oops I screwed up, please help

[AzDesertTroll]

Solved



OK, so it was suggested to me to do a clean install on my MBP 15 Early 2011 since I have had some slow down issues and I had just been putting the upgraded OS on top of the older versions. If this was the proper thing to do or not I am not sure, but it has been done.

Prior to doing the clean install I ran Time Machine backups for a week to to be 100% sure I had everything, plus I made copies of all of my important items..documents, photos, music etc...Well almost everything, I forgot to export my emails.

Not sure if this next bit of information is important or not but here it goes. I have 4 separate email accounts (Yahoo, iCloud, gmail and an old MSN account) with Yahoo being the primary one and the others forward to it. I use the standard Mail app and then had rules set up that sorted my mail to folders that were stored locally on the computer. Most of the mail is just old stuff that is not all that important but I keep it because I am kind of an packrat and hang on to that stuff. However, some of the emails are currently something that I need to have due to some projects that I am working on.

After all that blah blah...is there a way I can recover the emails from the Time Machine backups and where would I find them?

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

[Bruno09]

Hi,

what OS are you using ?

Your mail folders are stored here :

~/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes

The rules are here :

~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/SyncedRules.plist

To access the User's Library in your Time machine backup, you will either :

- unveil the Library in Finder before you enter in Time Machine interface, or
- enter Time Machine interface, then hit Shift + Cmd + g, type in : ~/Library

Go to : Mail/V2/Mailboxes, right-click the "Mailboxes" folder / restore to : the desktop.

Now quit Time Machine interface.

Now in Mail : File / Import mailboxes, Apple Mail, browse to the desktop, select the "Mailboxes" folder you restored from Time Machine.

 

[AzDesertTroll]

Hi,

what OS are you using ?

Your mail folders are stored here :

~/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes

The rules are here :

~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/SyncedRules.plist

To access the User's Library in your Time machine backup, you will either :

- unveil the Library in Finder before you enter in Time Machine interface, or
- enter Time Machine interface, then hit Shift + Cmd + g, type in : ~/Library

Go to : Mail/V2/Mailboxes, right-click the "Mailboxes" folder / restore to : the desktop.

Now quit Time Machine interface.

Now in Mail : File / Import mailboxes, Apple Mail, browse to the desktop, select the "Mailboxes" folder you restored from Time Machine.

Sorry using OS Yosemite 10.10.4.

I followed those directions, however when I check backups that are older than today the mail/v2/mailboxes is not there. guessing it didn't copy them.

Thank you for the help.

 

[Bruno09]

I can't understand why you don't have the ~/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes folder in your TM backup...

Can you see your ~/Library folder and its contents ?

 

[AzDesertTroll]

I can't understand why you don't have the ~/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes folder in your TM backup...

Can you see your ~/Library folder and its contents ?

Yes it goes

~/library/mail/v2/mailboxes/ Then has an icon of like a file try with "outbox.mbox"/ then an icon of what looks like a piece of paper and "info.plist"

if I try to go to older Time Machine Backups there is no "Mail" folder at all.

 

[AzDesertTroll]

 

[chipchen]

If you've set up all your email as IMAP, then they should still all be on the server. Have you logged in at yahoo.com to see?

 

[AzDesertTroll]

If you've set up all your email as IMAP, then they should still all be on the server. Have you logged in at yahoo.com to see?

I looked and the Sent, Deleted folder etc are there. But I am trying to find the stuff that I had stored in separate folders. As an example I had a rule that sorted email that I received from my wife to a folder under her name, folders from sites like this, FB, Employer, etc had their own folders that where under a heading "on this Mac"

 

[Bruno09]

I can confirm that the mailboxes under "On my Mac" are stored in ~/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes.
Here are mine, for info : http://hpics.li/413813e

The problem is you don't have a ~/Library/Mail folder in your Time Machine backup.
(just like if you were looking at a user's account where Mail.app was never used)

After your clean install, did you set your account up with the same user name as before ?

Just in case, try this :
Once in Time Machine interface, hit : Cmd + Shift + c (= go to the computer)
Then go to : Macintosh HD / Users / your_username / Library / Mail / V2 / Mailboxes

 

[AzDesertTroll]

I can confirm that the mailboxes under "On my Mac" are stored in ~/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes.
Here are mine, for info : http://hpics.li/413813e

The problem is you don't have a ~/Library/Mail folder in your Time Machine backup.
(just like if you were looking at a user's account where Mail.app was never used)

After your clean install, did you set your account up with the same user name as before ?

Just in case, try this :
Once in Time Machine interface, hit : Cmd + Shift + c (= go to the computer)
Then go to : Macintosh HD / Users / your_username / Library / Mail / V2 / Mailboxes

I am able to access the current mailbox set up this way, but not when I try to pull it from the Time Machine backups. To get to the "library" folder that has the mail stuff in it I have to go to the Tool Bar/GO Menu the press the "options" button. When I do that it takes me to the current one, pulling me from the Time Machine. Is there a way to not be pulled from T.M. so that I can get to the Backups?

 

[Bruno09]

To get to the "library" folder that has the mail stuff in it I have to go to the Tool Bar/GO Menu the press the "options" button. When I do that it takes me to the current one, pulling me from the Time Machine. Is there a way to not be pulled from T.M. so that I can get to the Backups?

I misunderstood your previous posts : you said that you were not able to see the ~/Library/Mail folder in Time Machine backups.
Now I understand that you actually can't see the whole ~/Library folder.

See post #2 :

To be able to see the user's Library (~/Library) in Time Machine backups, you need to unhide the Library BEFORE you enter Time Machine interface.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1161156/view_library_folder_in_lion.html

In Yosemite you can also do : Finder, Cmd + j, check the tickbox "Show Library Folder".

 

[AzDesertTroll]

First off, thank you a bunch for taking the time to help me with this, it most certainly is appreciated.

Now I can see the folders and I copy and pasted them into the current "mailbox" folder. After doing this the folders showed back up in Mail, however the folders themselves are empty. I then tried copy and past the contents of each folder independently but the folders stayed empty.

When I try to just restore from Time Machine this is what I get....

Do I need to export the T.M. emails as some type of file to the desktop then import them into mail? or is there an easy way that my frustrated mind not seeing?

 

[AzDesertTroll]

Big Thanks to Bruno99.

I got it fixed. Ended up copying each mailbox folder to my documents folder then using the Mail app to import them. Since it moved them into a new folder titled "import" I highlighted and just moved the emails into the desired folders.

Thank you again Bruno.

 

[Bruno09]

Hi,

I am happy you got it fixed.

What makes me a bit sad is you did it the hard and long way.

You actually had ALL the requested informations from post #2.

To late now, but for "debriefing" purposes, please let me copy and paste that post here :

1. To access the User's Library in your Time machine backup, you will (need) either :

- unveil the Library in Finder before you enter in Time Machine interface,
or
- enter Time Machine interface, then hit Shift + Cmd + g, type in : ~/Library

As you can see, you could have had access to the Library without having to unhide it before you enter Time Machine.

2. You did not need to copy and paste mailboxes or whatever.
You did not need to copy EACH mailbox folder.
Please read :

Go to : Mail/V2/Mailboxes, right-click the "Mailboxes" folder / restore to : the desktop.

Now quit Time Machine interface.

Now in Mail : File / Import mailboxes, Apple Mail, browse to the desktop, select the "Mailboxes" folder you restored from Time Machine.

If you had tried to import the restored Maiboxes folder from Mail, you would have got a window which allows you to chose which mailboxes you want to import or not (tickboxes).

Long story short : if you do exactly what post #2 says, the problem is solved in a few minutes.

Again, glad you got it fixed, which is obviously the most important.
Cheers.