Despite being invented nearly half a century ago, email remains one of the world’s most useful communication tools. The only problem is that email isn’t exactly bulletproof, and it doesn’t take much for critical messages to get accidentally deleted or lost, which is why so many Mac users are desperate to learn how to recover emails. deleted emails on mac
if you are among them, then this article is for you because it outlines multiple solutions that you can use to recover permanently deleted emails on any mac.
how are emails stored on mac?
Most Mac users rely on the Apple Mail app when it comes to reading and composing email messages. This easy-to-use email client has been included with all versions of Apple’s operating system since Mac OS X Panther, which was released in 2003. 
Apple Mail supports all email services that rely on POP3, Exchange, or IMAP, and it comes pre-configured to seamlessly work with iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, AOL Mail, and other major email services. As a user, you can simply enter your email address and password, and Apple Mail will take care of the rest.
When you add an email account to apple mail, the email client creates a local cache with email messages in the following hidden location (you can open it using the go to folder option in finder):
Inside this folder there must be at least one subfolder with a cryptic alphanumeric name. this subfolder will contain an .mbox file, which is essentially a file that contains a collection of email messages. you can open it using the browser and then navigate through its various subfolders until you come to a subfolder with .emlx files.
Files with the .elmx extension are simply text files created by apple mail for individual email messages, and you can open them with any text editor, such as apple’s textedit.
Just don’t expect to see a nicely formatted email message. instead, you’ll see the source code of the message as plain text, and you’ll need to figure out what the format is and what the actual content of the message is.
how to restore deleted emails with data recovery software?
Data recovery software like disk drill allows you to take advantage of the fact that deleted files, including .emlx files deleted from ~/library/mail/, physically remain on your hard drive until they are overwritten by new files.
As long as you start the recovery process in a timely manner and use a reliable data recovery software application, you should be able to recover deleted mailbox file created by apple mail on mac without any problem.
we recommend disk drill because it offers leading data recovery performance, compatibility with apple mail message format, improved user interface and many additional features aimed at making recovery of deleted emails and other data on computers easier than ever. mac be simple.
to recover deleted emails by scanning disk:
- Download and install Disk Drill.
- Click the Search for lost data button next to the system drive.
- Wait for the recovery process to finish.
- Enter “emlx” into the search field to view all recoverable .emlx files.
- Select the email messages you want to recover and click the Recover button in the bottom-right. You can click the View icon to display individual email messages before recovery.
- Specify the recovery directory and confirm.
- Don’t recover the lost email messages to the system drive because you could overwrite them.
disk drill basic version can preview all recoverable emails for free, but you need to upgrade to disk drill pro to recover them.
how to recover emails from backup?
if you are using apple’s backup utility time machine to keep your data safe, then you should be able to relatively easily recover your deleted or lost emails without any third party software.
to retrieve emails from a time machine backup:
- Launch the Apple Mail app.
- Click the Time Machine icon located in the Menu Bar and choose Enter Time Machine.
- Go back in time using the timeline on the right edge of the screen until you find a backup containing the deleted emails.
- Click Restore to recover your emails.
You can, of course, use any backup software you like, but time machine comes with all recent versions of macos, so it will most likely help you get your emails back.
how to recover emails stored in the cloud?
In many cases, it is possible to recover emails from the cloud long after they have been deleted in Apple Mail. That’s because various email service providers offer their own methods for recovering deleted emails, and Apple Mail doesn’t always let you take advantage of them.
to recover deleted gmail emails:
- Open Safari and go to: https://mail.google.com/
- Log in with your username and password.
- Open the Trash folder.
- Select the email message you want to retrieve and move it back to your inbox.
to recover deleted outlook emails:
- Open Safari and go to: http://outlook.com/
- Log in with your username and password.
- Open the Deleted Items folder.
- Select the email message you want to retrieve and choose the Restore option to move it back to your inbox.
to recover deleted yahoo emails:
- Open Safari and go to: https://mail.yahoo.com/
- Log in with your username and password.
- Open the Trash folder.
- Select the email message you want to retrieve and choose the Restore to Inbox option to move it back to your inbox.
Most other email service providers make it easy to recover deleted email messages, but individual recovery steps may be slightly different.
when is it not possible to recover deleted email on mac?
Unfortunately, it is not always possible to recover deleted emails on mac. why? because at least one of the following conditions must be met for deleted emails to be recovered:
- a backup copy of the deleted emails must exist (solution: recovery from a backup).
- the deleted emails must still be physically present on the hard drive (solution : data recovery software).
- Deleted emails should be stored on the email server (solution: cloud recovery).
In case none of these conditions are met, you will most likely not be able to recover deleted emails on mac no matter what solution you try.