Tommytune72

Q: An error occurred while moving messages to mailbox “(null)”.

When I delete a message, I get the following error: "An error occurred while moving messages to mailbox “(null)”."  What's more, the message does delete, but it doesn't end up in the trash, or anywhere for that matter - it's lost forever.  Anybody know a fix?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 17, 2014 3:54 PM

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Q: An error occurred while moving messages to mailbox “(null)”.

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  • by Brett L,

    Brett L Brett L Oct 20, 2014 12:45 PM in response to Tommytune72
    Community Specialists
    Oct 20, 2014 12:45 PM in response to Tommytune72

    Hi Tommytune72,

     

    If you are having an issue with moving emails to the Trash, I would suggest rebuilding the affected mailboxes, in this case both the source (where the message was when you tried to delete it) and the Trash. Rebuild mailboxes by following the steps in this article -

     

    Mail (Mavericks): Rebuild mailboxes

     

    Note that while the article title says Mavericks, the same steps apply to Yosemite.

     

    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

     

    Best,

     

    Brett L

  • by Tommytune72,

    Tommytune72 Tommytune72 Oct 22, 2014 7:31 AM in response to Brett L
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Oct 22, 2014 7:31 AM in response to Brett L

    Brett, thanks, but unfortunately that doesn't help.

    Tom

  • by Brett L,

    Brett L Brett L Oct 22, 2014 9:30 AM in response to Tommytune72
    Community Specialists
    Oct 22, 2014 9:30 AM in response to Tommytune72

    Hi Tommytune72,

     

    Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Due to the nature of the issue you described you may find more information by using another one of Apple's support resources - https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action.

     

    Brett L 

  • by cosmic sister,

    cosmic sister cosmic sister Oct 23, 2014 1:31 AM in response to Tommytune72
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 23, 2014 1:31 AM in response to Tommytune72

    If you get a reply Tom, please let us know on here.  I have the same problem but don't want to pay the £35 for the answer.  :-/

  • by albalboy,

    albalboy albalboy Nov 16, 2014 8:00 AM in response to cosmic sister
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 16, 2014 8:00 AM in response to cosmic sister

    Hi,

    I´m having the same problem. Attaches is screenshot of message.

    If anyone finds fix please let me know.,

    Alex

     

    Screen Shot 2014-11-16 at 07.34.21.png

  • by PDJ-SF,

    PDJ-SF PDJ-SF Nov 16, 2014 4:01 PM in response to Tommytune72
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 16, 2014 4:01 PM in response to Tommytune72

    I experienced the same error.  I rebuilt the mailbox but that did not solve the problem.  I deleted the account and set up again.  No problems after that.

  • by Tommytune72,

    Tommytune72 Tommytune72 Nov 17, 2014 5:33 AM in response to PDJ-SF
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 17, 2014 5:33 AM in response to PDJ-SF

    PDJ-SF, I'm glad that worked for you.  I didn't want to do this because my account is through iCloud, and deleting the Mail portion of it means disconnecting all the other iCloud services and then reconnecting them.  I also figured that it would accomplish largely the same result as rebuilding the mailbox, as in Brett L's solution above. 

     

    But, I decided to go ahead and try deleting everything.  The good news is that it didn't take as long as I thought it would, and after signing back in and checking all the boxes, iCloud services appear to be working.  The bad news is I still get the same error message when deleting messages from my Inbox, and the message seems to be gone forever.

  • by albalboy,

    albalboy albalboy Nov 17, 2014 7:05 AM in response to Tommytune72
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 17, 2014 7:05 AM in response to Tommytune72

    With me, out my six accounts it only happens on one of them. Unfortunately the one I use the most...

  • by tbiske,Helpful

    tbiske tbiske Nov 25, 2014 3:54 PM in response to Tommytune72
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 25, 2014 3:54 PM in response to Tommytune72

    I found a way to fix this.  I assume you're using an IMAP account.  If so, you should be able to expand the mail account and see the folders that exist on the server.  Find the one you want to use for Trash, select it, then go to the "Mailbox" menu and find "Use This Mailbox As..." and select "Trash Mailbox".  You can do the same for sent messages, junk, etc.  Once I did this, the message stopped appearing.

  • by Tommytune72,

    Tommytune72 Tommytune72 Nov 25, 2014 8:24 PM in response to tbiske
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 25, 2014 8:24 PM in response to tbiske

    Thanks for the reply.  That was suggested in another forum on the same theme, but did not work for me.

     

    HOWEVER, since the last update to OS X, I have not noticed the problem.  After the update my Trash folders all seem to have returned to normal, looking like trash cans, and deleting messages in my inbox doesn't bring up the same error message.  I'll let you know if anything changes, but so far so good.

  • by Jason Smith5,

    Jason Smith5 Jason Smith5 Jan 2, 2015 11:43 AM in response to tbiske
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 2, 2015 11:43 AM in response to tbiske

    Thanks, this fixed my problem.

  • by jonceramic,

    jonceramic jonceramic Jan 4, 2015 6:50 PM in response to Tommytune72
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 4, 2015 6:50 PM in response to Tommytune72

    Hi,

     

    I was trying to set up an email account with Mail using my hostgator email account to use IMAP.  I've just recently upgraded to Yosemite.  Like the other poster above, "Use This Mailbox A..." worked for me, and I wanted to reiterate that here for future generations to unearth via google...

     

    I have seen a TON of messageboard questions to this error... "An error occurred while moving messages to mailbox “(null)”."  This happened for trash, junk, and draft saving of emails.

     

    I could see the various folders underneath my mapped email account main folder, but they weren't showing up in my mail's groupings.  Except, when they'd try, they'd show up with a big grey dot beside them an an arrow down.

     

    So, I saw some help files on rebuilding my mailbox from here: Mailbox>Rebuild.

     

    I tried that and it wouldn't work.  But, then, I noticed this setting just above it...  Mailbox>Use This Mailbox As...

     

    That's the trick.  Just pick your IMAP junk folder, and pick "junk".  Pick your IMAP's deleted folder, and pick "trash".

     

    Boom boom boom, and the error message disappears and everything is "live" on my IMAP account. 

     

    Worked like a charm!

     

    Jon

  • by bettyfrommonticello,

    bettyfrommonticello bettyfrommonticello Jan 5, 2015 9:04 AM in response to tbiske
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 5, 2015 9:04 AM in response to tbiske

    This worked for me. Thank you for solving a problem which has troubled me for months. In my case the problem account listed multiple boxes under trash. By choosing one  as the trash box the others (draft, sent, junk, trash) disappeared and I was left with a functioning trash for this account.

  • by mickpilsworth,

    mickpilsworth mickpilsworth May 1, 2015 6:49 AM in response to PDJ-SF
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    May 1, 2015 6:49 AM in response to PDJ-SF

    Yep, after many many attempts at different solutions the old "delete the account and re-install it" worked for me.

     

    Is now working fine, thanks!!

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