All Mailboxes In MAIL Have Disappeared ! How To Get Them Back, Please ?

[Robert11]

Hello,

Sr. Citizen, apparently, problem.
Using the native mail app on my iMac called MAIL. (Running Sonoma on desktop iMac)

I must have clicked on something that I shouldn't have, but
no idea what.

The sidebar on the left of the MAIL APP still appears as it should, but all
the mailboxes I have created over the years have disappeared.

Any ideas on how to get them back would be most appreciated.
A true major problem for me in not having them.

Help, please.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[MacsBug]

Hi Bob.

If you hover your mouse over the account name in the left, you will see > If you click on that you should see your mailboxes.
See images below.

 

[MacNeil]

I don't appear to have an iCloud account in my sidebar in Sequoia

 

[Rodananne]

What do you have in your side bar? Do you not have Favourites? The principal is the same with that.

 

[OldSchool]

Remove you present email account from Mail and re-enter it using the appropriate option. For Hotmail and Outlook use the Microsoft Exchange option.

 

[Rodananne]

I find it unlikely that a single click would have removed all your mailboxes. That would usually require a few more actions and alerts. My guess is you've "hidden" them.

 

[MacNeil]

What do you have in your side bar? Do you not have Favourites? The principal is the same with that.

I have favourites, but nothing happens when I hover over it. I then have "Smart Mailboxes" followed by sets of boxes for each of the 4 email accounts on the computer then nothing. I see OldSchool recommends removing my current mailbox and replacing it, but I'm reluctant to do that for all 4. I know the mailboxes are still there because I can search e.g. for a subject and the email appears with the mailbox name against it - i.e.they are hidden not erased. I don't have an imail address. Should I set one up? I think all my hidden mailboxes were set up from my primary email account - is that relevant? - maybe I should just remove and replace that account. I guess that's what I'll try next unless you've got a better idea.

 

[Rodananne]

Try expanding the side menu bar a bit so you can see the full line with the + and the > symbols. They should be at the right hand end of the line in eg. Favourites. + >
Click on the > symbol. It should then point downwards revealing all favourites.
You can do the same with eg. GMail and others to show Trash, Spam ect.

The + symbol adds item to the list in the sidebar.

It's been this way or very similar for a long time over many macOS versions.

As you have already discovered they're not gone, just not displaying.

 

[MacNeil]

Many thanks, but no joy I'm afraid. The down arrow by Favourites just gives me the 4 in-boxes, but for the other accounts it does open and close the list relevant to that account, just as you describe.

 

[Rodananne]

Sorry to say, I can't really think of any other quick solutions. I'm not an Apple Mail user personally, I gave up on Mail about 8 years ago after repeated connection issues with Gmail, my primary email account.
Have you tried Rebuilding the Mail data base? It's at the bottom of the Mailbox menu.
You mentioned in your first post you were running Sonoma on an iMac but in post #3 you say, you don't appear to have iCloud in your sidebar in Sequoia.
Have you upgraded your operating system? Is that when the problem began? Are you signed into your iCloud account?

 

[MacsBug]

I have several thoughts here....

Do you have an icloud email account? iCloud mail only works if you have an @mac.com, @me.com, or an @icloud.com email address.

Then....

1) If you do have an iCloud email address, and if you are signed into your iCloud account it should show up in mail. If you do have an icloud email address and it does not show up in the mail app go to the Mail settings and select Accounts on top. Select your icloud account on the left side and then make sure that Enable this account on the right side is checked.

2) If you do not have an icloud email account, but have another domain such as gmail.com, msn.net you would have to add those email accounts in the System Settings > Internet Accounts

 

[MacNeil]

Sorry about any inconsistency in what I said about OS version. I also need to say that I don't at present have access to my main computer, an iMac, which is the only one on which I have my self-created mailboxes. I'm now using my MacBook Air, running Monterey so I don't want to risk doing anything too radical on this machine, which might affect my whole set-up!

I upgraded my iMac directly from Yosemite to Sequoia a couple of weeks ago and that was when the problem happened.
I see that a post from Robert11 on Dec 28th 2017 has been joined into this thread and he seems to have had the same problem with Sonoma

I have iCloud drive so I must have an iCloud account (I assume) and I am pretty sure I am signed into it. I don't believe I have an iCloud email address - but then why does iCloud appear in the sidebar in Mail on my iMac? - I can't explore that until I get home - and I don't want to risk setting up an iCloud email address from here in case I find that I do have one and they conflict. From here I can only see the usual mailboxes for each of my ordinary email addresses - does anyone know how I could make the self-created mailboxes appear on this laptop?

 

[Cory Cooper]

I also need to say that I don't at present have access to my main computer, an iMac, which is the only one on which I have my self-created mailboxes. I'm now using my MacBook Air

Hello and welcome,

The self-created mailboxes may actually be in the On My Mac section in Apple Mail. If that is the case, you will only be able to see those mailboxes and emails on the iMac and not on the MacBook Air, as they are stored locally on the iMac and not on the provider's server. If the mailboxes are created on the provider's server, then they will sync and be visible on any device that adds the account, including when you login via a web browser.

If they are on the MBA and hidden, then they may be in another section of the sidebar - i.e. On My Mac, etc. If you search and can find the, they should show the mailbox they are in within the results list, in between the From and Date.

Does that make sense?

C

 

[MacNeil]

Been away on holiday for a bit, scanned various threads and realised I had been hovering over the wrong things or looking in the wrong place..
Hover over the words "On my Mac" in the sidebar and a + in a circle appears and also little arrowhead > pointing across or down. Click on the arrowhead and all the mailboxes reappear above all the account-specific boxes. You do feel an idiot when you miss something as simple as that ... but many thanks to you all who thought of cleverer things.
Neil

 

[MacsBug]

Hi Neil,

I hope that you enjoyed your holiday.

Don't feel bad. There are so many little things in the macOS that not everyone will know everything.

One thing though, with arm email clients going IMAP you may want to think about moving all of the folders that are "On my Mac" up to an IMAP account. The advantages of having old mail up on a sever is that you can access old mails on multiple devices. And even more important, if you have a crash you wont lose your old email.

 

[MacNeil]

Thanks - holiday was good and thank you for your kind words.
But especially for that wonderful suggestion - it's always been a pain that I could only access filed emails on my main computer. I'm having a bit of a problem setting up a new email account with my provider, but I'm sure I'll manage that before long - then I presume I just click and drag the files onto the inbox for the new account. I'll tell you when it all goes through

 

[MacsBug]

Hi Neil,

Best thing to do is create folders on the IMAP server and then 1 at a time copy the contents go a folder that you have in mail listed under On My Mac to the folder in IMAP. Once you confirm that all the email has copied then you can delete the folder listed under On my Mac.

Just note that depending on how many emails you have and your internet speed this can take a some time.