Electronics

[Lynnj]

Hi DooBdoo - the saved on my mac is a section on the left panel within the Mac mail app. On the left panel I show the following sections -

Mailboxes - Inbox, Sent, Trash, etc. (Anything here is synced across all of my devices. Also if I logon to my email server through the website, I will see all of the same emails here. unless, of course, I deleted or moved them to another folder. Then I either go to trash folder or another folder to find that email).

Smart Mailboxes

On My Mac - I created various folders in this section, and where I move some messages from my inbox.

IMAP - I use Comcast. While I have other email services, I havent added them to sync with Apple. This section is titled Comcast IMAP, and this is the name I gave my mail account when I set my mail up in settings. In this section are various folders, and everything here syncs across all of my devices. Same folder and emails are available to me when I logon to comcast.net and check email from the website.

I assume that if I had my other email services accounts set up I would see those folders in the IMAP section, but grouped together within email account.

The emails in folders in the On My Mac section are saved to the hard drive. This is the same place that emails will be stored if you ever select archive emails. To locate the emails -

Open Finder >Click Go > Click Option key > Select Library > Mail > V2 folder is where the messages are stored.

**Edited to add** The folders and emails in the On My Mac section are not accessible on any other device, and also not accessible if I logon to my email server website. Its only accessible on my Mac.

I set up a folder in my Comcast account, and use that to store emails that I want to add to the on my mac folders. When I am using one of my other devices and clearing out the inbox, I move emails I know I want stored in one of those on my mac folders. Then when I logon to my mac, I clear that folder out and move them to the on my mac folders. Then I have some emails that I create duplicate, and have stored on my mac AND in one of the folders within the IMAP Comcast folder. Only do this with a select few special emails that I never want to lose and may need access to wherever I am.

[dooBdoo]

Hi, Lynn! Thanks for the detailed description. I don't have "On My Mac" listed. I do sometimes go into the files where the messages are located (long story, but now and then I use ClamXav to do a quick scan of mail and go into the library to review certain messages), but I don't have any messages which are solely located on the Mac. I add the accounts and delete them occasionally, mainly to help someone troubleshoot or for the scan, and never have lost any mail. I'm wondering if you saved messages to the device at some point, which in turn created the "On My Mac" notation. Not a big deal in the general scheme of things but I can see how that might cause messages to be handled in a strange way when we delete an account and then add it back in. I'll have to play around with it when I can find time.

Thanks, again! I appreciate you, your knowledge, and your willingness to help everyone here.

dionline, I hope your problems have been resolved.

[Lynnj]

Hey dooBdoo. I am not on my Mac right now ( obviously, lol ) but I think if you click the plus sign at the bottom of the left pane on the mail app, there is a drop down where you select different places. I think this is where I selected on my Mac, and when I did it created its own section within the left pane. I don't think I knew what I was doing back in the day when I set that up, lol. But I started using it, and now I feel tied to it because of the trail of messages I have stored there. It comes natural for me to look there, or save there for the thing I use it for, and afraid if I move everything to somewhere else I won't find what I need, lol. Hard to teach an old dog theory.