Help Please, I lost my mail

[MartyStickle]

I was just fooling around with forwarding an email when poof, mail quit and upon reopening most of my mail is gone and only my dot mac email account is there--the other 4 accounts are gone.

How can I recover my account settings and the old sent and received emails. Backup doesn't seem to have anything, but when I look at my user, then library, then mail, the accounts and the emails are all there. How can I restore the normal functioning of the program? Really appreciate any help.

X.4.8 and latest mail on Imac core duo.

[mstudio]

I believe you will have to set up each account again, but once you do, you can go to File>Import Mailboxes and work your way over to them. Don't know how or why this would have happened, though. That'll teach you for fooling around!

[Baby Tats]

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303803

If email messages seem to be missing from a Mail mailbox in Mac OS X 10.4 or later, and you're sure you didn't delete them, follow these steps to troubleshoot the issue.

You should also use these steps if this error message appears when you try to open a message:

"Message has not been downloaded from the server, take this account online to view."
Solution

Use these steps, one at a time, until the issue is resolved. Note: If you wish to back up your Mail messages before troubleshooting, make a copy of the Mail folder on a different disk (but leave the original Mail folder where it is). The Mail folder is in your Home folder's Library folder (~/Library/Mail).

1. Try rebuilding the Mail mailbox where messages are missing or can't be opened.

2. Reindex all messages:
1. Quit Mail.
2. In the Finder, choose Go To Folder from the Go menu, and go to ~/Library/Mail/ .
Or, choose Home from the Go menu, then open the Library folder, then open the Mail folder.
3. Move the Envelope Index file to a different location, such as your desktop.
4. Move any folders in ~/Library/Mail/ that begin with "Mac-", "Exchange-", or "IMAP-" to a different location, such as your desktop.
5. Open Mail. Mail will reindex all messages. This process may take several minutes depending on how many messages you have in your mailboxes.

3. If the account uses POP, try reimporting the problematic mailbox as a "Mail for Mac OS X" mailbox. You can import from your mailboxes in ~/Library/Mail/account name, where account name is the style and name of your account, "POP-Mac," for example.

Tip: Remember to select the folder that contains your mailbox, not the mailbox itself. For example, you would select the ~/Library/Mail/POP-account name folder.

If this doesn't help for a POP account, try importing as type "Other" instead of "Mail for Mac OS X". Select the mailbox itself (for example: ~/Library/Mail/POP-account name/Inbox.mbox).

[MartyStickle]

Thanks guys. I've already redone my main POP mail account and imported the old messages by doing an import mailboxes. Now I just have to fix my dot mac as it won't send, only receive. I'll read the apple help stuff for that. Than\ks for the detailed info B. Tats. I might try that also.

What a great group this...lifesavers!

[C(-)ris]

The com.apple.mail.plist is where the user account information is stored. You need to restore that file along with your mail folder.

[MartyStickle]

Chris,

How do I restore the com.apple.plist?

[C(-)ris]

It is in the user/library/preferences folder on your backup. Just drag it from the backup to your working folder.