Where is my mail folder on my mac

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Level 1

14 points

Where is my mail folder on my mac

Okay I hope to make sense here....

I had all my mail in the icloud. I then created a folder on my mac for mail older than 6 months. Then mail that was older than 6 months in cloud I moved to my mac.

In mail I had renamed the older than 6 month folder. I still see my old mail in mail. I can't find the corresponding folder on mac, or when I do it really is odd size. Mail in folder on mac is housing 10 years worth of email and coming in at 300MB when I think it would be way bigger, like 1 TB.

I created a new folder in mail, but I can't find the coorseponding folder in documents---> mail folder.

Where is the mail folder on the mac? Where does it naturally default too?

Thanks,

Andy

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Feb 14, 2015 6:52 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 14, 2015 7:27 PM in response to licna

From your question – I'm not clear on your ultimate goal / concern:

Are you desiring to Archive mail older than six months and remove that from Mail?

With a better understanding of your goal -- I can help you to a solution.

The Mail folder is not a user-friendly place. I'd never much around in there or risk corrupting it.

If you haven't done a Rebuild lately, I'd highly recommend you start there:

– Select 'Mailboxes' to left side of App menubar to reveal General INBOX and sub accounts

– Highlight each Mailbox, one at a time, and under 'Mailbox' in Top Menu Bar select 'Rebuild' at the bottom

– Mail in the list preview may disappear as the database is reindexed and optimized

– Repeat for each Mailbox

– Then QUIT and relaunch mail

Please post clarification, and we'll do our best to assist you.

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Answer 2

licna Author

Level 1

14 points

Feb 14, 2015 7:39 PM in response to Michael Sidoric

Thank you of the quick reply and I kind of now have more info.

Since posting my question I "exported" the mailbox and voila, 2.6GB of info. So I think I have some solution.

"Are you desiring to Archive mail older than six months and remove that from Mail?" Not from Mail, but the iCloud, but when I did remove from icloud, I want to make another back up, even though I have time machine. I want to basically burn a DVD or put old email on other storage media.

"With a better understanding of your goal -- I can help you to a solution." Okay great, appreciate it! I hope I made/make sense.

"If you haven't done a Rebuild lately, I'd highly recommend you start there:" Ummm I've never rebuild.... so I also wanted to back up the data before I rebuild I think, right? I have no other copy, these emails were removed from the iCloud, and put in a mail folder on my mac (which I can't find the mailbox (mbox) on the mac, user name--->documents---> mail folder---> there is no corresponding mbox that I just created, this folder/get info says circa 2012), so the mail on my mac is not copied from iCloud. Technically I do have the time machine backup.... but you never know if that gets corrupted.

So my thought prior to rebuild is to export, as a back up, then rebuild? As to mailbox naming, since I have no idea where the corresponding folders are on my mac, exporting first, might be best option. If I rebuild, will that break or possibly lose data?

Thoughts?

Andy

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Answer 3

Feb 14, 2015 7:53 PM in response to licna

You are on the right track. The rebuild is to re-point the database so the that mail can be found to be exported.

Think of it as housekeeping for the database. It's a good idea to do that periodically within the Mail app itself.

Exporting a Mailbox or Archive is a superb idea for long-term off-line storage to save space on a computer.

Rebuilding is your friend in Mail -- not a risk. It keeps the data structure updated and pointed correctly.

I'd never recommend mucking with the Mail folder, or sub-folders which is precisely why they are normally hidden.

I've seen some massive mail loss after curious fingers played with the innards.

There are also several excellent apps that will automatically archive mail to an external database or drive.

I've used MailSteward for years and found it to be powerful and reliable. The developer is responsive and updates

are frequent: www.mailsteward.com

I'd also highly recommend creating Smart Mailboxes to allow you to differentiate / sort mail. There are a huge

variety of options. Sit back and explore -- remember that a Smart Mailbox is really a folder of search results.

The emails that appear therein are actually in their original location -- the smart mailbox is displaying search results.

If you want to move those emails to 'On Your Mac' to retain them – just select them all and MOVE them to a new,

named folder – then export that archive for safe-keeping.

Your problem is all-too-common –– I hope this helps.

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Answer 4

licna Author

Level 1

14 points

Feb 14, 2015 9:00 PM in response to Michael Sidoric

Okay what you have said makes sense.

I do use smart mailboxes. I normally keep email 6 months worth in the iCloud, then move them onto my mac, but all into just one folder. I have seen what I call "folder farming" go to extreme. I figure after 6 months as long I keep it simple and in just one folder, if I need it I can get it, use the spotlight feature. My problem now was where the heck was the mail folder... so I could back up the newly moved mail.

"If you want to move those emails to 'On Your Mac' to retain them – just select them all and MOVE them to a new, named folder – then export that archive for safe-keeping." That is what I did but I still can't the folder, but I was able to export the folder and now move to external drive.

I will look in the mail steward as well. Appreciate the help!

Andy

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