All of a sudden tonight I get my email headings, but when I click on the email heading, there is no content. The dividing line between headers and content is also gone. I tried dragging it up from the bottom but that does nothing. Any ideas?

Update: I just noticed if I click on the heading, it opens up in a new window and I can read it. But I don't like it like that. I like my content to be right below the header like always.

Weird that you should ask, because I had one - first one ever - just like that today in Mail.app.

When I double-clicked on it it opened up as expected, displaying it's content.

So it happened to you, too? Maybe others too. If so, something glitchy going on. Let me know if you find a fix.

I wonder if I should rebuild my mailbox? I've never done it. The mail is supposed to disappear and then reappear after it's done rebuilding. Have you ever done that? It makes me nervous.

Never done it.

Have you tried shutting down/restarting?

Not until you mentioned it. I just did it and no difference. But now I don't have the left column that had all my folders on it where I store stuff like receipts.

Have you tried shutting down/restarting? [/quote]

[/quote]

Rita,

I had a grievous problem with Mail a few years ago (and yours sounds somewhat similar but not identical). Apple Tech Support took about an hour on the phone with me and ultimately solved it. The number is (800) 275-2273. Good luck!

Two comments:

• On the Mail Menu bar click on View > Use Column Layout to get back to what I think you are wanting. You can do all sorts of layout changes in the View menu.
• I have rebuilt the mailbox many times. In early days it was a commonly recommended "fix" for a variety of problems. it simply rebuilds the index to the mailbox database and should present no problems

Thanks, Jon. Their help isn't free, so I can't go that route.

So you never lost some or all of your emails by doing this? I am wondering if the fact that I made copies of the folders I made under Yahoo and then added to my mail.com on my apple mail triggered this. I don't think it happened right away, but I'm not sure. It was the same day for sure.

I wonder if this is a clue to what may be going on. When I go to Mail - Accounts - and click on one of the email accounts I have, then click on "advanced" instead of going to the advanced page I get this message with each account I try: Advanced view[

When I did it (and AppleCare had expired), I was not charged. It would be worth a try.

Oh, thanks for letting me know. May I ask if they knew it had expired or they assumed you had it? That way I'll know what to say.

With the exception that I don't have a Mail.com account I get the same thing you do. All that tells you is the URL for the IMAP server you are suing for that particular email account and should have nothing to do with you your messages are displayed on your iMac.

To expand upon my previous statement:

• On your computer messages are stored as records in a database (like images in Photos and tunes in Music)
• Those records/messages are accessed via pointers in an index file
• When you rebuild a mailbox Mail reads the records in the database and creates a new index of the database contents
• It is possible that the old index has been damaged and may show a message record that is no longer present or may have lost a pointer to a message record that is in the database.
• As a result the new index may have fewer entries, more entries, or the same number of entries as the previous version but it does not change the actual content of the database so messages are neither gained or lost in the rebuild itself. Rather the new index correctly reflects reflects the actual database/mailbox contents.

OK, but I wonder why the Advanced area doesn't show what it used to. Maybe if I rebuild that will go back to normal, too. Apple mail works fine on my iMac. It's the MacBook pro that's giving me the problem. Also, when I mentioned it on the Apple Community this is the answer I got, though I don't really understand it.


Email content gone, only headers

plantsower Said:

"Email content gone, only headers: [...]copy the folders I made under one account and add them to the other account also. I wonder if that's what did it though it took awhile if that's the case."

-------



Import/Export the Mail:

You should have exported the eMails l, and then added back the eMails. Go Here: Import or Export Mailboxes in Mail on Mac - Apple Support. So, its debatable, being that it is just copied content. I would make certain that all the Mail is where it should be; trash the messages in the account you copied them over to; and then export and import the eMails to and from the accounts, respectively.

They didn't ask and I didn't volunteer!

Okay, then!

Maybe this is a clue as to what to do. I logged out and signed into my alternate account and the email worked properly. So, does that just mean that my mail account is corrupted in my normal account and I need to rebuild it?

That is in the it can't hurt and it might help category. Try it and see what happens.

Well, I bit the bullet. I clicked my inbox and emails just popped up in bold even though I had already read them. Nothing seemed to happen like it said with mail disappearing and then indexing and coming back unless it happened in a split second. I still have to double click each email to open it up and it's a huge, single page. I give up. I'll just keep going to each website to read my mail.

On the Mail menu bar under view there are two pertinent options Use Column Layout and Show Bottom Preview either or both may be on or off. I don't know exactly what you are looking for, but among the four possible combinations (both off, both on, only column layout on, only show bottom preview on) you should the able to achieve what you want.

I guess I'm not getting my message across. Changing anything on view doesn't help matters. Usually, I have a list of emails come into my mailbox. When I click on one of them it opens up below and I can read it. That's the content I'm talking about. That content is now not visible unless I double click on the header and open the message in a new window. I've never had to do that before.

At the very bottom of the message viewer window there is a pair of lines with a dot between them. Move your cursor over the dot and the cursor will turn into a short horizontal line with an arrow pointing up. Drag upward and once you've gone far enough (in my window it's a couple of inches) that dot and the pair of lines will jump up to create a message viewing area below, which will display whatever message is currently selected (or "No Message Selected" if none is).

(At first, I didn't think this worked anymore. My preference is the opposite of yours—I like the main Mail window to show only a list of emails and no preview. When I tried dragging up from the bottom nothing seemed to happen, but I found I just wasn't going far enough up.)

Since my mail program works fine on my alter ego account on Catalina, do you think upgrading to Monterey would help? I'm thinking maybe not since it doesn't seem to be a Catalina thing. I rebuilt my mail even though it didn't look like it was doing anything and reindexed it through onyX (Titanium). I wish I could ditch the mail app and redownload it, but I guess that's not possible.

I thought about just using my alter ego account since mail works there, but I tried to import bookmarks from my other account and it didn't work. I would like to have all the stuff on my regular account transferred to the other account and then I would be fine. But that's a lot of work and I'm not sure how to do it all. Anyway, what do you think? If upgrading to Monterey doesn't fix it, I'm sunk and I"ve lost some things that I like.

I could call Apple because sometimes they do help, but more than not, they do not. What about PRAM?

Post screenshots of both your accounts so we can visualize what you are seeing.

For some reason I couldn't get the attachment feature to work here so I am just sending the url's of the Imgur images of my emails.

https://imgur.com/BzGASLV This is a pic of my normal everyday email which isn't working. You can see that the headers show up but no content.

https://imgur.com/igO4I6V This one show my testing email which shows the header and the content properly. Same computer but email not working in everyday login.


https://imgur.com/BzGASLV https://imgur.com/BzGASLV[url=http://][/url]

Judging from your first screenshot, it looks like dkmarsh may be correct.

Can we see a shot of the bottom of that first page, please?

Here you go. It's not a dot with 2 lines, it's just a gray dot and it only makes the window larger or smaller. It does not bring up the contents. Bottom of mail screen shot.

The dot is what we're looking for, but dragging it up as far as it will go should bring up the contents.

The fact that things work as expected in your test account suggests that com.apple.mail.plist may be corrupted, but I've got no idea if trashing it would be at all useful.

Yes, I've used that dot in the past to bring up the contents. But I'm telling you all it does is shorten the window now. Maybe I will try to find the com.apple.mail.plist and toss it and see what happens. I'll let you know.

Before I do that, what do you think of these instructions? Apple Mail Folder

That feature is disabled FIneTunedMac to conserve disk space.


There are four settings necessary to achieve the screen you desire and they are all four in different places:

1. Click on Mailboxes in the Favorites bar to activate the Mailboxes sidebar
2. on the menu bar select View > Show Bottom Preview to put the list of messages above the preview window
3. In Mail > Preferences > Viewing set List Preview to 0 lines
4. As Ira suggested and Artie confirmed, place your cursor at the very bottom of the mail window and when it turns into an inverted T with an upward pointing arrow on the stem (⇯ — not the double up/down arrow) then click and drag it about half way up the screen to open the Preview pane of the window.

Well, I got it to work later. LOL!

That feature is disabled FIneTunedMac to conserve disk space.



There are four settings necessary to achieve the screen you desire and they are all four in different places:

1. Click on Mailboxes in the Favorites bar to activate the Mailboxes sidebar Done.
2. on the menu bar select View > Show Bottom Preview to put the list of messages above the preview window Show Bottom Preview does not exist in my drop down list as you can see. Mail View
   
3. In Mail > Preferences > Viewing set List Preview to 0 lines Done.
4. As Ira suggested and Artie confirmed, place your cursor at the very bottom of the mail window and when it turns into an inverted T with an upward pointing arrow on the stem (⇯ — not the double up/down arrow) then click and drag it about half way up the screen to open the Preview pane of the window.

[/quote]

Still just shortened the window using the inverted "T". Maybe the Show Bottom Preview would have fixed it, but I don't have that option in Catalina apparently.

:dope slap: The content of the View menu changes according to the options that are currently selected. Deselect show column layout and Show bottom Preview should appear in place of Show Side Preview.

Nope! I deselected Show Column Layout but the other never popped up. Then I deselected Show Side Preview just in case but nothing! Boo Hoo Hoo!

OK, threw out the plist. No difference.

I followed your above link, and it looks to me as if Glenn Leblanc is correct, because I just looked at ~/Library/Prefs/com.apple.mail.plist on my MBP (also running 10.15.7), and it was last modified in April 2018, which pretty much confirms that it's been supplanted. (I confirmed that by deleting mine and restarting without the file being recreated.)

I suggest that you follow these instructions: The only thing I'd add is that the suggestion that you restart your MBP immediately after moving that folder to your desktop...before reopening Mail.

I'm confused about which path to follow. When you have time could you give me a step by step instruction list?
There are several paths mentioned and I might do the wrong one.

In Finder, hit command-shift-G, and enter "~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail" (no quotes) in the field.

The folder that comes up in blue is the one you want to move to your desktop.

So simple. Thanks.

OMG! It worked! Thank you! But, always something, right? The headers are in small letters. I tried changing the fonts but that didn't help. Also, all my saved folders disappeared on the side like for my receipts, etc. They are still on the Yahoo website but not reflected anymore in Apple Mail. Merry Christmas to me! Oh, and do I trash the blue folder I put on my desk top or put it back? Thanks for being so helpful, always.

Update: I was finally able to change the header font size. But, my sorting folders are till missing.

Great!

You can trash the folder on your desktop as long as you're certain that everything is running as expected.

OK. Thanks again. I am very happy.

Joe: Look at what finally worked!

In Finder, hit command-shift-G, and enter "~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail" (no quotes) in the field.

The folder that comes up in blue is the one you want to move to your desktop.

Restart your MBP immediately after moving that folder to your desktop...before reopening Mail.

By the way, it's a good thing you posted the link to that Apple discussion, because I had totally forgotten about the new container structure.

Yay! It's all I could find, but I knew I would need you to decipher it.

I don't know who is worse in coming up with puzzling conditions, you or keys () but puzzlers like yours make FTM interesting. Glad you got it solved

Thanks for that!!! I've wanted to post the exact same thing for, literally, ages, but was afraid of wording it wrong and offending someone.

For sure. I have had very few problems put to the forum that weren't solved, though some were just ignored! LOL!

Hey, don't think I don't feel embarrassed by my many questions, but I do look online first to get answers. There's got to be others out there who have the same problems but afraid to ask. I look past what people might think to get what I need. There is a small group of you who always come to the rescue, and I very much appreciate it. I've seen your snark, but I'm okay with it.

Nothing to be embarrassed about! I actually look forward to seeing new posts from you and kevs, because I know they're likely to be interesting, if not off the wall, make me think some, and maybe teach me something in the end.

In my case, half the fun of owning my MBP as opposed to an iPad is getting into trouble so I can get myself out of it.

As I have learned over the course of many years training supposed adults somewhere between the age of a college freshman and retirement...

1. the only dumb question is the one that is asked to demonstrate how smart the questioner is.
2. By-and-large and on the average, women are far more willing to admit they don't know something and ask questions, and the men, who are far more reluctant to admit their ignorance, listen to the answers and tell their buddies "I knew that".

Good one!


.....and the men, who are far more reluctant to admit their ignorance, listen to the answers and tell their buddies "I knew that".
[/list] [/quote]

I knew that.

Remember: The reason that the Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years is that Moses wouldn't ask directions.

Typical!!