[X4U] Mail.app problems

[Stroller]

On 20 Jan 2008, at 12:51, Richard H Stoddard wrote:
> On Jan 20, 2008, at 6:50 AM, Stroller wrote:
>
>> I know you've had other suggestions which seem to have worked, but  
>> for anyone else in the future with such mail problems, I advise  
>> simply deleting "~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index" in the first  
>> instance.
>> ...
>> Mail's Envelope Index in 10.4 and 10.5 are both "SQLite database  
>> (version 3)", but I guess it's quite conceivable that changes have  
>> been made to the schema within this file format, and anyway, this  
>> file has been known for some time under 10.4 to become messy with  
>> time. ...
>
> Interesting - I have seven versions of it - envelope index,  
> index-1, index-2, etc. , along with envelope index-1-journal, etc.  
> (but no envelope index-journal). Safe to delete all of the index  
> files?

That suggests to me that the additional copies have been made either  
when Mail has been trying to repair a corrupt version, or during the  
Time Machine restore process you said you tried.

I'm very very confident indeed that the additional files can quite  
safely be deleted, too - I'm sure they're not even being used.
But since I haven't encountered them before, use the cautious approach:
- shut down Mail
- copy the whole "~/Library/Mail" folder to your desktop.
- delete the "envelope index-1" &c files from "~/Library/Mail" (not  
the copy)
- wait a day or so before deleting the backup from the desktop, just  
to be sure nothing bad happens.

Stroller.