POP Mail Accounts Don't Make it through
 

I use SuperDuper to create disk images and replicate workstations we use here at work. The disk images have everything I can possibly set up including several users and their accounts like iChat and Apple Mail, etc.

I've always had good outcome with this procedure and just created a new image which included a Snow Leopard system for the first time. (yes, we've held back for a while for good reason, though.)

Now, however, when I restore the newest computers from my Snow Leopard image and open Apple Mail, the accounts I went to so much trouble setting up aren't there. (Actually, an IMAP account is there but the POP accounts I set up in each user folder does not make it through the imaging process.)

Does the mail plist key the account to the hard disk it's on? I've checked the permissions on each of the user/Library/Mail directories and they seem proper: drwx------

And, if there was any mail in the pop folders inside those mail directories, I can import the messages.

It's just a pain that I have to set up the accounts again after going to all that trouble.

Does anyone know a trick that might bring these accounts back after restore?

(Using SuperDuper 2.6.2 v87 and imaging 10.6.7)

We're copying the files as-is, including everything in the User folders (nothing there is excluded), so the accounts should all come in. I haven't seen any problems restoring POP accounts at all.

Well that's a lot of help...

I've imaged this system five time now, all with the same results.

It's not my imagination...

The accounts are there on the source and when Mail is opened on the restored HD, they do not exist in Mail preferences but do exist on the Finder level.

The only difference is they've been restored with SuperDuper.

Have you checked the preferences both before and after the restore *before* starting up from the image? What happens when you boot from the copy on the original Mac?

I've contaminated my testing but have fixed my problem.

I have TinkerTool on the computer and ran a few of their utilities in an effort to fix this problem.

The good news is that it fixed the problem. Not sure which of the utilities did the trick...

The bad news is that, since it's fixed, comparing the contents of the Mail folders is probably gonna show they're identical.

So... the problem was with the source?