# Deleted Mac Mail account-need to retrieve important emails



## mkjyusuf (Mar 19, 2006)

Hello,

I have recently changed my email provider and went into mail preferences to add my new email provider. I deleted my old email account thinnking that all of the emails I had saved on my computer would remain there. However, this was not the case, it deleted all my emails from the computer! Is there a way to recover those emails? I have some important emails there that I would hate to lose.

Sincerely,
Maron


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## sirstaunch (Mar 19, 2006)

Don't know for sure, but open up the original account again and hope for the best

otherwise it would come down to a recovery program where you will need a second harddive and thing


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## mkjyusuf (Mar 19, 2006)

I tried setting up the exact mail account again and when it asked f I wanted to import email from another program I said yes and but then it just opened up a windpw for me to search on my computer for the emails and I could,nt find any.


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## Satcomer (Mar 19, 2006)

Well this is the kind of situation when you learned a valuable lesson, always have a backup. Since you went ahead and deleted before thinking, they are programs that might help. Your Mail box info is kept (in Tiger) in the folder ~/Library/Mail so the info still may be there.


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## strawbaritulip (Jun 1, 2012)

The exact same thing happened when I deleted old email provider accounts from my husband's computer. We have backed up the computer, but I'm unable to restore from the time machine backup for some reason. Where are sent messages stored on a Mac? I did find some folders for mailboxes, but no way are these all the folders I should be seeing. And I couldn't find any sent folders. TIA.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Jun 1, 2012)

> ...but I'm unable to restore from the time machine backup for some reason.



Can you elaborate on this?  What, exactly and precisely, did you try to do?  What error message(s), if any, did you receive?  Did the restore not work at all, or did it partially work?


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## strawbaritulip (Jun 1, 2012)

Well, the original problem is that I lost MANY of my husband's work emails by deleting 2 old email accounts. When I deleted the account from Apple mail, the emails from those accounts were deleted as well. I think that's a real bad thing Apple is doing with their mail application. So, then I went into Time Machine and saw a backup for May 25th. I was going to see if this was far enough back. Well, the choice to restore was grayed out, so I couldn't even do that.


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## MisterMe (Jun 2, 2012)

How can your messages be gone unless you affirmatively deleted them from your file system? My guess is that your messages remain where they have always been. Do this:

Open your user _Library_ folder. In Lion, this folder is hidden and must first be revealed.
Locate the folder within _~/Library_ named _Mail_.
Within this folder, locate the folder that is named for your old email account. It will have a name like _POP-janedoe@pop.gmail.com_ or _IMAP-janedoe@gmail.com@imap.gmail.com_.
Double-click this folder. Locate the folders having the .mbox extension in the case of a POP3 account and .imapmbox in the case of an IMAP account.
Within each of these folders is a folder named _Messages_. Your messages are contained within the files having the .emlx extension.


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## seekir (Jul 18, 2012)

> My guess is that your messages remain where they have always been.



I wish this were true. At least in OS 10.4.11, the messages in the library file sent/received by Mail apparently _disappear_ when an account is deleted. I've never changed ISP's before and didn't realize my archived emails would be deleted with the account. I suspect this feature has caused massive grief for people like me who've changed ISP's and deleted obsolete accounts in the belief that only the old email address would be removed. A _massive_ software flaw if you ask me. Hope the newer OS resolves this.


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