Mail Help

1350 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Burloak, Apr 28, 2007

Burloak

Discussion Starter · Apr 25, 2007

Recently my ISP changed his incoming and outgoing mail servers. I followed his instructions for changing various settings on Apple’s Mail program’s Preferences. In the process of tracking down a minor problem, and attempting to create a new account, I mistakenly deleted the original account and consequently zapped all of my mail which no longer exists on the ISP’s server either.

Fortunately, Macdoc please note, I am a fairly good backer-upper onto an external HD and I noticed that on the Home folder of both drives under Library > Mail there is a bunch of files.

My questions: is there any chance that my original mail still exists on the backup, and is it transferrable?

One folder on the internal HD is identified by the new server, and the same folder on the backup is identified by the old server, if that helps any.

None of the corresponence is critical if lost but I don’t want to risk the wrath of relatives who might claim that I am not answering their messages!

Any help or guidance would be very much appreciated.

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Chealion

· #2 · Apr 26, 2007

When you zap an account you unfortunately zap all the email associated with that account's inbox, sent mailbox, etc.

Depending on how old your backup is, the easiest will be to just copy the old (backed up) Mail folder and replace the one on your current hard drive. This will replace all your new settings and set you back to the day you backed up. I would then try and put in the new settings (replacing the old settings instead of making a new account)

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Pelao

· #3 · Apr 26, 2007

Another way is as follows:

To restore one or more individual message files (in Mail 2.0’s
.emlx format), follow these steps:
1. Quit Mail if it is running.
2. Navigate to ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes. In this folder,
create a new folder named Restored Messages.mbox.
3. Inside the Restored Messages.mbox folder, create another
folder named Messages.
4. Copy all the emlx files you wish to restore into the Messages
folder you just created.
5. Open Mail. Your mailbox list will contain a mailbox named
Restored Messages, which will initially appear to be empty.
6. Select the Restored Messages mailbox and choose Mailbox >
Rebuild.
After Mail rebuilds the mailbox, your restored messages will
appear. You can then move them to another mailbox if you wish.

Have used this a number of times.

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Burloak

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 28, 2007

Thanks

Thanks to both of you for your ideas. I decided to go with Pelao's solution and found that it worked almost perfectly thanks to the very clear directions. After copying the files and starting up Mail I found that everything that was transferred was 170 spams and none of the personal mail. In the midst of this process SuperDooper engaged and warned of dire consequences if interupted! So my Home file got copied before I could search for the personal mail. For some reason there was no personal stuff in the folder that I copied.

Anyway, thanks for your interest and help.

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