What just happened to Mail, here?

[Lyra]

The mail in one of my mailboxes suddenly went haywire – some of the messages displaying the header details of other messages in the box, and some giving me a message that the contents of that particular email hadn't been downloaded (they had) and that I should go on-line to get them (I have broadband and Mail is always on-line).

When I tried to delete them, the app. crashed every time. I tried getting them again by going to my server mailboxes, but no good. Eventually I trashed the affected mailbox (fortunately it wasn't an important one) and everything seems OK, but I'd like to know what happened and how to fix it in case it happens again to a mailbox that matters.

OS10.2.8, btw, on a dp G4.

Thanks.

[Arden]

Delete your Mail.app preferences, found in Users > yourusername > Libary > Preferences. Look for a file that starts with "com." and contains "mail".

[Lyra]

Mmm, thanks Arden, did that already, and repaired permissions. I was just curious as to what was going on and why only a few messages were affected.