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bergy · Aug 6, 2004, 08:26 PM

Ever since I copied my mail over from my old hard drive, I am unable to rebuild any of the mailboxes. It's greyed out and unavailable. It probably had something to do with the way I transferred over ... I don't know ... everything else is okay. Is there any way of getting this function back?

gorickey · Aug 6, 2004, 09:41 PM

Which folder are you trying to re-build? How did you transfer stuff over?

bergy · Aug 6, 2004, 10:12 PM

I'm trying to rebuild the "In" and "Sent" mailboxes.

It was a while ago .. but I think I just copied over the whole Mail folder. I can however rebuild any new mailbox I create.

gorickey · Aug 6, 2004, 10:30 PM

Originally posted by bergy:
I'm trying to rebuild the "In" and "Sent" mailboxes.

It was a while ago .. but I think I just copied over the whole Mail folder. I can however rebuild any new mailbox I create.

That's it then. By default, you cannot "Rebuild" any of the following mailboxes:

In
Sent
Drafts
Trash
Junk

Mike S. · Aug 7, 2004, 12:39 AM

That's only partially true.

You can't rebuild the actual In, Sent, etc... boxes because they are kind of like meta boxes that display the contents of all the folders under them.

If you want to rebuild then you click the disclosure triangle next to the box (In for example), click the specific box you want to rebuild and the menu item should become available.

bergy · Aug 7, 2004, 06:13 AM

I can rebuild the in and sent boxes on new mail accounts I have set up since transferring.

Big Mac · Aug 7, 2004, 10:01 AM

Are you still receiving/sending mail at those boxes? In other words, are the boxes that you're trying to Rebuild being modified at all? I ask because I'm wondering if you only have Read Only privileges to those files. Go Get Info on the files in question, and verify that the privileges are correct. Also, as the previous poster was saying, the aggregate In cannot be rebuilt - ensure you're clicking on the individual Inbox that is revealed when you click on In's disclosure triangle. (I have to remember that sometimes myself.)

bergy · Aug 7, 2004, 10:14 AM

Originally posted by Big Mac:
Are you still receiving/sending mail at those boxes? In other words, are the boxes that you're trying to Rebuild being modified at all? I ask because I'm wondering if you only have Read Only privileges to those files. Go Get Info on the files in question, and verify that the privileges are correct. Also, as the previous poster was saying, the aggregate In cannot be rebuilt - ensure you're clicking on the individual Inbox that is revealed when you click on In's disclosure triangle. (I have to remember that sometimes myself.)

Thank you ... that's what the problem was ... I wasn't expanding the aggregate and selecting the proper account. Now I'm wondering why I have a choice in there ... "on my Mac" and "POP: [email protected] ? There is nothing in "On my Mac" . Can I delete it? How did "On my Mac" get in there. It is not listed in accounts under preferences .. only my pop account. On other user mail accounts they do not have any triangle next to the In mailbox and do not have "On my Mac" listed.

Big Mac · Aug 7, 2004, 01:21 PM

I assume the [email protected] is the name of your actual Inbox - there's nothing wrong with that. Secondly, it's a bit confusing at first. . . If you use IMAP email (as opposed to POP), whenever you create a local folder to organize your mail, Mail will place it in an "On My Mac" directory. If you click the disclosure triangle next to On My Mac, you should see the different folders you've created. If you haven't created any folders then On My Mac will not contain anything. When you create a new mail folder, you'll see you'll be able to select where the new folder will be placed - On My Mac or on the IMAP server.

The reason Mail has the On My Mac directory is to differentiate between local mail folders and IMAP mail folders. You must have an IMAP email account, like the one provided by .Mac. With an IMAP account you can create folders on the server to organize your mail. These folders are shown as sub-folders of an IMAP directory, just as the local folders are sub-folders of On My Mac. My IMAP directory is called iTools:[email protected]. In essence, it's just a way to make sure the user is not confused about where mail is stored.

gorickey · Aug 7, 2004, 01:24 PM

Originally posted by bergy:
Can I delete it?

Yes.