Second, uncovering bugs is the whole point of beta testing. Apple (and every other company) never claims beta versions to be bug free and I’m pretty sure you have to agree to this when you download it. I’m sorry for your data loss, but If that risk isn’t acceptable, you shouldn’t install beta versions of software.
Apple and AppleInsider advise Beta testers that they should not use beta system software on a "mission critical computer". As I am a Mac enthusiast who is now retired and using his Mac at home, I believed that the worst that could happen was that I would have to re-install macOS should a bug prove to be a real problem. And as I had a Time Machine backup copy of the contents of my Mac, that would not be much of a problem to re-install macOS. But I didn't realize that emails would be erased from Yahoo servers and that I would compound the problem by erasing my Time Machine backup to reclaim space on my external hard disk in order to make a fresh backup.
I don't blame Apple for my ignorance. The reason why I wrote my comment was to inform readers that Apple had been rewriting the Mail application since at least macOS High Sierra. Why does Apple rewrite the Mail application every second year when, basically, the Mail application works as intended ?
There are a number of Mail application alternatives, but the Mac users who use Mail are pretty satisfied with the way it works and its basic features. Why fix Mail if it isn't broke ?
How do regressions like this keep happening so often?
Because of incompetence. Cook needs to go. He lacks the ability to manage good teams and good products. The more resources you give him, the more problems he’ll create. That’s the very definition of incompetence.
Aah sure Cook is to blame, nothing went wrong when Steve ran Apple, never.
Honestly, Mail has been a thorn in Apple's side it seems like every release of macOS, even under the wonderful and perfect Steve Jobs.
I agree. I’ve had many issues with Mail and mail servers. Like mice, Apple just don’t seem to be able or willing to do this right.
Apple also seem unwilling or unable to get Safari text edit views to behave correctly.
Still, I didn’t find and suffer nearly as many bugs during Jobs’ tenure as I do today. Today’s Apple is all about the Wall Street religion, not the product. The product is more hype than completion.
Mail feels like one of these legacy apps that has been tweaked and extended on old code base.
Easy to break, easily unstable.
But I still use it - in classic view that is because I find it hard to search and get a good overview in ‘modern’ view where mails are shown in this tiny phone-optimism column. Classic layout is something Mail alternatives often lack.
I would love for Apple just to start over with Mail and rethink some basic principles while they’re at it.
Not as many as now. Apple has become a joke under Cook.
It's possible that the number or severity of MacOS bugs has changed over the last few years, but speaking as someone who's done Mac support for an office of a couple dozen people since the System 7 era, I have not noticed any particular increase in the number or severity of OS bugs at launch. I don't know that it's gotten any better either, but not worse, particularly when you look at the relative complexity and features of the OS today versus the OSes of old.
Examples:
MacOS 10.5.0 had a severe Finder bug that would flat-out delete files or entire directories if you tried to move them between disks or network locations and there was some sort of write or network error. 10.1.3 had exactly the same bug. I remember people losing data to one or the other of those.
10.3.0 had a Firewire bug that would completely corrupt a connected disk that used the popular Oxford 922 chipset with firmware 1.02. That one was particularly brutal because a lot of high-end external storage enclosures used that chipset.
All those were squarely in the Jobs era, although if you go back before Jobs I remember all too well that MacOS 8.5 had multiple disk bugs that would corrupt data, and it was two months before Apple released 8.5.1 to patch them. Having directory repair and data recovery software in your toolbox back then was virtually a requirement.
And then there's OSX 10.7, the last release of the Jobs era, which wreaked such havoc on the server platform that even after waiting for 10.8 to upgrade I still ended up needing to replace the entire SMB implementation with a 3rd party one, and the built-in implementation wasn't really usable until either 10.10 or 10.11.
None of which excuses this mail bug, particularly if it was indeed reported in the beta. Only to note that it is surprising to me how people seem to see long-past MacOS releases through rose-colored glasses and so quickly forget all the annoyances and bugs of the past.
I suffered this issue as well. Lost 130 GB of email storage during a regular update from Mojave to Catalina. Most of emails simply disappeared, others remained but the headings only. Then performed a Catalina fresh install and restored data from Time Machine. Same result. Tried again and used migration tool after install. Same (although in each case the loss of emails was randomly different). Panicked as I thought my Time Machine backup was corrupted. Then I finished rinding this thread. Called Apple for support, total ignorance of the issue, very poor assistance, no solution provided. Finally I downgraded to Mojave, restored data again and everything went smooth and easy. Recommendation: if you relay in the Mail app and have emails you want to preserve, DO NOT UPDATE to CATALINA at least until Apple confirms explicitly to have resolved this issue. Good luck!
I am definitely missing emails after the upgrade. Rules not working properly. Mail is moving messages to Junk folder when sender is in my contacts. Just terrible.
I have encountered kind of the same issue. Mail only showed headers of mail messages, no body. I rebuild my mail database "rebuild", and nothing helped. I then removed Spamsieve from my system entirely, and all was ok again. I don't know if I was just lucky, but for me it worked. I know Mail has fundamental problems, but at least this issue was solved for me by completely delting SPAMSIEVE from my system.
Hop this helps, and Apple helps us more in the future.
I had the same problem with content missing after moving messages between local/offline mailboxes. Issues seems to be resolved after upgrading to 10.15.3 yesterday. Messages that lost content are still missing that content, but now moving messages doesn't cause the body to disappear any longer.
I had to revert back to Mojave and lost some emails on the way because time machine is not compatible between Catalina and Mojave to just import partial messages from mail. I am dealing with Apple support for weeks on this issue sent in a bunch of logs and diagnostics but no lick. So only option was reverting back. I had the same issue as stated missing emails and when arranging mail boxes the messages disappear. Horrible situation worst thing is, apple does not care it seems like.
I've created a Web page that lists all of the alternative e-mail clients available for the Macintosh, for those who don't find Apple's Mail to be reliable enough.
Comments
Examples:
MacOS 10.5.0 had a severe Finder bug that would flat-out delete files or entire directories if you tried to move them between disks or network locations and there was some sort of write or network error. 10.1.3 had exactly the same bug. I remember people losing data to one or the other of those.
10.3.0 had a Firewire bug that would completely corrupt a connected disk that used the popular Oxford 922 chipset with firmware 1.02. That one was particularly brutal because a lot of high-end external storage enclosures used that chipset.
All those were squarely in the Jobs era, although if you go back before Jobs I remember all too well that MacOS 8.5 had multiple disk bugs that would corrupt data, and it was two months before Apple released 8.5.1 to patch them. Having directory repair and data recovery software in your toolbox back then was virtually a requirement.
And then there's OSX 10.7, the last release of the Jobs era, which wreaked such havoc on the server platform that even after waiting for 10.8 to upgrade I still ended up needing to replace the entire SMB implementation with a 3rd party one, and the built-in implementation wasn't really usable until either 10.10 or 10.11.
None of which excuses this mail bug, particularly if it was indeed reported in the beta. Only to note that it is surprising to me how people seem to see long-past MacOS releases through rose-colored glasses and so quickly forget all the annoyances and bugs of the past.
Mail only showed headers of mail messages, no body.
I rebuild my mail database "rebuild", and nothing helped.
I then removed Spamsieve from my system entirely, and all was ok again.
I don't know if I was just lucky, but for me it worked.
I know Mail has fundamental problems, but at least this issue was solved for me by completely delting SPAMSIEVE from my system.
Hop this helps, and Apple helps us more in the future.
There are over 20!
Macintosh Email Software
http://www.macattorney.com/mail.html