Apple’s Mail can import folders and messages from many other email applications. This is obviously useful if you are switching from another email program and have not stored your messages on the email server. The import service provides a unique troubleshooting tool, however, in that you can use it to re-import your existing mail folders. If you notice that some emails previously accessible in Mail are missing, or if you seem to have lost all of your mail, the import tool lets you attempt to recover what is left of your messages stored on your hard drive.
Using the Mail Importer
You can open the Mail import assistant by selecting Import Mailboxes from Mail’s File menu. Mail will show you this window, which you can use to select both the type of email folders to import and their location.
Mail lets you easily import email from a variety of email applications.
If you are importing from Microsoft Entourage, Netscape, Thunderbird, or Eudora, select the appropriate application from the list in this window. If your email is not coming from any of these programs or Apple’s Mail application, try importing the mail with the “mbox files” selection.
Once you press “Continue,” Mail asks you to locate the folder that holds your messages. You should select the enclosing folder, meaning the one that holds all of your mail folders messages. Mail is smart enough to sort out the folders inside this folder and separate the messages. Please note that once you give Mail the go-ahead to import your messages, Mail imports everything in that folder, including duplicates. Because there is no way to pick and choose which messages to import, you must sort out the duplicates and undesired messages after Mail imports them.
Re-importing Your Existing Mail
If your existing accounts in Mail are missing some or all of their messages, it is possible your Mail folders have become corrupt. Using the Mail import tool is an easy way to re-import the mail folders on your hard drive to see if you still have the missing messages. From the Mail import window, you can select “Mail for Mac OS X” as the application, and when you click “Continue,” select the folder “Mail” from your user Library folder.
As stated above, Mail imports all the messages in your Mail folder, including duplicates. It places the imported email in a folder called “Import” on your mailbox pane. This makes it easy to sort only the imported emails. If you find missing emails, you can drag them back to their appropriate folders (or simply the Inbox). When you are done sorting through the messages, you can right-click on the “Import” mailbox and delete the folder, if you wish to get rid of the remaining messages.
Manually Rummaging Through Individual Messages
If you want to manually rummage through individual messages stored on your hard drive, you can do it. This might be useful if you only want to find a handful of messages and do not want to re-import your entire mail folder. All of your email is stored in your “Mail” folder inside your user Library folder. There is a rhyme and reason to the layout of the folders and messages, but it is not one designed for users to navigate. Despite this, here are some tips for finding your messages:
- Mailboxes (or folders, such as Inbox, Sent, or any folder you’ve created) each appear as a folder nested within an email account folder. If your email address is test@gmail.com, you probably have a folder called IMAP-test@imap.gmail.com or POP-test@pop.gmail.com.
- Inside the email account folder, your mailboxes are listed by name, with extensions .imapmbox for IMAP mailboxes or .mbox for POP mailboxes.
- Inside those folders are the actual email messages in folders called “Messages.” These messages are each given a chronological number as the file name, with the extension .emlx. You can open these individual messages in Mail or any other text editor. Using a different text editor can be helpful if the messages are corrupt.
- You can use Spotlight to search non-corrupt messages. This should mean that if you cannot find your message using Spotlight, it either is not present on your hard drive or is in a corrupt email file.
- If you find a missing message, you can try dragging the file into Mail’s Inbox. If it plays nicely, the message will appear in the Inbox in the appropriate location based on the date originally received.
- If the message is corrupt and you cannot put it in the Inbox, the easiest solution is to open the text of the message (in any text editor), copy all of the message, then send yourself an email with the message text in the body. While not ideal, it at least preserves the message.
Using the Activity Window
One of the best troubleshooting tools in Mail is its Activity window. You can view this window by holding the Command key and pressing 0 (zero), or you can select Activity from the Window menu. This small window displays Mail’s active tasks (if any) and each task’s progress. For example, if you press the “Check Mail” button, the Activity window displays the progress of connecting to your mail server and downloading unread mail. Viewing this window lets you discern whether Mail is working on a task or resting idle.
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