Robert Marshall
Level 1 (10 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Cannot import due to corrupted .mbox

Hi all,

 

We recently had to redo our primary server, which happens to host our email.

 

Using Apple Mail, served up from the OSX Server Mail function.

 

We're using IMAP. First I exported using one of the local mail clients. This downloaded the respective mbox files to a USB 3 external drive.

 

After reformatting the drive and doing a fresh install of OSX, I next went to import the mail using the Mail app. Here's where things turned funky.

 

Some of the mbox files import just fine. However, I got errors on some of them, and nothing was imported. I examined one of the mbox files, and I looked at one of the table_of_contents file. There is definitely content in there, as I can see email subjects. In one it went all the way back to 2014!!

 

Is there any way to "fix" these files so they can import properly? We do run a Crashplan backup, so I could download the server Library files from prior to the corrupted download. But, I don't know why that would help. I'm presuming all the users have new UUIDs created since I entered them from scratch upon reformatting/reinstalling. And downloading, and reimaging a version of the drive prior to reformatting isn't practical.

 

Is there anything I can do with the corrupted mbox, or are we just out of luck?

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Jul 4, 2016 1:17 PM

Close
Robert Marshall

Q: Cannot import due to corrupted .mbox

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by John Lockwood,

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Jul 5, 2016 3:50 AM in response to Robert Marshall
    Level 6 (9,205 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jul 5, 2016 3:50 AM in response to Robert Marshall

    I cannot tell if this applies to you but a while ago when we did something similar we found that importing an Mbox which itself contained sub-folder mboxes resulted in errors. We had to individually import the sub-folder Mboxes and in order to import the parent we had to remove the sub-folder mboxes.

     

    This therefore involved moving all the mboxes to separate files so non was inside another.

     

    As far as I can see this should not be necessary but it is what we had to do to resolve the issue, after importing them you can reorganise them to whatever structure you want.

  • by Robert Marshall,

    Robert Marshall Robert Marshall Jul 5, 2016 12:23 PM in response to John Lockwood
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 5, 2016 12:23 PM in response to John Lockwood

    Thanks John!

     

    Yes, I did have some with the subfolders. But, those seemed to have imported fine. I know what you mean by having to drag stuff all over the place though. Such a pain! :-)

     

    This morning I talked with Enterprise Support, and the tech walked me through a way to use the most recent Time Machine backup from before blowing the O/S away. I'll just have to export any new mail that's come in since then. Tedious. But, should be quick.

     

    Once the older mail has been restored, I'll just import the new stuff.

     

    Sure wish they'd shared that with me in the past. Perhaps they're reluctant since you're dealing with Library files?

     

    Later,

     

    Robert