Mail shows wrong message body

Thanks for the info, Linc!

I've been having this same problem, and rebuilding the mailbox (as mentioned elsewhere) usually solves it only temporarily -- the same mailbox will have the same problem with different messages (two messages having their sender and subject switched) within a few days. Before I try this, I noticed other files with the same names and a "shm" or "wal" suffix (e.g. "envelope index-shm", "Envelope Index-wal"). Should I move those to be rebuilt as well, or will that cause some problems?

Thanks!

OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Mail Version 7.3 (1878.6)

Quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.

Back up all data before proceeding.

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.

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. ClickOK. 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.

Thanks Mate, worked brilliantly. Was working on a friends computer for over 2 hrs to fix the problem and still no luck, than read your solution. Now working well again! 🙂

Linc,

Thank you for the very detailed and easy to follow instructions. I'd tried rebuilding; I'd tried synchronizing; and nothing had worked, but this worked like a charm. Thank you SO MUCH!

Hi Linc,

Just to say a massive thanks for this information. I have just started using apple mail for the first time on 10.11.1 and this same problem has appeared. Needless to say I was less than impressed with the robustness of the mail app but your solution has fixed it for me. thanks once again.

David

I've noticed this very same problem for quite some time now, and finally got disturbed enough to start looking for a solution (mainly because, for some reason it hasn't affected the folders I use the most).

I found this thread in less than a minute - and your answer solved it.

Great thanks!

Does this leave all your archived email and locally stored messages intact?

Thank you, sir. Worked like a charm

I have a similar problem where messages are showing the incorrect header and subheader, but the messages themselves are also modified in a strange way. When viewed on any other device, they read as normal, but they look like spam on this one machine. Now I can't use this machine to check mail because I might mistakenly delete an important message.

I tried your suggestion, Linc Davis, and it seemed to work for a short while, but things are incorrect again.

Here are a couple screen shots showing my situation.

On my iPad, the message loads correctly, and here's how the mailbox looks:

On my iMac, this is how the inbox looks:

The actual message appears to be embedded in the spam message at the bottom:

Anyone have any suggestions?

Also, I just noticed that once deleted, the message is formatted correctly and reads correctly. The issue only happens in the inbox.

Thank you so much. It really worked. The only thing was that in my case I needed to change "V2" into "V3". Thank you again for your help!