How to retrieve archived mail on mac
Retrieving archived mail on a Mac can be a bit tricky, but I'm here to guide you through the process. Here are the steps:
Method 1: Using Mail.app
- Open Mail.app on your Mac.
- Click on "Mail" in the top menu bar and select "Preferences" (or press
Cmd +,
). - In the Preferences window, click on the "Accounts" tab.
- Select the account that has the archived mail you want to retrieve.
- Click on the "Advanced" tab.
- Scroll down to the "Archived Mail" section.
- Click on the "Show" button next to "Archived Mail".
- A new window will open showing all your archived mail. You can search for specific emails using the search bar at the top.
- Select the email you want to retrieve and click "Move to Inbox" to move it back to your inbox.
Method 2: Using Spotlight Search
- Press
Cmd + Space
to open Spotlight Search. - Type "archived mail" in the search bar and press Enter.
- Spotlight will search for archived mail on your Mac. If it finds any, it will display a list of results.
- Select the email you want to retrieve and click "Open" to open it in Mail.app.
Method 3: Using the Terminal
- Open the Terminal app on your Mac (you can find it in Applications/Utilities or use Spotlight Search).
- Type the following command and press Enter:
mdfind "kMDItemContentType == 'com.apple.mail-message'"
- This command will search for all archived mail on your Mac. The output will be a list of file paths.
- Look for the file path that corresponds to the email you want to retrieve.
- Use the
mv
command to move the email back to your inbox. For example:mv /path/to/email.eml ~/Library/Mail/V2/Mailboxes/Inbox
Note: The mdfind
command is a metadata search command that searches for files based on their metadata, such as file type and content. The kMDItemContentType
key specifies that we're looking for files with a content type of "com.apple.mail-message", which is the type of file used by Mail.app for archived emails.
I hope these methods help you retrieve your archived mail on your Mac!