Can Mail.app contents be restored from Time Machine

[Speed38]

I am a retired senior who has volunteered to try and answer questions posed by other seniors living in two aging-in-place communities.

Three days ago, one of the seniors whom I help updated her 2021 iMac M1 from Monterey 12.2 to 12.2.1 and Mail took something of a hit on her computer.

She has about a dozen smart mailboxes and the first time she launched mail after installing 12.2.1, all these smart mailboxes were devoid of mail stored there before she updated, but mail arriving after she updated is being directed to the correct Mailbox.

I determined the address of the mail being sent to one of those smart mailboxes and did a search for mail from that Address.

Nothing turned up.

Does anyone know if it is possible, using her TM backup, to go ~/Library/Mail and restore her Mail to its state prior to her updating her iMac?

If so, which folder(s) or file(s)should she restore?

Going there on my iMac, I find under Mail one file labeled [PersistenceInfo.plist] and one folder labeled V9 in which, in turn, are located the following folders and I have no idea of which would have to be restored via TM to fix her problem.

In fact, I have no idea of whether or not what I am asking is even possible.

 

[gilby101]

I am not aware of known issues with Mail following 12.2 to 12.2.1 update.

Smart mailboxes are just searches. They do not contain mail. Following an update there could be a delay whilst messages are reindexed.

I suggest, ignore the smart mailboxes for now and determine if the expected messages are in her (non-smart) mailboxes.

 

[Speed38]

Well, as is the case with many seniors I help, even though I am doing all the work, research, etc. and spending time on Zoom with them, at some point they toss up their hands in frustration and just give up and live with the problem.


That's what this gal did, so thus ends this thread..............

 

[giffut]

Oh well, that is unfortunate.

But still consider a productive and constructive answer posted here a plus. She has her own decisions and shall cope with them on her own. But this is a help based community, not an individual problem solver.

You and we and unknown others may learn something nevertheless.

 

[HDFan]

I determined the address of the mail being sent to one of those smart mailboxes and did a search for mail from that Address.

Nothing turned up.

The question is whether she actually lost mail messages, or whether the smart mailboxes aren't showing them. From the statement above I assume that the mail messages are gone.

If so then you should be able to restore your mailbox from the TM backup. This might cause problems with mail received after the backup used for the restore. An iMap server might handle it. A Pop server could cause mail to be lost received after the restore. Don't remember doing a restore so not sure of the issues. Tinkering at the file level might work, but there are some complex structures that might be damaged.

You could try recreating the smart mailboxes to see if that makes any difference. I just created some and I'm seeing messages from 2006, so a new smart mailbox doesn't just see new mail.

 

[Speed38]

If she hasn't deleted the Smart Mailboxes, I will suggest she edit one, note the parameters, delete it, then set it up anew and see what happens.
Will report back.

 

[Speed38]

OK. Her Mail is totally screwed.
Long story short. We went to her Gmail account, she has but does not use her iCloud one, and we searched for emails that would have been in two of those empty Smart Mailboxes. Into one of them went the mail from one Evelyn C. When we searched her online Gmail account for mail from one Evelyn C., there was none.
We did the same for another Smart Mailbox and there was no mail in Gmail from that person either.
What makes no sense to me is that the mails that were marked for placement in at least two of those Smart Boxes were totally absent from her Gmail account.

 

[HDFan]

When we searched her online Gmail account for mail from one Evelyn C.

Excellent way to troubleshoot, using the web brower to access the mail account. If google mail doesn't see the messages then there is no way her Mac mail app could.

So the question is why are those messages not on google mail?

1. Did she accidentally delete them?

2. How is gmail setup - imap or pop?

 

[Speed38]

Her gmail acct is imap.
For an 85 year old lady, she is not at all bad when it comes to computers, so I don't think she accidentally deleted them.
But, OTOH, I do not see how an update to her macOS could cause those emails to be deleted from her online Gmail account and they are indeed AWOL from that online Gmail account.

 

[HDFan]

But, OTOH, I do not see how an update to her macOS could cause those emails to be deleted from her online Gmail account and they are indeed AWOL from that online Gmail account.

Don't know. Haven't heard of an upgrade causing mail deletion from an imap server but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.