mail folders disappeared on OS X El Capitan

And the fix doesn't deal with the fact that you can't move messages to the trash folder. Any solutions for that?

I have just upgraded and find that ALL of my created mailboxes (ones that I keep in Mail and are only on my computer) are gone! I clicked on Rebuild but nothing has happened and now it's greyed out.

Will the Mailboxes I've created return? Where have they gone?

This doesn't work for me. I've tried this several times.

I've lost all of the Mailboxes that were 'On My Mac'. I've seen these referred to as subfolders.

I'm getting nervous now because I see that the uncheck, re-check fix is working for many people. Alas, not for me. I had about 20 sub mailboxes On My Mac.

Happened to me. Enabling accounts does bring them back but it hast transferred over one of my e-mail accounts at all so there's no account to enable. More serious is that it has lost all of my sub folders that have saved e-mails in them. Going to have to either reinstall my original Yosemite system from Time Machine, or just bring over the e-mail folders. But I am somewhat amazed and annoyed that this has happened. Black mark to Apple for this upgrade, however good El Capitan is, the upgrade should not wipe out stored e-mails and accounts.

I have the same problem. Unchecking and rechecking was entertaining, but it didn't work.

I am missing over 6,000 messages! WTH?

Same has happened to me. It was all fine on my iMac, although I had trouble reconnecting our BTInternet mail accounts. That's sorted now. The main issue is with my MacBookPro. All mailboxes have disappeared including all subfolders. In Accounts, all have gone with the exception of my wife's BTInternet account which I can longer connect to, eventough the password I'm entering is correct.

I'm an IT Test Manager and can't believe this version of the operating system has been released with such a critical bug in it. Poor QA on the part of Apple and really diappointed with them.

I also had problems reconnecting my USB keyboard to the iMac. I found a way round it and will post a response in any relevant thread.

My problem was also on a Macbook. I have left my iMac for now and until Apple come up with a fix for this. I'd backed up onto Time Machine before the update and have recovered all the mail folders from Time Machine, so in that sense nothing has been lost. Like you I'm amazed that Apple has released this software with such a critical bug.

Unfortunately my MacbookPro was not backed up, although my iMac is regularly. Luckily most of the mail is filed away on the iMac. Do you or anyone else know Is there a way to sync the Mailboxes and sub-folders on the iMac with my MacbookPro Mail?

I had this problem too on my iMac, but not on my MBP. I recovered the mailboxes as follows:

In Finder go to your Library

Add the Mail folder that shows there to your sidebar shortcuts

In Mail go to Import Mailboxes - under the File menu

The finder window that appears will have Mail in its side panel

Navigate to Mail/V3/Mailboxes

you will find all of your mbox files here

Select the one you want and import (you can do them all together).

They will show up in Mail - although they will all be under an "Import folder" which you can rename

Hope this helps

Hello Nickk

I'm sure yours is an excellent suggestion and will help others.

My problem is that the Mail folder does not show up in my Library.

I've attempted to retrieve from Time Machine. I have located my missing On My Mac mail folders.

I go back to Mail and attempt to Import a mailbox. I go to Time Machine, and weirdly, even though I can see Mail (and the V2 / V3 folders you mention) when I open Time Machine, there is no Mail folder from which to choose.

BTW, when I'm in Finder and in the Go menu, I can choose ~/Library and then the Mail folder appears in the listing. However, when I try to import, I can't get to this Library listing. I'm not savvy enough to figure out a work around.

I'm really stuck. I think there are others who have spent years developing a 'filing system' of their own that involved moving emails messages to folders created On My Mac. How can it be that these cannot be 'seen' and retrieved with relative ease?

I'm grateful and appreciative of any suggestions.

PS - I'm a BT customer through and set up as IMAP accounts. Does this matter?

Hello Pammyf

You need to first open Mail, then with Mail still open "Enter Time Machine" and locate the last back up before installing El Capitan. You should then see the Mail window with all the old folders. You'll need to click on each folder and then restore, then repeat for each missing folder. The missing folders will show in your current Mail window in the Mailboxes side bar under "On My Mac"

Frustratingly this advice is hard to find on the Support page, but I remembered having to go through this route because of a previous problem with my BT account.

Hope this works.

Hello blongwor

Oh dear. Something weird has happened. When I looked in my Time Machine folder, I could see all of the Mail folders I want to put back into Mail. What I hadn't known is how to "enter' Time Machine. So I when to that app and entered this way and found my screen bringing up the list etc. as I'm sure you are familiar.

Now, I do not see the Mail folder in my Library listing on Time Machine. I fear I may have lost all of this back up.

Would you know why my Mail folder no longer shows up on Time Machine? I'm very confused now.

I'm sure it's something to do with Library vs ~/Library. It's being able to access ~/Library from apps such as Mail and Time Machine.

Thanks in advance for any help you may offer

HI, I don't know if this will help you, but I lost two local mail folders after upgrading. I recovered them my simply recreating the mailboxes within mail making sure I used the same folder names. When I did this all the saved messages reappeared.

Hello rosemj2

How did you do this? I can create new mail folders On My Mac, but cannot import any that I've saved. The Mail import doesn't allow me to import from ~/Library, where I find the Mail folders and V2 / V3 folders.

If you could provide a step by step account, I'd be grateful.