mail file

It a folder, not a file. You'd rename it just like you rename any other folder. As for its location, "Menu -> Help -> about Opera should show you.

I guess something like:

~/Library/Application Support/Opera Software/Profiles/profile folder

or

~/Library/Opera Software/Profiles/<profile folder

Please forgive a newbie if this question is in the wrong place but. How do you rename the mail file?

I had a similar problem with my mail disappearing. (which seems to have happen when I automatically upgraded to Opera 12.17 for Windows.)

I am hoping the reimportation trick works, but I can't seem to execute step 1.

I tried renaming the /mail folder and re-importing its contents, but I still got no data.

You have to rename the mail folder, set up the accounts fresh in Opera and then use "Menu -> settings -> import and export -> import mail -> import geenric mbox -> add folder" to import each store/accountN folder (where N is the number for the account as seen in accounts.ini) into its corresponding account.

If you have IMAP accounts, you just set them up and don't import anything.

For feeds, export your feeds list before renaming the mail folder and import the list back into the new mail folder (and change each feed's update interval again). For stored feed messages that are no longer on the feed page, all you can do is import them into a new import account. Same thing goes for newsgroup messages. You can set up the newsgroup accounts again, but old messages can only be imported into a new local pop account.

Also note that you'll lose your labels and what messages are in those labels. You'll just have to recreate them and add the messages back to those labels (easily done if all your labels had rules and that's the only way messages got in them).

It's best to export your contacts list too, rename contacts.adr in the preferences folder and import your exported contacts list once you have the new mail folder completely set up.

For POP accounts, after you import, if you get duplicates messages (newly-fetched copy from the server and the old imported copy), you need to delete the imported copies.

The other import wizards will just duplicate the problem.

You can try checking the database, but your corruption sounds too severe to repair.

After importing into your POP accounts, if sent messages aren't showing in "All Messaeges/Sent", you'll need to create a label, put all your sent messages for an account in it, right-click the label and export the label. Then, you'll need to select all messages in the label and shift + delete to wipe them out. Then, you'll use the generic mbox importer to import the exported label where you set the mbs file in the "move to sent" drop-down. Repeat for each POP account.