When a major software update rolls out, it usually comes with one or two bugs, which appears to be the case with macOS Catalina. Recently, several users are reporting that their email messages have gone missing in Apple Mail. In a report released by MacRumors, it reveals that the issue lies in moving messages and in synching these messages with other devices.
Several users even claim that there are instances where their emails completely disappeared. There were also issues when some users attempted to back up their emails. According to several claims, Apple Mail was not responsive when it comes to downloading all the information in the content.
Additionally, difficulties when restoring data from the Apple Mail archive were also reportedly experienced by some users. SpamSieve and EagleFiler developer Michael Tsai recently shared in a blog post some of the issues that have surfaced related to Apple Mail. According to the developer, users could experience potential data loss when they upgrade their devices to macOS Catalina build 10.15.0.
Other users, according to Tsai also reported that when they update the data store of Apple Mail from macOS Mojave to macOS Catalina, it appears that it was successful, but on a deeper level a big number of messages are either incomplete, has no contents, only contain headings, or totally missing. Users using AppleScript or even drag and drop also reported email content lost.
According to the developer, these issues are malicious; it does not inform users that their emails are affected until they opened it. Additionally, Tsai stated that since the data are synced to the server, it could propagate to other devices as well. Moreover, he advised users to momentarily hold off updating to macOS Catalina until the problem is resolved.
At this point, we do not have the exact number of users affected by this email issue with macOS Catalina. According to Michael Tsai, the number of affected users is relatively small. The beta version of the update has been out for four months, and Tsai noted that the problem could also be due to the servers Apple is using.
The Cupertino-based tech giant has not made any comment related to the macOS Catalina Apple Mail issue. However, considering that the complaints are gaining training, Apple might roll out the next update that contains the fix to this issue. The latest version of Apple's desktop operating system introduces several extra features to Apple Mail, like the ability to mute email threads or blocking messages from particular senders.
