Apple Mail deleted all my mail!

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. 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.

My inbox just suddenly started deleting emails a few days ago. I tried this, but the email still didn't repopulate my inbox. I know it's in there, because the number of emails in the Library folder was correct, but I came back to the same few in my inbox. I held onto that library folder, because I don't want to lose those emails. Is there anyone who can help?

You might want to start your own post since this one is from last year. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.

Try rebuilding the mailbox.

Rebuild mailbox

I want to delete my inbox mail

Select the first e-mail, hold down the shift key, and then select the last e-mail. Hit the delete key.