Mac OS X 10.3: Mail - Messages Missing or Incomplete, Can‘t Get or Send Mail After Using Mac OS X 10.2 Mail

Symptom

Mac OS X 10.2 or 10.3

• Mail cannot get or send messages.
• Your In mailbox appears empty even though you know messages should be there.
• Messages in a mailbox appear incomplete, or seem to run together.

This happens if:

• You use the same home folder for both Mac OS X 10.3 and Mac OS X 10.2 Mail.
• Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.2 are installed on different volumes.
• You start from your Mac OS X 10.3 volume, use Mail, then start from your Mac OS X 10.2 volume and use Mail again.

Note: Your home folder has the same name as your account's short name. It is in the Users folder.


Note: IMAP mailboxes stored on a server are not affected by this issue.


Solution

You can use the same home folder for Mac OS X 10.3 that you used for Mac OS X 10.2; however, if you do, you shouldn't start from Mac OS X 10.2 and use Mail after installing Mac OS X 10.3 and using Mail.

To avoid the issue, upgrade to Mac OS X 10.3 and don't use Mac OS X 10.2 on the same computer. If you still don't see email messages, from the Mailbox menu, choose Rebuild.