[Helpdesk] Upgrade to 10.4 and missing Mail

[Maureen Barraclough]

Andrew,
Thank you so very much for your help.  I followed the directions in  
the first Apple Discussion and voila, I have my e-mails back.  And  
then some, in fact!
Best wishes,
Maureen

On Jun 22, 2006, at 7:50 AM, Andrew Main wrote:

> Maureen,
>
> From what I've read, it seems a lot of users have had this problem  
> (though I somehow avoided it, I don't remember how). As I recall,  
> it's connected with the fact that Mail in 10.4 uses a different  
> message storage format than previously: it used to keep all  
> messages in one big ".mbox" file for each mailbox (Inbox, Sent,  
> etc.) but in 10.4 each message is in its own file, in a folder  
> (which has the suffix ".mbox", but it's a folder, not a file) for  
> the mailbox. (This is so that Spotlight can index the messages.) So  
> old mailboxes must be converted to the new format, and apparently  
> this sometimes doesn't work properly.
>
> BTW, which version of 10.4 did you upgrade to? As usual with whole- 
> number releases, the original 10.4.0 was very buggy; I'd strongly  
> recommend updating to at least 10.4.2 or 10.4.3, or go ahead and  
> update to the current 10.4.6, using the combo updater.
>
> First, did you backup your mail before the upgrade? Always best  
> before making such big changes. If you have a backup you can make  
> sure to keep it while you work with copies to try to get Mail to  
> import your old mail.
>
> I assume you mean you looked in /Users/[your username]/Library/ 
> Mail, since that's where your mail is, not in /Library/Mail. Try  
> doing a search fof "INBOX.mbox" to find where your mail is. If it  
> turns up a FILE with a mailbox icon, that's the Inbox of your old  
> 10.3.x mail. Look for other ".mbox" files with the mailbox icon and  
> make copies of them to keep backups while you work with the  
> originals. If it turns up a FOLDER with that name, that's the new  
> 10.4 Mail.
>
> Beyond this point, I'd suggest looking to the Apple Discussions for  
> detailed help. Here's a search I did that seemed to find some  
> useful info:
>
> <http://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa? 
> objID=f753&search=Go&q=upgrade+10.4+missing+mail>
>
> Looks like others have had the same problem, and there are  
> knowledgeable users who can help; here are some samples:
> <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2573382>
> <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2560572>
> <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1474539>
> <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=303307>
>
> If the information in these threads doesn't solve your problem, you  
> can post your own query.
>
> Andrew Main
>
> On Jun 21, 2006, at 11:45 PM, Maureen Barraclough wrote:
>
>> Hi!  My husband kindly upgraded my  3 year old 17" Powerbook to  
>> 10.4 from 10.3.9 tonight.  When I got home and opened Mail, almost  
>> all of the messages in my Inbox were gone.  There are a couple of  
>> messages in there from today, but everything else is GONE!  If I  
>> search for a message (that I can remember key words) on the hard  
>> drive, it appears.  I can't tell where it is coming from though.  
>> And I don't know how to retrieve all my messages and get them back  
>> into my Inbox.  The messages in my custom mailboxes are all there,  
>> it is just the Inbox that has the problem.
>>
>> I looked in /library/mail on my hard drive, but the missing  
>> messages don't seem to be in those folders. Help, please!
>> Maureen
>
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