Mail Problem... in need of help!!!

[Mr Nu]

Hi all

Hope I have posted in the right area... but I am currently undergoing a bit of a nightmare with my Mail application.

Primarily the situation arose when I was advised to delete my current account in Mail and recreate it. This was due to a server/connection issue that was being trouble shot.

Once this was all complete and the old email account was removed and replaced with the new one, I suddenly felt physically sick as everyone of my emails that were originally associated with this account had vanished from every single folder – Inbox, Sent, Drafts – everything!

I had presumed that the emails were logged on the Mac hard drive somewhere and no warning boxes had been issued to say alert me to the ramifications of deleting an account.

My question, in absolute desperation, is are the orginal emails kept somewhere on the HD that I have failed to locate and if so how do I go about recovering them into the Mail application!

Be forever grateful for any advice offered!

Regards

Nu

 

[searay345]

Hello Mr Nu and Welcome!

Try going into your Macintosh HD. Go to your home folder (there is a little house icon on the left hand side of the window that opened) --> go to Library --> Scroll down until you get to a folder called Mail --> Open it --> look for a folder that has the name of your primary mail account. Open it (if it is there). Look for a folder called INBOX.mbox. There should be all of your emails.

Now if you do not see your primary account folder, then I'm afraid you are going to have to try running some recovery software like DiskWarrier II. I have never used it before so I can't be much help here. But I know there are people on here who can help in that area. I do know that you will need an external drive to send the recovered files to. Please, let us know if you need further assistance.

Cheerio
Searay

 

[Kyomii]

Searay is correct. Navigate to that folder and you may have a chance of saving some mail.

Is it possible any of these mails are still available on your isp server?

Also, deleting any account in mail will result in the emails not being there because the program has no account associated with the mail anymore once the details have gone.

I don't know who told you to delete the account to troubleshoot, but it would have been wise of them to remind you to save any wanted emails first.

It is listed on Apple's website about saving emails, and I would imagine it is also in the Mail program help.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106683

Before deleting anything, it is always wise to back up first.