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Buck_W · Oct 28, 2003, 12:00 AM

Before doing an 'Erase and Install' of Panther, I went into my Home �� Library �� Mail folder and backed up all the mailboxes. Now that everything is wiped clean and Panther is installed, I tried to open the backed up mailboxes by importing them in mail, but none of the mailboxes contain any of my saved emails.

What happened to them? Is there a work around or have I lost all of my archived emails?

mrtew · Oct 28, 2003, 12:16 AM

I'd just drop the backup copies you made into their proper place in the Library That has worked for me although I think I actually just dropped in the entire Mail folder.

Buck_W · Oct 28, 2003, 12:43 AM

Originally posted by mrtew:
I'd just drop the backup copies you made into their proper place in the Library That has worked for me although I think I actually just dropped in the entire Mail folder.

I just tried that and it didn't work. The folders show up in mail, but when I click on them, there is nothing in them. I've logged out, as well as restarted my computer, but still. . . nothing. For some reason, the emails are simply not showing up even though the "backed-up" mailboxes seem to be fine.

Anybody else have any suggestions?

Mr. Blur · Oct 28, 2003, 01:02 AM

Originally posted by Buck_W:
Anybody else have any suggestions?

not a likely solution but worth a try - in mail's "mailbox" menu there is a "rebuild" command...try that on one of the mail folders you are having trouble with

Buck_W · Oct 28, 2003, 01:17 AM

Originally posted by Mr. Blur:
not a likely solution but worth a try - in mail's "mailbox" menu there is a "rebuild" command...try that on one of the mail folders you are having trouble with

I was able to choose the 'rebuild' option but unfortunately it didn't bring back any of my emails. This appears to be a sticky issue.

I appreciate the suggestions! If anyone can think of something else, I would be eager to try it. I have quite a bit of archived email that I would really appreciate being able to access if possible.

mrtew · Oct 28, 2003, 07:41 AM

Originally posted by Buck_W:
I was able to choose the 'rebuild' option but unfortunately it didn't bring back any of my emails. This appears to be a sticky issue.

I appreciate the suggestions! If anyone can think of something else, I would be eager to try it. I have quite a bit of archived email that I would really appreciate being able to access if possible.

If you have a jaguar backup on disc you could just drag the whole mail folder into the panther system and I know that would work, but it sounds like you don't have that. And external drive that you can clone your entire computer to on a regular basis is very cheap and sooooooooooo worth it.

naphtali · Oct 28, 2003, 08:11 AM

I think you've got to set up your email accounts again, then drag your backups back in. Worked for me.

Love Calm Quiet · Oct 28, 2003, 09:06 AM

Can online synchronization wipe them out before you see them? Should the reclaim from a backup be done OFFLINE (so Mail doesn't sync you with EMPTY inbox on the server)?

See discussion in other thread - or may be something fishy with Apple mail servers overnight?
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=175561

Buck_W · Oct 28, 2003, 09:17 AM

Originally posted by Love Calm Quiet:
Can online synchronization wipe them out before you see them? Should the reclaim from a backup be done OFFLINE (so Mail doesn't sync you with EMPTY inbox on the server)?

See discussion in other thread - or may be something fishy with Apple mail servers overnight?
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=175561

I checked out the link, but it doesn't appear that being online has any bearing because all my accounts are POP. I'm trying to retrieve the archived emails that had already been downloaded to my (computer) mailboxes.

RoofusPennymore · Oct 28, 2003, 04:45 PM

I had the same issue. I used Apple's BackUp 2.0 to do the back up every night. Seems to be something weird with these mail boxes becasue it doens't back them up right.

Buck_W · Oct 29, 2003, 12:25 AM

Originally posted by RoofusPennymore:
I had the same issue. I used Apple's BackUp 2.0 to do the back up every night. Seems to be something weird with these mail boxes becasue it doens't back them up right.

I'm not familiar with Apple's BackUp 2.0. Is it available off of their website?

naphtali · Oct 29, 2003, 09:03 AM

Has anyone read my post yet? Or does it not work for you?

Angus_D · Oct 29, 2003, 01:49 PM

Originally posted by Buck_W:
I'm not familiar with Apple's BackUp 2.0. Is it available off of their website?

It's part of .Mac

Big Mac · Oct 29, 2003, 06:32 PM

I haven't used Backup yet, but have you tried to use Backup to restore the email backups you created? If you're just trying to drag them back into the Mail folder, it makes sense that wouldn't work

Buck_W · Oct 29, 2003, 06:59 PM

Originally posted by Big Mac:
I haven't used Backup yet, but have you tried to use Backup to restore the email backups you created? If you're just trying to drag them back into the Mail folder, it makes sense that wouldn't work

I don't have a .Mac account, so does that mean that I don't have access to Backup? Can you explain why it doesn't work just dragging the saved mailboxes back into the Mail folder? (It hasn't worked for me, but evidently it worked for naphtali - see his/her post above.)

Big Mac · Oct 29, 2003, 09:33 PM

Oh I'm sorry, Buck, something made me think you were using Backup to back the files up. If you just copied the files normally, then my suggestion wouldn't apply to you.

Have you looked at the size of the files you copied? Do they look large enough to hold your email? Then next thing to try would be to go back to Jaguar and restore the files in Jaguar's mail.

Buck_W · Oct 29, 2003, 11:02 PM

Originally posted by Big Mac:
Oh I'm sorry, Buck, something made me think you were using Backup to back the files up. If you just copied the files normally, then my suggestion wouldn't apply to you.

Have you looked at the size of the files you copied? Do they look large enough to hold your email? Then next thing to try would be to go back to Jaguar and restore the files in Jaguar's mail.

No problem. I'm not sure how to go back to Jaguar since I've already installed Panther. Is there not a work around using Panther. Is the mail app that incompatible with Jaguar and Panther?

brachiator · Oct 30, 2003, 12:45 AM

Well, there's a way to look inside the mailbox itself to determine in the first instance whether there's any mail data in the box.

Right-click (I mean, ctrl-click!) on the mailbox (e.g., Inbox.mbox... it will have the .mbox suffix and look like a post box) -- select "Show Package Contents."

A new Finder window will open, and inside should be 5 or so files. Ctrl-click on the one that's called, simply, mbox, and then Open With... Text Edit or your favorite text editor.

When the file opens, you'll see the plain text that makes up the emails... if any.

good luck.

Buck_W · Oct 30, 2003, 01:06 AM

Originally posted by brachiator:
Well, there's a way to look inside the mailbox itself to determine in the first instance whether there's any mail data in the box.

Right-click (I mean, ctrl-click!) on the mailbox (e.g., Inbox.mbox... it will have the .mbox suffix and look like a post box) -- select "Show Package Contents."

A new Finder window will open, and inside should be 5 or so files. Ctrl-click on the one that's called, simply, mbox, and then Open With... Text Edit or your favorite text editor.

When the file opens, you'll see the plain text that makes up the emails... if any.

good luck.

I sincerely appreciate the various suggestions. I have tried them all, but nothing has worked thus far. I was able to open the mbox using the above methods, but there was either nothing in it or it contained a bunch of numbers, letters, and characters all mixed up.

I am disappointed that there appears to be a total incompatibility between the mailboxes in Jaguar and Panther. I wish I had known this before the install, I could have at least saved every individual email as a text file. I figured that backing up the mailboxes would do the trick

brachiator · Oct 30, 2003, 02:59 AM

Originally posted by Buck_W:
I sincerely appreciate the various suggestions. I have tried them all, but nothing has worked thus far. I was able to open the mbox using the above methods, but there was either nothing in it or it contained a bunch of numbers, letters, and characters all mixed up.

I am disappointed that there appears to be a total incompatibility between the mailboxes in Jaguar and Panther. I wish I had known this before the install, I could have at least saved every individual email as a text file. I figured that backing up the mailboxes would do the trick

The mailboxes do not appear to me to be incompatable -- I've copied the Mail folder from my Jag installation straight to my Panther installation, and everything is peachy.

My suspicion is that your mailboxes got corrupted somehow in the copy from Jag. In specific, the "mixed up" characters you mention in the mbox file may be corruption -- of course it could also be a MIME'd attachment. Was there absolutely NO readable text in that file?

mrtew · Oct 30, 2003, 08:20 AM

Originally posted by brachiator:
The mailboxes do not appear to me to be incompatable -- I've copied the Mail folder from my Jag installation straight to my Panther installation, and everything is peachy.

Yeah, like I said above, I copied my mail folder from Jag to Panth and everything worked perfectly.

King Bob On The Cob · Oct 30, 2003, 01:35 PM

Originally posted by Buck_W:
I sincerely appreciate the various suggestions. I have tried them all, but nothing has worked thus far. I was able to open the mbox using the above methods, but there was either nothing in it or it contained a bunch of numbers, letters, and characters all mixed up.

I am disappointed that there appears to be a total incompatibility between the mailboxes in Jaguar and Panther. I wish I had known this before the install, I could have at least saved every individual email as a text file. I figured that backing up the mailboxes would do the trick

Did you use pgp to encrypt your E-Mails? They updated pgp in Panther and I don't think the old and new ones are compatible...

Buck_W · Oct 30, 2003, 02:17 PM

Originally posted by King Bob On The Cob:
Did you use pgp to encrypt your E-Mails? They updated pgp in Panther and I don't think the old and new ones are compatible...

No, I didn't use any encryption on any of the emails. After reading mrtew's and brachiator's posts, I guess my mailboxes got corrupted. I know that can happen, but it's still a little weird because I have never had that happen to files that I have simply saved as a backup.