How do I recover a deleted mailbox from Time Machine?

[J Burns]

I deleted two of what I thought were empty mailboxes in Mail.app. Then I
realized that while the system called them mailboxes, they were folders
containing mailboxes that probably weren't empty.

I don't want to reinstall Monterey and then all my personal date. Can I
get the Mail.app files from Time Machine?

[David Brooks]

Do you HAVE a Time Machine back-up, John?

[J Burns]

Yes. More than one Web source said to launch TM with Mail.app open and
browse the mailboxes in TM from the date you want. That advice seems to
be out of date.

Another source said to got to Library in my Home folder in TM for the
date I wanted, and find the mailbox file I needed. That didn't work for me.

Help in Monterey said I'd have to reinstall the system, and it would
then ask if I wanted to migrate data from somewhere. Bad advice. I tried
it on my backup computer. It took hours to download the OS, and then it
simply kept the account data already on the SSD.

Elsewhere I found that you don't have to reinstall. You simply launch
Migration Assistant. That was so quick and easy. I asked which of four
classifications I wanted to bring in. Now knowing which might include
Mail data, I chose three.

Now my backup computer was synced with my newer one, something I hadn't
known how to do since OS X. It was also an easy way to get the mailboxes
back on my newer Mac.

It migrated from my latest backup. I wonder if there's a way to tell it
to use a backup from a week ago, perhaps.

[J Burns]

On 7/15/22 8:08 AM, J Burns wrote:
> On 7/15/22 4:36 AM, David Brooks wrote:
>> On 14/07/2022 18:47, J Burns wrote:
I asked which of four
> classifications I wanted to bring in. Now knowing which might include
> Mail data, I chose three.
>

Oops. I didn't ask. It asked.

[David Brooks]

Ha! :-D Thank you.

Have you read my earlier post of today's date?

I believe you did exactly the right thing! ❤️

[J Burns]

I read the post where you asked if I had a TM backup. Getting a solution
for Monterey was a problem.

It reminds me of the pretend-to-sleep problem. Since the 80s, I'd put my
Mac to sleep any time I left my desk. It was partly to save the CRT and
partly for basic security. If I'm not back in a few minutes, a password
is required. In the mean time, it doesn't attract the attention of
somebody who might drop in.

(Back then, my sister and her husband would leave their SE on. The
screen attracted a visiting nephew, who dragged all folders to the trash
can and emptied it.)

In September, 2017, I began to find the screen on sometimes a few
minutes after I'd told it to sleep. The screen would always go black
when I told it to sleep, but sometimes it would come back on a few
seconds later. The log would show no wake event, which implied that it
hadn't actually gone to sleep. I followed Apple's advice about checking
for things that would prevent sleep or wake it. Nothing worked.

The solution was to wait a few seconds to be sure it had gone to sleep.
If not, the second try usually worked.

I had a 2012 Mini. I don't remember if it started before or after I
upgraded to High Sierra. I got a new Mini in 2018. It had the same
problem. It got much worse when I upgraded to OS 11. It happened more
often, and sometimes it wouldn't sleep even with 10 tries. Each time,
the screen would come on after 6 seconds, so I'd waste 2 minutes just
trying to put the computer to sleep before leaving my desk. If I logged
off, it still wouldn't sleep. I began shutting down when it wouldn't sleep.

Contributors to this forum said they'd had no problem. They suggested
that TM or Spotlight could prevent sleep. That wasn't it. When it
wouldn't sleep, I'd use Activity Monitor to check for those and other
processes.

The problem continued when I bought a 2020 Mini. If the problem could
happen when I was logged off, it seemed to be a system problem. I
thought migrating my personal data wouldn't alter the system. Anyway, I
thought the system was protected.

I began leaving Activity Monitor open. I noticed that CPU usage would
jump when I hit "Sleep" as it activated an array of processes.
Evidently, some process was countermanding my sleep order, but it didn't
seem to be on that was listed.

I tried Etre Check. It found nothing but some unsigned apps. I got rid
of them. I paid $20 for Etre Check's expert evaluation. When I said I'd
found in 2017 that no wake event was logged, he scolded me, saying I
shouldn't be looking at logs.

Neither of us could find a cause. I said maybe it was a flaw in Apple's
system. I said the sleep problem had started after I began cloning and
cloning back to defragment the HD on my 2012, which had become
incredibly slow. Nothing else had helped, and SMART data showed that it
was like new, and defragging made it run like new. Gradually, it slowed
down, and defragging by cloning restored it again and again. I concluded
that Mac owners with hard drives were on their own because Apple had
done away with defragging on the fly.

He said oh no, all the disks in 2012 Minis failed in three years because
they were crappy. He'd ignored what I said, that a SMART analysis showed
that the disk was in good condition, and defragging worked beautifully.

If I'd turned to him for advice about my slow 2012 hard drive, he would
have had me discard a perfectly good computer, which would have helped
Apple sell more new ones. Now I'd paid $20 to a gentleman whose expert
opinion was that he was too arrogant to help me.

It was a new computer, and I turned to Customer Support. On the phone, a
customer can have long waits, so I chose chat. The person was identified
by a female first name. I could have stated the situation in three
sentences, but first she had to assure me that she would solve all my
problems. She told me to use another account or run in Safe Mode for a
few days. If the problem occurred when I wasn't logged in, it stood to
reason that it would happen in another account. I asked which was
better. She said, "Six of one, half a dozen of the other. It doesn't
matter."

It certainly didn't matter to her. Either way, I couldn't use my
computer normally for a few days. Before I could reply, she closed my
window. The instructions said to copy the case number so I could review
a transcript of what I was told. She'd given me the brush-off so fast
that I hadn't had time to write it down.

I tried Safe Mode and found that it wouldn't sleep. The nest Customer
Service agent was identified by another female name. Her preface was
worse than the first, telling me I had a beautiful name and I would find
serenity and prosperity. Could a real person be so daffy? I suspected
that I'd been connected with a bot.

She immediately gave me a link whose url said it was what to do if your
Mac wouldn't wake or wouldn't stay asleep. It produced an Apple
announcement that "the page you have reached does not exist."

I told her that immediately. There was no answer. Every few minutes for
half an hour, I typed, "Hello?" No answer. The first agent had abruptly
terminated the conversation after telling me in effect not to use my
computer for a few days. I guess I got an abusive bot because I dared
bother Customer Service again.

I discovered that if I set the sleep time for the 1-minute minimum, it
would almost always sleep in 72 seconds; on rare occasions it would take
slightly longer. Whatever time I set, it would sleep in 12 seconds
longer. So I quit using the sleep button and set the time for 5 minutes.

Apparently, the sleep command initiates several processes, and the one
that sometimes countermands the order is not visible in Activity
Monitor. With a minute's warning, the mystery process can be completed
in time to carry out the command. If the problem has happened with a
2012, a 2018, and a 2020 Mini, it must be the way the system works.
Maybe few people use the sleep command these days, and maybe it's not
apparent on iMacs and Macbooks.

Eventually, I found somebody asking about the same thing on a Web forum
back in 2017. The expert answered that it was housekeeping for an SSD,
and most users didn't encounter it because it could be done whenever a
computer was idle.

[David Brooks]

Thank you so much for telling me so much background. I enjoyed the read.

This is the thread I was encouraging you to read:-
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/will-someone-please-check-for-me.2350912/

With regard to John Daniel and EtreCheck - I also paid for the full
programme. I asked for my money back ..... and he paid it! Every penny! :-D

[Wolffan]

On 15 Jul 2022, J Burns wrote
(in article <tasaro$347eh$1...@dont-email.me>):

>
> He said oh no, all the disks in 2012 Minis failed in three years because
> they were crappy. He'd ignored what I said, that a SMART analysis showed
> that the disk was in good condition, and defragging worked beautifully.

Intriguing. This is being posted from a 2012 Mac mini which still has its
original hard drives; I got the version with two 1 TB drives. One is still
installed in the Mac mini, the other is attached to a USB cage and is an
external drive, with a 1 TB SSD installed internally. It seems that at least
two of those ‘crappy’ drives are still operational after 10 years...

[YK]

The Agency I used to work for bought 24 Mac Minis in 2012. Before I
retired in 2020, we replaced the original spinning hard drives with
SSDs. Over the 8 years, one Mini had to be replaced, due to a logic
board failure at 4 years old. As they were used 8 to 10 hours a day, 5
days a week, for training and search purposes, I'd say that was a pretty
good track record. BTW, they replaced the remaining 23 this last summer
with M1 Minis with SSDs.

YK

[Alan]

Racks and racks full of Mac Minis...

<https://www.macstadium.com/datacenters>

And they are far from the only one doing it...

<https://www.macminivault.com/sign-up/>

[David Brooks]

Impressive!

[J Burns]

On 7/15/22 5:47 PM, TimS wrote:

> On 15 Jul 2022 at 19:15:19 BST, J Burns <bu...@nospam.com> wrote:
>
>> Maybe few people use the sleep command these days, and maybe it's not
>> apparent on iMacs and Macbooks.
>

> I use sleep all the time (2018 Mini, Mojave) with few problems. As long as I
> make sure not to jiggle the mouse after selecting sleep from the Apple menu,
> off it goes. Same with SWMBO's 2021 Big Sur M1 Mini.
>
Hmmmm... the expert who said it was a matter of SSD management said it
didn't happen to most people because the system has time to catch up
while the computer idles, which most do most of the time.

Maybe my Minis would get behind because of another background process,
or maybe it's because I would hit Sleep immediately after doing
something such as quitting an app.

It cold be another process as Activity Monitor shows that hitting Sleep
launches a lot of processes.

I think I'd get better results if the system delayed 12 seconds after I
hit Sleep. I wonder if a delay could be set through Terminal.