Help with Mac Mail..

[doggirl]

I tried to reorganize my mail by using the advice on a previous post. In effect, all of my mail disappeared. Any ideas on how to retrieve my mail? Here is the previous post:

Okay, here's what I'd do. Close Mail. Go to a folder named Mail in your Home's Library, open it, and drag everything inside it to a new Folder on your Desktop. This means everything (on your computer at least) is backed up.

Now, find a file named com.apple.mail.plist and drag it to the Desktop too.

Okay, now when you open Mail, it should be like-new. Put in your .Mac account details again and re-download all your emails. If your problems are Mail-based and not .Mac-based, this should have solved them. Good luck and tell me if there are bits you don't like in what I've said and I'll try to make it clearer.

 

[4np]

It depends on what you use.... if you use POP for retreiving mail, all your mail is -by default- stored locally on your computer and removed from the server when you retreive your email. If you're using IMAP then your mail stays on the email server until you explicitly delete the mail message(es).

So, if your mail is gone, and you don't see your email when you try to fetch your messages, my guess is that you used POP, or you deleted all your email. In both examples your email is probably gone...

Best way to work with email is to use IMAP, not POP. This also allows you to use multiple devices (let's say, iMac, MacBook and iPhone) to use the same email account and see the same email messages. I, for example, only use Gmail nowadays. This means the space on the mail server is virtually limitless (it's currently over 7 GB and counting), so I don't have to delete anything I would like to keep. And I use Mail app on my MBP with an IMAP connection to my Gmail account, and on my iPod Touch I also use the same email account. Works perfectly 🙂

 

[MisterMe]

It depends on what you use.... if you use POP for retreiving mail, all your mail is ... removed from the server when you retreive your email. ...

Not true. The default for POP3 messages in Mail is to keep copies on the server. Mail does not delete messages from the server unless the user explicitly selects this option.