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accidentally deleted mac mail account...can I get the mail back?

I have a G4 tower running OS 10.2.x. I'm using Mac Mail. I was having a problem sending mail today, and on the advice of my ISP I deleted the existing account and created a new one. This solved my sending problem, but now I realize that all the mail in my "in" folder is gone! I had over 200 messages in that folder. The messages in my other folders are still there, but everything in the "in" box is gone.

So, can I get these messages back? I saw an option somewhere that said "rebuild mailbox", but I don't know Macs very well, so I don't want to do more damage.

I won't be able to get back to the Mac until Tuesday, so please post your suggestions/solutions here, and I'll award points on tuesday to whoever gave me a solution that works! ( I sure hope there is one!)

thanks
matt

brettmjohnson

Two tier-1 telecom carriers (Verio and Level 3) were suffering technical problems
today, suffering sever network traffic routing problems. This has cause widespread
internet connectivity problems all day. The ISP tech support person you talked to
should have known that. That person should also have known that deleting the
email account would destroy your mailbox. These indicate an astonishing level
of incompetence, and you should complain to your ISP accordingly.

In the future, be aware that a huge percentage of first-line tech support personnel
are similarly incompetent. Balk when asked to perform any actions of a damaging
nature (any action that includes the words "delete" or "remove" or "reinstall").
Back up your data regularly. If asked to delete a file, move or rename it instead.
If asked to change a file, make a backup copy first, so you can restore it if necessary.
(I usually make a copy of the file in the same directory, adding a ".bak" or ".orig"
file extension.)

Mail allows you to modify all the configuration settings for a particular mail account.
You don't have to delete that account and re-enter the information. Make a note
of the current settings before modifying them, so you could restore them if the
changes don't work. Mail supports multiple ISP accounts - rather than deleting
one and recreating it, simply create a new one to the same ISP. If the new account
works, you can disable (rather than delete) the old one, to preserve its existing
messages.

njxbean

Backup always!

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pike480

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mattbiel

ASKER

Pike480 -

thank you for giving me a possible solution (instead a lecture like the first two). Do you know how I would go about importing this mail into the new account? I don't know my way around the Mac very well.

SOLUTION

njxbean

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pike480

basically, what mr. bean said above.

mattbiel

ASKER

Thanks Pike and Bean! I'll give this a shot when I can get access to that machine on Friday. I'll let you know how it goes and award points at that time.

matt

mattbiel

ASKER

thanks!

I was able to find and restore the mail as per your instructions. much appreciated!