Missing sent emails... sort of

TidBITS Talk
1

In Apple Mail (on my MacStudio), when I look in the Sent folders of all of my various accounts, I only see emails from 10/29/22 and forward. When I navigate to /Users/jeffp/Library/Mail/V10/77104BFD-583E-47D3-9C09-8FD7D5D31F56/Sent.mbox/FDEDD7C2-1B9F-4247-8353-4BF90C03C75A/Data/3/5/1/Messages/ - I see tons of Sent email. This is true when I navigate to any of the Sent.mboxes in my Library folder.

I have a few Apple Mail, Google Mail, Yahoo, and several mailboxes for my own domains. Sent folders are only showing email from 10/29/22 forward.

Why am I not seeing these emails in Apple Mail’s Sent folders? When I check my iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, the same is true … I don’t see any of the emails in the Sent folders. What can I do to “restore” my email to my various mailboxes Sent folders, so that I can access them in Mail?

2

Rebuilding the sent mailbox for each domain might fix it. I suggest starting with a domain where you don’t mind losing the pre-10/29/2022 messages. If it works there, proceed to the other mailboxes.

Of course, you rebuild a mailbox by selecting it had then selected ‘Rebuild’ from the Mailbox menu.

Hopefully, rebuilding on your Mac will propagate to your other devices.

2 Likes
3

This is what I’d do.

4

@aforkosh & @trilo, I’d already done this, but to no avail.

Doing a Quick Look on any of the Sent emails, finding and copying a subject, and then searching for it in Mail, yields nothing. Using HoudahSpot, and searching for the same subject, I find the Sent email in my library’s Sent folder.

I can open each individual email messages in the Sent folder, and select Move and put it back in the Sent folder.

My Mac Studio is backed up to my server and CrashPlan’s cloud service every few minutes, and I can easily restore my Sent folders. But why do that, if the emails exist in the Library’s Sent folders.

5

Just a guess: Under

Settings → Mail → Accounts → youraccout → Account → Advanced

(Sheesh)

Do you have Sent Mailbox going to Sent? Seems suspicious that your sent mail on the server apparently only goes back exactly one week.

1 Like
6

Good call! But yes, each account’s Sent folder is pointing to Sent.

Thanks!

7

Please clarify. Do you use HoudahSpot to find the mbox file and then open the message in HoudahSpot and move it to Mail? Or does HoudahSpot somehow communicate to Mail where the message is?

Also, is Oct 29 a static date or does it move forward one day at a time? If the former, did you do something (install a macOS update comes to mind) on that date? (Even if you did, seeing the same effect on other devices suggests this is not it.)

If I’m interpreting this forum’s interface correctly, the OP’s original message in this thread was posted on Nov 07. I’m not understanding “exactly one week.”

8

HoudahSpot is a search tool that uses Spotlight to find things, including emails. HoudahSpot has a plugin for Apple Mail, that allows more advanced searching than Apple/Spotlight can do. I’m using HoudahSpot to find Sent emails using a Subject & Sender combination. Those emails are stored in the Sent mbox. I can do a QuickLook and see the content of the email. If I double click a sent email it will open in Mail. However, those sent emails that I can see via the Finder in the Sent.mbox don’t show in the Sent Folder in Apple Mail.

Static. Messages aren’t actively being deleted from the Sent folder. Something transpired to delete them on Oct 28.

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That was the missing piece in my understanding. Thanks.

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I’ve recovered all of my missing sent email from backup, and imported them into Apple Mail. I then select all of the email, and attempt to move them to the Sent folder. A good portion of them move (by dragging or using the “Move to …” option from the Contextual menu) successfully, however, there are many that don’t. It appears that the messages in question all have an attachment of some sort.

Any thoughts or suggestion on how to move the emails?