Apple Mail settings erased after upgrade to Sequoia 15.4.1

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Level 1

13 points

Apple Mail settings erased after upgrade to Sequoia 15.4.1

3 days ago I upgraded my iMac Mini (purchased ~6 mo ago) to Sequoia 15.4.1. I instantly began having trouble with my emails. I still get all my emails (I think), but the Mail settings have been deleted in the categories of "Rules" and "Signatures". Additionally, the "Junk Mail" behavior setting had been disabled. Finally, the Red Badge on the Mail icon in the dock no longer shows the correct number of unread emails. The Red Badge on my iPhone continues to show the correct number of unread messages, unlike my iMac Mini. I've tried, rebooting, signing out of iCloud and signing back in, without success. What is going on? Is there any hope of recovering my rules and signatures? How can I get the Red Badge to report properly?

Mac mini

Posted on May 13, 2025 6:48 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

AZsport115

Level 1

70 points

May 14, 2025 2:33 PM in response to AZsport115

I spoke with an engineer. Only way to restore signatures and rules is from a time machine backup. One can try restoring only the MailData folder first, and then try restoring the full Mail folder if that doesn't work.

The path for MailData is:

Users/(whatever your username is)/library/Mail/V10

V10 might be V6 for some users

To see this folder since it's hidden/system when in finder you need to press Command+Shift+.(period) to show the files.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

May 13, 2025 7:08 AM in response to jvspringrose

Open Disk Utility, show all devices, run Disk 1st on each partition top down.

you may need to reinstall the os.

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Answer 3

May 14, 2025 3:04 PM in response to AZsport115

I closed Apple Mail, tried 1st Aid again, opened Apple Mail, and it works now. Appreciate it @BDAqua!

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Answer 4

jvspringrose Author

Level 1

13 points

May 14, 2025 2:48 PM in response to jvspringrose

FYI all. Thanks for your assistance. 1st, doing First Aid via Utilities on all my Partitions/Drives had no immediate effect on Rules/Signatures. 2nd, perhaps the passage of time has allowed for self-correction, as all of my Signatures and (almost) all of my Rules appear to have been reinstated in Mail Settings! I can't explain it; I would have thought 3 days after install of new OSX would have been sufficient, but I have no other explanation.

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