Mail Quits When Entering Time Machine

Again the problem is when I try to enter Time Machine with the Mail app open, both Time Machine & Mail quit. I have now called Apple Support, spent a long time with a very helpful senior rep and am awaiting a follow-up after he consults with an engineer. Others have reported this exact same problem.

I've been using a computer for 25+ years. I know that recently deleted mail goes to the trash folder. But I don't store mail there. So if I am looking for something I deleted a couple of months ago, I go to Time Machine. I thought all this was too obvious to mention, but apparently not. Your reply does not answer my question, but thank you.

I'm sorry that you think I was insulting you. I was just trying to provide more information, to let you know I am versed in the basics.

And I guess I am not making myself clear about what I am trying to do.

I want to restore one email---not an entire mailbox which will likely have hundreds of emails in it.

When I have done this (many times) before, I opened Mail to the appropriate mailbox on my computer, then entered Time Machine, where the open mailbox looked just like the one on my computer. Then I went "back in time" until I found the email I was looking for and restored it.

But today when I tried to do that, every time I tried to enter Time Machine, Mail quit, and the operation to enter Time Machine did not complete. If I go to a regular folder's contents (outside of Mail) and try to enter Time Machine, it works just fine. Just not with Mail.

Nope, not solved yet. Support recorded my screen as I tried to access Time Machine from Mail, and took me through a process where various data was collected. Then I got a call back from the senior adviser in a couple days after he talked to an engineer. (In fact he called me on the exact time and day he had promised!) It seems to be an issue with Catalina. They had no fix, but since several people --- like you and me --- have reported it, it will likely be fixed with a future update to Catalina. That's all I know at this point.

Good luck to both of us. I hope this is fixed soon!

I back up to an external drive checked the drive for errors. There were none. In any case this wouldn't account for the numerous people who have reported this issue to Apple, which is why engineers are presently working on the issue.