Which mailbox is my mail in‽

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Level 1

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Which mailbox is my mail in‽

I have what is perhaps a silly number of nested mailboxes created on my Mac, and it's a pain that iOS does not do nesting as the list becomes very long.

My problem is that if I want to file a new incoming mail with one from the same recipient when I search for their name in the search bar it will find it, but only ever says it is in All mail which is not a lot of help!

The other oddity I find in Mail is that if I go to file an email from the Move to option within the email perhaps 50% of the time it does not move it, while it always works in the Message viewer.

Cheers, Colin

iMac 27″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jan 19, 2022 7:16 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BDAqua

Level 10

245,489 points

Jan 20, 2022 7:59 AM in response to Colin Cohen

I think the way to do it is to first Copy them to On My Mac, then Delete them from the Inbox.

Or use Smart Mailboxes...

https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/use-smart-mailboxes-mlhlp1190/12.0/mac/10.14

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

245,489 points

Jan 19, 2022 3:57 PM in response to Colin Cohen

These boxes you're moving things to, I'm guessing they are On My Mac Boxes that the Mail server has no rights to seeing, so when they disappeared by "Moving" them out of it's realm to where it couldn't see them that they have to be in All Mail.

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Answer 3

Colin Cohen Author

Level 1

65 points

Jan 20, 2022 5:33 AM in response to BDAqua

Ah, yes they are 'On my Mac', I assume that is what happens to Gmail accounts. But I'm not sure that it explains why they always move to a mailbox if I do it in the Message viewer, but only sporadically if I do it in the email itself [I've not observed any pattern].

So, is there a solution? Can I move them all [about 17Mb I think at the last count] so that Mail knows where they are, or is there some other workaround? I realise that this may not be trivial as I have nearly 50,000 emails over two accounts!

Thanks for the explanation, CC

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Answer 4

Colin Cohen Author

Level 1

65 points

Jan 22, 2022 8:54 AM in response to Colin Cohen

Belated thanks.

I think if I had started with smart mailboxes that would be the way to go, but I think it's too late to superimpose it on tens of thousands of emails. I don't follow what you mean by 'Copy them to On My Mac, then Delete them from the Inbox' as On My Mac is where they are already.

My inbox has too many messages [30-100 depending on time] but it is not the issue. My problem is that having so many mailboxes [well over 50 including the nested ones, that iOS Mail un-nests] I have not always been consistent in my filing. So, if I get a new message on a subject I can't tell where to file it as a search on the Sender or Subject just says it is in All mail.

Cheers, CC

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Which mailbox is my mail in‽

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