OS Monterey, my Mail sent folder has disappeared

Question

OS Monterey, my Mail sent folder has disappeared

Hi all,

I recently restored my Time Machine backup to a brand new 24 inch iMac (macOS Monterey 12.5.1 The same OS as the 2019 21.5 inch iMac that made the backup). All went well except the second time I opened Mail and looked for an email in my sent folder the folder disappeared after I closed the email I was looking for and has not come back. The sent folder contained all sent emails for all my accounts (I have 9 accounts). The mac OS has always set up the sent (for all accounts) folder automatically and I've never seen this happen before.

This is a major pain as I quite often need to find an email I sent previously. I can still see individual sent folders for all all accounts but not in the one folder anymore.

Anyone got any idea why it disappeared and how to re-instate it?

Note, my iMac has four ports, not two, I ordered an upgraded model. Not that that should make any difference but I thought I'd better mention it, just in case...

TIA,

Davo.

iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021, 2 ports)

Posted on Sep 4, 2022 4:56 AM

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Answer 1

dialabrain

Level 10

133,811 points

Sep 5, 2022 4:13 AM in response to davofromulladulla

davofromulladulla wrote:

Thanks guys, but none of that helps. I don't have a Sent folder to add it to favourites (it has disappeared, remember?).

Hover the cursor to the right of the word "Favorites". Click on the first symbol. That will bring up a dialog box. "All Sent" should be in the drop down menu to select.

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Answer 2

Sep 5, 2022 4:10 AM in response to davofromulladulla

Maybe you tried this already, but just in case there is a misunderstanding, what we are saying is this:

Hover the pointer near the word Favorites, until the circled plus sign appears, as seen in the image above.

Click it:

In my case, "All Sent" is greyed out, because it is already in my Favorites.

What do you see there?

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Answer 3

Owl-53

Level 10

100,699 points

Sep 4, 2022 6:21 AM in response to davofromulladulla

1 - Has the user logged into the Web Interface of the Accounts ? Are the missing folder presented ?

2 - Are the accounts using IMAP or POP protocols "

3 -What does Connection Doctor report ?

4 - Has the user Rebuild the Mail Boxes

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Answer 4

Sep 4, 2022 6:17 PM in response to Owl-53

Thanks for the replies, however - as I clearly explained in my original post - the sent folder I am missing contains sent emails from all my email accounts. Each individual account still has its own sent folder but normally those sent emails are also automatically duplicated and put into the common (system generated) sent folder by the system.

It is the system generated sent folder that has disappeared.

Yes, I have rebuilt mailboxes but that has not restored my common sent folder.

I don't think that restoring each individual email account would bring it back either, besides which if I do restore a mailbox it will overwrite my existing mailbox and I'll lose recent emails?

I tried Connection Doctor and it is reporting that accounts with all POP connections are fine, those with all SMTP connections are fine, those with all IMAP connections are fine. However, those with a mix of POP/SMTP, IMAP/SMTP are failing with SMTP "failure to log into this account, or failure to connect", even though the IMAP or POP part for the same account has connected.

I'll be surprised if these problems are anything to do with my missing folder but I'll keep looking into it and contact my ISP to get it resolved.

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Answer 5

Sep 5, 2022 4:00 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks guys, but none of that helps. I don't have a Sent folder to add it to favourites (it has disappeared, remember?).

I've looked at every option I can find for mailboxes but there is no way I can re-create that system generated Sent mailbox with its little paper aeroplane symbol.

The Apple Mail Help is no good as it's way out of date.

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Answer 6

Owl-53

Level 10

100,699 points

Sep 5, 2022 4:06 AM in response to davofromulladulla

You are welcome for the free advise related to this computer issue.

There has been sufficient advise offered, from more than one contributor, for the User to make an informed and educated choice what the next course of action is required for this computer.

The suggestions have been put forth on a volunteer basis, in good faith and in the best interests of the computer.

Perhaps Apple Support will listen and offer something we have misses or misunderstood.

Get Support Choose a product and we’ll find you the best solution.

Start now

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Answer 7

Sep 5, 2022 6:00 PM in response to dialabrain

Thanks for the replies but as I have said a couple of times now, there is no All Sent folder in that list. I just have All Inboxes, All Drafts - and Flagged (which is greyed out).

I talked with Apple Support on their chat line last night but so far it's been a bit painful as I keep getting a different person every time and have to explain it all again, that's because they asked me to boot into safe mode (didn't help) then the chat dropped out and the last one was so slow in responding I had to go to bed. So I'm going to try again.

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