You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

User profile for user: Newsmaster
Newsmaster Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Cannot restore Apple Mail from Time Machine backup

After making a Time Machine backup, I erased my MacBook Pro hard drive and reinstalled macOS Catalina. I was able to restore everything except for my Apple Mail from the Time Machine backup (my Mail, at 40gb, was too large to sync using my iCloud).


Here’s what I tried:


  1. Apple’s “Restore your Mac from a backup” (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203981) and simply copying the  ~/Library/Mail directory over to the Macintosh HD.  When I open Apple Mail there is nothing there.
  2. I had previously used the “Import Mailboxes” procedure successfully when I was running High Sierra, but with Catalina in trying to import Mail from the  ~/Library/Mail/V7 backup, each individual email message imported has no message content. Each is identified with (No Sender) (No Subject). (See https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/import-or-export-mailboxes-mlhlp1030/mac) 
  3. I read that that it may be a permissions problem because Time Machine appends hidden permissions settings called ACLs (access control lists) to files. So I tried a chmod -R -N ~/Library/Mail command to strip the ACLs (as described here https://www.macissues.com/2014/12/07/how-to-manually-restore-your-mail-folder-from-time-machine/) but got an operation not permitted error.
  4. I followed the Restore procedure described at “Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac” (https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/restore-files-mh11422/mac). I tried the Time Machine “restore” button to restore the ~/Library/Mail directory, but the Restore button is grayed out. 
  5. I gave Terminal full disk access and then tried the command:  sudo tmutil inheritbackup as described here (https://www.macworld.com/article/3261146/how-to-make-sure-time-machine-works-when-you-upgrade-your-hard-drive.html, but it produces an Invalid Target as described here (https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/375894/inheriting-time-machine-backup-invalid-target). The “solution” described there is over my level of comprehension.


I must be missing something simple. Restoring Apple mail must be a common occurrence and something relatively simple to undertake.


Does anyone have experience restoring Mail with Catalina who can point me in the right direction? Thank you in advance!



MacBook Pro 15″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jul 24, 2020 10:11 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Newsmaster
Newsmaster Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Posted on Jul 28, 2020 7:18 AM

Luis,


You're right in that simply connecting to the server retrieves my IMAP current accounts, however I have multiple IMAP accounts that I no longer have access to and a half-dozen discontinued POP accounts with email going back 20+ years.


I forgot to mention that I had first tried using Migration Assistant but unfortunately could not access the Time Machine back up sets as described here in "How to Use Migration Assistant with macOS Catalina" https://blog.macsales.com/55314-how-to-use-migration-assistant-with-macos-catalina/.


I solved my problem by copying my most recent complete Time Machine backup to a second hard drive. Actually, I didn't copy the complete backup image. I only copied over relative keychain folder, mail preferences, and mail folder as described here in "How to Move Your Apple Mail to a New Mac" https://www.lifewire.com/transfer-apple-mail-to-new-mac-2260915. I opened Apple Mail and then using Import Mailboxes pointed to the folder where I had these files I was able to import all my preexisting mail. Then, activating my current IMAP accounts, I was able to get everything up to date.


In my case I think this is what happened. I was having a hard drive failure and before I switched out the bad hard drive for a good one, I did a Time Machine backup. That most recent backup from the bad drive, I think, was corrupted and prevented Migration Assistant and Apple Mail Import from finding my Mail. In any event, by extracting and copying over the complete Time Machine backup previous to that last one, I was able to finally access the files.

View in context

Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Newsmaster
Newsmaster Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Jul 28, 2020 7:18 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Luis,


You're right in that simply connecting to the server retrieves my IMAP current accounts, however I have multiple IMAP accounts that I no longer have access to and a half-dozen discontinued POP accounts with email going back 20+ years.


I forgot to mention that I had first tried using Migration Assistant but unfortunately could not access the Time Machine back up sets as described here in "How to Use Migration Assistant with macOS Catalina" https://blog.macsales.com/55314-how-to-use-migration-assistant-with-macos-catalina/.


I solved my problem by copying my most recent complete Time Machine backup to a second hard drive. Actually, I didn't copy the complete backup image. I only copied over relative keychain folder, mail preferences, and mail folder as described here in "How to Move Your Apple Mail to a New Mac" https://www.lifewire.com/transfer-apple-mail-to-new-mac-2260915. I opened Apple Mail and then using Import Mailboxes pointed to the folder where I had these files I was able to import all my preexisting mail. Then, activating my current IMAP accounts, I was able to get everything up to date.


In my case I think this is what happened. I was having a hard drive failure and before I switched out the bad hard drive for a good one, I did a Time Machine backup. That most recent backup from the bad drive, I think, was corrupted and prevented Migration Assistant and Apple Mail Import from finding my Mail. In any event, by extracting and copying over the complete Time Machine backup previous to that last one, I was able to finally access the files.

Reply
User profile for user: Luis Sequeira1
Luis Sequeira1
User level: Level 9
67,612 points

Jul 24, 2020 10:42 AM in response to Newsmaster

I am assuming your account is a POP account, for if it were IMAP or Exchange you'd need only connect to the server.


I suggest you use Migration Assistant. It is designed to migrate your entire user accounts, including mail, photos, music, documents. Do not try to get stuff piecemeal from Time Machine. It is ok if you want to recover a missing document, or an earlier version before you did an unwanted edit to a file, but to recover not just the messages but the mail accounts and mailboxes from scratch from Time Machine... no.

Reply

Cannot restore Apple Mail from Time Machine backup

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up