I had one more idea I thought would at least get me back a little of what I was missing.
There are a few apps I really like that won't run on any version of OS X beyond Snow Leopard. Consequently, I had created a Snow Leopard partition on my iMac before I went to Lion. I haven't used it in many months (a year or more?), and for some reason my iMac doesn't even want to start from it -- even though my Mac came with it or an earlier OS X (a firmware update?) Anyway, a copy my PowerMail folder from back then was in the partition. I dragged over the Message Database, Address Database, Server-side Database, and Setup Database from that partition. Now PowerMail seems to contain everything I thought I was missing. Even messages I sent the day before I discovered the problem are in my Sent folder. I don't think I have lost a single sent or received message. THIS MAKES NO SENSE TO ME!!!!! Sure am grateful, however! Tom Miller OS 10.10.4 PM 6.2.1 On 7/23/15, at 4:33 PM, Thomas L. Miller [email protected] said: >Well, copying over the 4 ".old" files the the other drives after >removing the ".old" didn't help. > >I think that when I restarted my iMac after cloning and saw the problem, >I had PM First Aid also compact the database. I restarted from a clone, >saw the same problem and may have compacted that too when running PM >First Aid. Therefore, the 4 sets of ".old" files are copies of bad versions. > >There are folders missing in Mail Browser and my mac.com still showing >as POP3, and I think that change was done before 2013. I think there is >something else that is causing that problem. > >So, it looks like if I want to continue to use PM, I have to set up >missing accounts and use a database missing all the messages from 2014 >and most from 2013 and 2015. > >It is truly odd that this problem started after cloning to an external >hard drive. Something I had done 100s of times! Sure wish I could go >back to last Saturday in a time machine. > > >Tom Miller > > >On Jul 23, 2015, at 12:07 PM, Thomas L. Miller <[email protected]> wrote: > >Jérôme, thanks for the response. I tried a shortcut of what you >recommended at the bottom (I have two other copies of the entire PM >folder on the other drives). I put an "X" in front of the file names of >the 4 (current) items and removed ".old" from the other 4. That didn't >help, but I think that could be because I compacted the database when I >ran PM First Aid a day or two ago. I may have done the same thing with >one of the other drives. However. I guess I can copy over from the >".old" files from the 3rd drive and try that. Ought to work, right?? > >The really odd thing is that PM was working perfectly when I quit it >before cloning. I have cloned (SuperDuper) my hard drive 100s of times >over the years with no problems. The clone is a copy of everything -- >web browser history, apps, Preferences, Libraries, music, photos, >everything. Never has a restart of my Mac resulted in a change of PM's >Message Databases. These external hard drives are only active when I'm >making clones -- otherwise they are turned off/disconnected. Very, very, >very odd to have this problem!!!! > >Tom Miller > > > >On Jul 23, 2015, at 9:02 AM, PowerMail Engineering <[email protected]> wrote: > >Thomas L. Miller wrote: > >> I saved an unsent message, quit PowerMail and cloned my iMac's hard >> drive to two external hard drives -- nothing unusual, I do every week. >> >> I restarted from the internal drive, and after PM started, I saw that >> except for some very recent messages, I was missing all the messages >> sent after mid-September 2013. > >Obviously, PowerMail is now using an older version of your database, and >has only retrieved very recent messages still present on the server. > >First possibility: instead of copying your database to the backup drive, >you copied in the wrong way, replacing your main database with the >backup. However if your backup was 1 week old, then you should not have >lost all messages since September 2013. > >Second possibility: PowerMail has switched to another database, which >was a backup you made in September 2013. If your two external drives >were still mounted when you started PM, then maybe the 2013 backup was >on one of these drives; if not, then the 2013 backup was on your >internal drive. How PowerMail can switch to another database? Multiple >possibilities: >- you switched manually from the file / database / switch user >environment menu, then selected your 2013 backup >- you switched manually by double-clicking in the Finder the Message >Database file from your 2013 backup >- you used Spotlight, which found a message in this backup, and opened >the message >- if your main drive is entirely cloned (which software are you using >for this?), and you boot from your backup drive, then maybe at some >point there will be a confusion between two drives, and the database has >been opened from the cloned drive instead of the main drive. But again, >if the clone is more recent than 2013, then you should not have lost >recent messages. > >As previously suggested, launch PM then use the file / database / switch >user environment menu. The open dialog will point to the location of the >currently used database. You will see on which drive it is, and in which >folder, and you can select your main database if you are currently using >an old backup. > >You can search in the Finder for files named "Message Database" to see >if you have multiple copies on your drive. I suggest that you first zip >each PowerMail folder containing those database, to be sure you don't >destroy anything, then double-click on a Message Database file to open >it (PM will then "switch" to this database) and see if it contains your >recent messages. If you find obsolete backups, you can keep a zipped >version, but delete the uncompressed one to be sure to never again >switch to it inadvertently. > >> PS: Looking at the Message databases in my PM folder, there is only one >> labeled "Message Database," but one is labeled "Message Database.old" >> and both show today as when last modified. > >The .old files are created when you compact your database. You can try >to delete the files without the .old extension, then remove .old from >the name, to restore the database to its state before the last compact >(there are 4 of them: Message Database, Address Database, Server-side >Database, and Setup Database; do this for the 4!). Of course, when you >do this, PM should not be running, and make sure to zip the containing >folder first to have a backup. > >I hope you will find your messages back! > > >Jérôme - CTM Engineering > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- > "The searching is fairly flexible on iOS and the speed is blinding. > I mean instant, like you've got a Mac Pro doing it. If you use > Foxtrot Search, get FoxTrot Attaché. If you don't use Foxtrot Search > and you have a lot of files to search, check it out." >FoxTrot Attaché Search user comment on iTunes Store UK > > Download a demo version from www.foxtrot.ch >--------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > >
