Mail.app - no Trash mailbox??

[wilk0076]

On my new macbook (first mac) I set up Mail with my two POP mail accounts.

I have Inbox, Junk, and Sent mailboxes but no Trash mailbox.

I have checked the preferences for both accounts and have set the settings to "Trash - move deleted messages to a separate folder". Yet, there is no Trash folder.

I have created a mailbox entitled "Trash" and tried to go to Mailbox->"Use this mailbox for" but all options including Trash are greyed out.

Currently, when I delete a message, it disappears into the ether. Why can I not create a Trash mailbox??

Screen grabs for your convenience...

-Matt

[GimmeSlack12]

You probably need to use a different name than 'Trash' cause there is already a Trash portion of the program where deleted emails go to. To permanently delete the files you must empty the trash of the Mail program.

And when you hit the delete key that is where your emails will go. I might be missing something, but this feature of Mail makes sense to me, and I would expect the same behavior of a program on Windows.

[wilk0076]

To permanently delete the files you must empty the trash of the Mail program.

And when you hit the delete key that is where your emails will go.


But where is the trash of the mail program? I removed my "handmade" Trash mailbox, but still when I delete a message, it disappears into oblivion. No "Trash" type mailbox exists in my folder list. Attached is my current folder list.

[gauchogolfer]

Does the sidebar for Mail.app look like this?

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/1782/picture1fh3.png

It should, and there's your trash (for each account) right there.

[wilk0076]

Does the sidebar for Mail.app look like this?


It should, and there's your trash (for each account) right there.

It doesn't though. There is no Trash folder at all (see my screen capture above).

Any ideas, anyone - before I make a special trip to a Genius Bar this weekend?

[gauchogolfer]

It doesn't though. There is no Trash folder at all (see my screen capture above).

Any ideas, anyone - before I make a special trip to a Genius Bar this weekend?

Try repairing permissions, I suppose, as well as dragging the appropriate plist file (com.apple.mail.plist) to the desktop and re-starting Mail.app

Other than that, ?

[wilk0076]

Okay, on a whim (I've only had a mac for a month and a half) I explored the Library/Mail directory...

I saw that I had folders for Sent Messages.mbox, Junk.mbox and Inbox.mbox for each of my POP accounts, but there was no "Trash.mbox" - so I created one for each of the accounts.

Relaunched Mail - and now I have a functioning Trash.

Strange that Mail didn't automatically create it, but I'm not complaining - now that it works fine.

Thanks for the suggestions! I wouldn't have tried it if it hadn't been for your (gauchogolfer) suggestion to move the .plist (which is why I went into the Library directory in the first place.

[gauchogolfer]

Good to hear you got it sorted out, although like you I don't know why your .mbox folder was missing in the first place. Anyways, enjoy.

[yojitani]

Actually, that happened to me when I first set up my mail account. I can't remember what I did, but I didn't have to create the trash myself. I think it was a matter of deleting the plist file and restarting the computer.

[Chaya]

This happened to me, too. I've been using Mail since Mail existed (I think) and have never seen such a thing. I bought a new iMac and set up my Mail and kept saying, "Where is my trash can?!" Looked through preferences to try to figure out what I'd overlooked but came up short, then looked through the internet and found this thread.

I just trashed my plist file and the trash magically reappeared. I'd like to think I'd have tried that technique eventually anyway, but you guys for sure saved my sanity and provided me with the quickest route to repair.

[Philsy]

This suddenly happened to me. After fiddling around with plists and the like, I discovered a simpler fix on another forum:

"You should be able to go to Mail Preferences:Accounts:Mailbox Behaviors. There is a check box for Move Deleted Messages To Trash Mailbox. It has probably been inadvertently unchecked."

This sorted it out for me, hope it helps someone else! :)

Phil

[Cherylnoel]

I too lost Trash and recovered it for each account using the Preference method mentioned in the above threads. It disappeared shortly after I installed the new Mobile Me Calendar. Don't know/think there was a connection. The other weird thing is it disappeared on both my iMac, using Snow Leopard, and my old Power PC G3 laptop, using Tiger (nothing else fits). The other thing that disappeared from the Power PC was my entire iCal calendar. Nasty not to warn that keeping the Sync from MobileMe would be that devastating, with no warning. I backed it up beforehand, but, in the end, decided to drop iCal on the laptop and use the Cloud for current iCal stuff. I have a desktop link to do just that. Any ideas how/why Trash disappeared??

[fragtagger]

"You should be able to go to Mail Preferences:Accounts:Mailbox Behaviors. There is a check box for Move Deleted Messages To Trash Mailbox. It has probably been inadvertently unchecked."

This sorted it out for me, hope it helps someone else!

thank you! this was driving me bonkers - and Think I may have unchecked this box when setting up my new IMAP, thinking I was being smart or something.