to update both my laptop and desktop.

In the big picture, my problem is solved; however, if I follow 'pop up' messages from the mail system, my mail disappears again.

I'm not sure if it is 'mail provider' specific, but my provider, and Apple, recommend that I have the prefix 'INBOX' as my IMAP Path Prefix on the Accounts/Advanced tab. If I add that in, my inbox mail disappears again.

What happens without it (the INBOX prefix), is that I cannot store deleted messages on the server. If I have the box checked to 'store deleted messages on the server' and I do not have the INBOX prefix filled in, I get error messages when I try to delete a message (and the message does not get deleted). And, If I add in the INBOX prefix, all of my Inbox messages disappear.

My solution at this point is to not worry about my deleted messages. With that approach, everything functions correctly across all of my devices. Once agian, my soultion was to perform the above recommended steps by Linc Davis, NOT add the INBOX prefix and NOT check the 'store deleted messages on server'.

I may dig into it a bit more in the future, but for now I am enjoying it as-is.

-Kaylor

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