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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Lost emails when upgrade from Panther to Tiger
WallEye - Dec 25, 2005 - 7:06 am
I have tried to research this online before I posted this, but I still can't figure it out.
My inbox in mail now has received emails dating back about a week (presumably ones that are still on the server?)
All these emails are blank except for the error message :
"...has not been downloaded from the server. You need to take this account online in order to download it."
emails that I have received and re-filed, are complete, but inbox emails are nowhere to be found.
What gives and how do I fix this?
Thanks -- Wally
My inbox in mail now has received emails dating back about a week (presumably ones that are still on the server?)
All these emails are blank except for the error message :
"...has not been downloaded from the server. You need to take this account online in order to download it."
emails that I have received and re-filed, are complete, but inbox emails are nowhere to be found.
What gives and how do I fix this?
Thanks -- Wally
biggianthead06 - Dec 26, 2005 - 5:34 am
Hey wally, are you using an IMAP server? Also, did you make the switch after the date that these "lost" emails should have been received?
My transition to Tiger with an IMAP server yielded similar results. What I had to do in the end was access my email server through other means (such as telnet or webmail; contact your system admin for details if you don't know which you can use) and reset the emails to unread; this allowed mail to re-download all the messages.
-Bo
My transition to Tiger with an IMAP server yielded similar results. What I had to do in the end was access my email server through other means (such as telnet or webmail; contact your system admin for details if you don't know which you can use) and reset the emails to unread; this allowed mail to re-download all the messages.
-Bo
WallEye - Dec 26, 2005 - 10:10 am
(Response to Bo)
I still get emails like I should. It is a POP account. the only thing I am lacking are emails in my "inbox" - my entire 1 year history of inbox emails is gone save for the past week. Thos (past week) have the error message instead of the email text. I am presuming that these are the ones that the server has not yet deleted and Tiger refuses to get the bodies of the messages for security or something.
I still get emails like I should. It is a POP account. the only thing I am lacking are emails in my "inbox" - my entire 1 year history of inbox emails is gone save for the past week. Thos (past week) have the error message instead of the email text. I am presuming that these are the ones that the server has not yet deleted and Tiger refuses to get the bodies of the messages for security or something.
biggianthead06 - Dec 26, 2005 - 10:56 am
essentially yes; basically they're mis-tagged, "lost" emails. Is there an alternate way to access your mail, such as through a webmail program? Unlike a mail application which pulls your emails down from the server, something like a webmail application accesses your mail directly from the server, which would allow you to read them. You would also be able to set the status of those messages to unread, which would allow mail to download those emails directly.
Worst case scenario, if you know that they're not vital emails just delete them from mail and they should go away on their own.
Worst case scenario, if you know that they're not vital emails just delete them from mail and they should go away on their own.
WallEye - Dec 26, 2005 - 11:46 am
I like to keep my emails. I have a years worth that were in my inbox, now they're gone. What happened to them? Others that I had moved to different mailboxes over the past year, are still in their place - just all the "inbox" emails are gone.
biggianthead06 - Dec 26, 2005 - 2:41 pm
give this apple support document a try:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25812
Basically your inbox might be too big and needs rebuilding.
Incidentally, when you did the OS change did you reformat your entire hard disk or did you merely do an upgrade? I'm getting a better understanding of the situation now; your inbox *should* be located in your home directory, under library --> mail. Check to see if you have any extra user profiles in there that you don't recognize; your old inbox might be living in there (if it's a year's worth of email, it could be very large, 100MB or more).
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25812
Basically your inbox might be too big and needs rebuilding.
Incidentally, when you did the OS change did you reformat your entire hard disk or did you merely do an upgrade? I'm getting a better understanding of the situation now; your inbox *should* be located in your home directory, under library --> mail. Check to see if you have any extra user profiles in there that you don't recognize; your old inbox might be living in there (if it's a year's worth of email, it could be very large, 100MB or more).
WallEye - Dec 26, 2005 - 3:45 pm
I did not re-format. I think that I did NOT archive ... to "Previous System" as the install dialogue gave me the choice for...
I looked around for another inbox and I see two places where they are kept in the library folder... One has all the mailboxes I created for filing - the other has the "essentials" like draft, sent, deleted, junk... these are all in the POP folder. the other ones are in "mailboxes" folder. I guess all the files (mailboxes folders) in the POP folder - were anihilated. The only reason there are emails listed in the menu is becasue they exist on the server back to a week - but the content is missing. There is some message that says take this account online to get these or something (see thread above)
Anyway, I still don't know where they are. would searchlight or whatever, help me? look for content of an older message?
I looked around for another inbox and I see two places where they are kept in the library folder... One has all the mailboxes I created for filing - the other has the "essentials" like draft, sent, deleted, junk... these are all in the POP folder. the other ones are in "mailboxes" folder. I guess all the files (mailboxes folders) in the POP folder - were anihilated. The only reason there are emails listed in the menu is becasue they exist on the server back to a week - but the content is missing. There is some message that says take this account online to get these or something (see thread above)
Anyway, I still don't know where they are. would searchlight or whatever, help me? look for content of an older message?
biggianthead06 - Dec 26, 2005 - 4:26 pm
Spotlight would only help you find pre-indexed emails, and if you just made the switch, your old email may not have been indexed.
Do me a favour, please; in the mail folder (and probably within your POP account) should be a folder labeled INBOX.mbox; could you do a get info (click once to select it and then go file --> get info) and let me know how big that folder is?
Do me a favour, please; in the mail folder (and probably within your POP account) should be a folder labeled INBOX.mbox; could you do a get info (click once to select it and then go file --> get info) and let me know how big that folder is?
WallEye - Dec 26, 2005 - 6:31 pm
OK I found it - is simply called - "mbox". It is in INBOX.mbox inside POP-user@domain etc... This file is 51 Megs. That has to be it... Now what?
(btw) thanks
(btw) thanks
biggianthead06 - Dec 26, 2005 - 11:00 pm
that sounds like the right file, all right; try this:
1. hold down option and drag that file to the desktop. this will make a copy of the file there.
2. rename the file to something like oldinbox.mbox or whatever.
3. In mail, go file --> import mailboxes... and import that mailbox.
It should show up somewhere with all your old email. If it doesn't work, let me know and we'll explore other options.
Good luck and let me know if you encounter further difficulty (or if it works!)
-Bo
1. hold down option and drag that file to the desktop. this will make a copy of the file there.
2. rename the file to something like oldinbox.mbox or whatever.
3. In mail, go file --> import mailboxes... and import that mailbox.
It should show up somewhere with all your old email. If it doesn't work, let me know and we'll explore other options.
Good luck and let me know if you encounter further difficulty (or if it works!)
-Bo
WallEye - Dec 26, 2005 - 11:29 pm
OK - I did all that. in response to the import command, the old.mbox file was shaded (unavailable). I tried the "mbox" file itself (on the desktop) and it did not "darken" as available either. I moved the old.mbox file into the folder (two different places) and started MAIL app and it did not seem to come up in the mailbox list either. btw, when I gave it the .mbox suffix, it asked me if I was sure etc, and it changed the icon like the rural mailbox icon. The other mailboxes are just folder icons though...
Willing to keep trying if you are...
Willing to keep trying if you are...
biggianthead06 - Dec 26, 2005 - 11:33 pm
I'm absolutely willing to give it a few more tries. Either way, at least we've identified that the emails are there someplace. If you navigate through in the finder, can you access the individual messages in the folder? (there should be a folder within the folder called "messages")...
WallEye - Dec 27, 2005 - 12:06 am
I'm not sure which folder you are referring to. The "mbox" is a document, not a folder. It is in Library>Mail>Pop...[name@mailserver]>INBOX.mbox>mbox
I tried control-clicking for more options on mboz and I get nothing useful there either.
Last exchange for the night - I have to go. back tomorrow (briefly in the am until 5pm central)
I tried control-clicking for more options on mboz and I get nothing useful there either.
Last exchange for the night - I have to go. back tomorrow (briefly in the am until 5pm central)
biggianthead06 - Dec 27, 2005 - 12:19 am
oh I see. Mail for panther must have stored emails in a generic mbox format... when you're back on, try doing an import again, but this time from "other". If it *is* just a regular mbox file, then it should import just fine in that form.
WallEye - Dec 27, 2005 - 9:14 am
Alas - "Other" did not work either - I tried that last night also...
I am right now, of the ASSUMPTION that this is indeed the file - 51Meg sounds about right, but we could be chasing the wrong Tiger [sic] ...
I am right now, of the ASSUMPTION that this is indeed the file - 51Meg sounds about right, but we could be chasing the wrong Tiger [sic] ...
biggianthead06 - Dec 27, 2005 - 12:32 pm
Indeed...
One quick test to make sure that it's the right file: try opening it in textedit. If it's a generic mailbox (as it should be), then textedit should be able to extract the text (MS word or AppleWorks etc. should also be able to do this)
One quick test to make sure that it's the right file: try opening it in textedit. If it's a generic mailbox (as it should be), then textedit should be able to extract the text (MS word or AppleWorks etc. should also be able to do this)
WallEye - Dec 27, 2005 - 8:22 pm
I was able to open it with Textedit. A lot of crap and a few instances where I could read an email. I looked at both ends of the file and found dates as recent as Dec 24 and as old as Nov 8. A lot of crap in the middle and few references in there either.
I still wonder if it is the right file, but at least this answers your question I hope.
I still wonder if it is the right file, but at least this answers your question I hope.
biggianthead06 - Dec 27, 2005 - 8:55 pm
OK; doesn't sound like a year's worth of emails then. Might not be the file that we're looking for after all...
Give me some more information/a refresher on what happened when you did the upgrade to Tiger again. You were using mail for Panther and had all your email in that mailbox, and then switched to Tiger... and then lost a year's worth of email? Is that right?
Incidentally, what is the total size of the inbox.mbox folder in your POP account?
Give me some more information/a refresher on what happened when you did the upgrade to Tiger again. You were using mail for Panther and had all your email in that mailbox, and then switched to Tiger... and then lost a year's worth of email? Is that right?
Incidentally, what is the total size of the inbox.mbox folder in your POP account?
WallEye - Dec 27, 2005 - 11:01 pm
I was using Mail in Panther since January 2005. Upgraded to Tiger last week. Have been filing some of my messages in folders I created (mailboxes) just to keep them sorted. The Mailboxes folder that hold these 14 or so mailboxes is currently 45 Megs. All these emails in these mailboxes are preserved all the way back to Jan 2005 - even after the Tiger upgrade. Only the Inbox was lost. A year's worth of inbox emails, not refiled for whatever reason, have disappeared.
INBOX.mbox is currently 57 Megs, mbox (within INBOX.mbox) is 51.6 Meg.
INBOX.mbox is currently 57 Megs, mbox (within INBOX.mbox) is 51.6 Meg.
biggianthead06 - Dec 27, 2005 - 11:09 pm
OK, thanks for that summary. New suggestions based on that info:
1. Did you try rebuilding that mailbox? the link again is
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25812
for steps.
2. you can try deleting Mail preferences from home directory --> library --> preferences and trashing com.apple.mail.plist (but don't empty the trash!) restart your machine and see if mail can pick up those old mailboxes again. don't empty the trash because if for whatever reason it leaves you in a bigger mess than before, you can still put the file back.
If neither step works then you might be out of luck. I've been looking over the various support knowledgebases I have access to in vain; hopefully we can get to the bottom of this but I might just have to send you back to the general support pool on this one...
1. Did you try rebuilding that mailbox? the link again is
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25812
for steps.
2. you can try deleting Mail preferences from home directory --> library --> preferences and trashing com.apple.mail.plist (but don't empty the trash!) restart your machine and see if mail can pick up those old mailboxes again. don't empty the trash because if for whatever reason it leaves you in a bigger mess than before, you can still put the file back.
If neither step works then you might be out of luck. I've been looking over the various support knowledgebases I have access to in vain; hopefully we can get to the bottom of this but I might just have to send you back to the general support pool on this one...
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