Cannot move or delete defective email messages.

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Level 1

5 points

Cannot move or delete defective email messages.

I cannot move or delete defective email messages. When I try to move them, I get the following error "The file “68631.emlx” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file." This problem has been passed through Apple engineering 4 times, but no resolution. Inbox, Sent, Draft all have defective messages in them. The problem seemed to have started when I upgraded to El Capitan. Any thoughts on how to get rid of the defective mail?

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Posted on Jan 21, 2016 6:31 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Jan 21, 2016 6:38 PM in response to kippermac

What have you done to try to solve the problem? What kind of mail accounts do you have—IMAP, POP, Exchange?

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Answer 2

kippermac Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 21, 2016 6:46 PM in response to Linc Davis

Worked with apple support over the past 2 months. 4-day turn-around each time. Transferred control to them, at least the view. Tried to restore just the affected mailbox folders, but probably not doing it correctly. Apple closed the case without resolution saying that if they can ever figure it out, they will let me know. It's a pop account

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Jan 21, 2016 7:16 PM in response to kippermac

Please back up all data, then rebuild the mailbox.

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Answer 4

kippermac Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 21, 2016 7:25 PM in response to Linc Davis

I'll try that again. Forgot to say that it had been done several times previously to no avail

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Answer 5

kippermac Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 21, 2016 7:50 PM in response to kippermac

Fixed it. It was related to doing a rebuild. By itself, rebuild did not help. But by marking every defective email message as junk and then doing a rebuild, made the messages move to the junk folder. It must use a different method of movement. Then using the erase all junk command, I could delete them. Previously, all move commands or attempts to just delete the individual emails failed. I just stumbled upon this. Curious that after 4 passes through Apple engineering, they could not solve the problem. Anyway, thank you for suggesting that I try the rebuild command again.

Best Regards

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Answer 6

rlhndrsn

Level 1

0 points

Feb 3, 2016 3:15 PM in response to kippermac

Finally!! Thank you kippermac.. i was trying everything until i saw this.. marked them all junk, went to my trash and was able to delete them from the trash..

whoo-hoo!

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Answer 7

Feb 28, 2016 8:49 AM in response to kippermac

Hello everyone, same exact problem here. I have 10 or so defected emails in my trash that I can't delete all stating the same error as Kippermac. After reading this thread, I'm still not sure how you solved it. What exactly do you mean by 'Rebuilding' the mailbox?? I actually have 2 of the 10 emails that are totally stuck and can't be moved in my junk email box. What's odd is all emails are from my 'Pinterest account. Once and a while I'll get another one. Any help hear would be greatly appreciated, thanks guys!

Best,

Mike L

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Answer 8

Dec 19, 2016 9:48 PM in response to kippermac

This has been annoying me for a year, and your solution was almost instant! Great work!

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