Why do emails mysteriously disappear?

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Level 1

11 points

Why do emails mysteriously disappear?

We have an IMac now running Yosemite. We also have 2 iPads. We use MacMail for 2 accounts. Emails on the iMac in particular seem to just disappear. For example. We received an email a few weeks ago to which I replied. I wanted to see the original email for its information. I can't find it. I have searched all mail boxes. I have used the email finder entering both the relevant email address and the subject heading. Nothing. I have a copy of my reply but it doesn't contain the details I need from the original email. This sort of thing has happened quite a lot. Its like the email disappear into a parallel universe to which I do not have a means of access! Where do they disappear to? Can I retrieve them at all?

Posted on Oct 9, 2015 6:03 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Oct 9, 2015 6:46 PM in response to rarmy

What backups do you have?

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Answer 2

rarmy Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 10, 2015 1:09 AM in response to Linc Davis

Ooo. Back ups? Not sure what you men - IT ignoramus here!

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Oct 10, 2015 9:13 AM in response to rarmy

If you don't know what backups are, you don't have any. I suggest you shut down the computer immediately and don't turn it on again until you have at least one external hard drive (two or more recommended) to dedicate to backup. Each backup drive must have at least enough capacity to hold all the data on the internal drive comfortably, as well as any data that you have on secondary drives. Then follow the instructions in this support article.

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Answer 4

rarmy Author

Level 1

11 points

Oct 10, 2015 9:28 AM in response to Linc Davis

Ah, I have Time Machine set up to an external hard drive. Sorry - I wondered if you meant some sort of specific back up for all my email mailboxes. I have looked at how to rebuild mailboxes. Thanks for the link. I shall have a read through. However, do you know why emails might disappear in the first place? They arrive, they are in the inbox, and then I go to reply ( Ive just found another one missing this morning) and they are not there anymore. I can check all mailboxes but they just aren't there. I can find an email trail - but not the emails I actually want. It seems bizarre. Sadly this does not seem to happen to emails I don't want!

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Oct 10, 2015 9:38 AM in response to rarmy

I don't know why the messages are disappearing. That could be very hard to determine unless you can reproduce the behavior at will.

Bring the Mail browser window forward, then enter Time Machine. You'll see a series of Mail windows cascading back in time, each representing a snapshot of the Mail database.

Scroll back to the most recent snapshot containing the messages you want to restore. Select the messages, then click Restore. The messages will be restored to a new mailbox named "com.apple.Mail.backup" in the On My Mac group. From there you can move them wherever you like.

Depending on how many mailboxes you have, you may have to scroll the mailbox list up or down to see the new entry. According to some reports, you might have to relaunch Mail, or perhaps wait a while for the database to be reindexed, before it shows up. I can't confirm those reports.

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