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I'm trying to recover deleted emails on my iMac running Sequoia 15.1.1 using Time Machine but can't figure how to go about it. If I open Mail and select All Trash then open Time Machine it always displays the window for finder and I cannot open Mail from there. Can anyone help? Thank you.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iMac 24″, macOS 15.1
Yes, Apple pretty much made it more difficult to use Time Machine (TM) to recover emails from the Apple Mail app, since macOS Catalina. Since your Mac is running macOS Sequoia, the only method to retrieve email messages is via the Finder, not TM, albeit, TM still does back them up.
With each subsequent release of macOS, where Mail stores it files has changed. For Sequoia, that is now in the V12 folder.
As far as I know, the following steps are still correct:
Go to Internet Accounts on System Settings. Click on your email. Next Screen>Bottom left hand corner "Delete Account"
Go back to Internet Accounts. Bottom Right Hand Corner "Add Account"
You Options
What has made Mac's some what safer to use than Windows is the security measures that Apple has put in place over the years. Sure trying to retrieve Mail from TimeMachine is cumbersome and Mail does have bugs in it as a developer have found out but just because you couldn't retrieve you backed up email on TimeMachine isn't a great argument to not recommend Mac to anyone.
What I have suggested to people if they are running Mail and are using their email on a IMAP server such as Microsoft or Gmail or Yahoo is to delete their email address from Mail and re-enter using the appropriate option for the email address. At least you get back your email if you haven't deleted it off of the servers.
The problem with POP and why they went IMAP is if you create a label (aka) folder on a a app such as Mail or Outlook it is created on the server or visa versa where as POP you can't. I don't suggest anyone create a email in a POP server.
Last login: Wed Nov 20 11:13:40 on ttys000
kevincolson@Kevins-iMac ~ % Go to ~/Library/Mail/V10
zsh: command not found: Go
kevincolson@Kevins-iMac ~ % ~/Library/Mail/V10
zsh: permission denied: /Users/kevincolson/Library/Mail/V10
kevincolson@Kevins-iMac ~ % sudo -s
Password:
root@Kevins-iMac ~ # ~/Library/Mail/V10
zsh: permission denied: /Users/kevincolson/Library/Mail/V10
root@Kevins-iMac ~ #
Back in the day, I used to use Time Machine to very easily recover emails, now Apple in their infinite wisdom keeps making simple mouse click operations extremely difficult! Just like being able to schedule turn on and shutdown your make using mouse clicks on the energy saver icon has now become command line input using Terminal. Who are brain childs who change things like this? Frustrating as ****!
Hello Tesserax,
Thanks so much for your reply. I tried following your instructions and did get to the point where I see those alphanumeric folders, but trying to decipher where my emails were is daunting. They don't present themselves exactly like in Mail and after many trial and errors, I became frustrated and abandoned my searches. I just can't fathom how the powers at Apple would make so many steps backwards with performing rather simple tasks using mouse clicks with text input command lines! You would think if they want people to buy and use their product, they would make things simpler and not more complicated. That is what made them successful all those years ago when we had to use command line input. I really don't think I would recommend a Mac to anyone today.
Well AlWeir, not being a developer does not forfeit my displeasure with Apple. And it is not just because I failed to retrieve email, as I stated earlier, another example is the "turn of , shutdown" proceedure is another example of taking steps backwards in user convienience. Things like this are what makes me like Mac less. It used to be simple so you are saying these things have changed for security reasons? Please explain.
Also, could you explain this paragraph: What I have suggested to people if they are running Mail and are using their email on a IMAP server such as Microsoft or Gmail or Yahoo is to delete their email address from Mail and re-enter using the appropriate option for the email address. At least you get back your email if you haven't deleted it off of the servers.
Not being an expert, I don't understand what you mean by delete and re-enter using the appropriate option? What is the appropriate option?
Thank you for your input.
Perhaps to provide emphasis on the other options: instead of IMAP
maybe try POP. Outlook? or other could be SMTP might work OK.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=email+options+imap+pop&ia=web
I think you best bet is do a Google search for a solution.
I used "Recovering deleted emails using Time Machine" less the quotes. Seems that it is a somewhat complex operation to recover them.
I have 3 accounts and they are all IMAP. Thanks for clarifying.
Your Welcome.
Recovering deleted emails on iMac using Time Machine
