MAIL cannot update your mailboxes---error in MAIL 2.1

"MAIL cannot update your mailboxes---"
Have 26 Gb of space left and found the fix to delete the Envelope Index file. I moved Envelope Index to the DT and relaunched MAIL. It seemed to import 1200 items, then it just goes to colored wheel of death. Had to Force Quit 3x.
Any ideas? Im trying to help a senior fix this problem. She cant get her email.

Hi Steve,
Not certain, but this can fix myriad Mail problems...
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go, run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then move these folder & file to the Desktop.
Move this Folder to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/
Move this file to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/Envelope Index
Reboot.

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On 10.4.11 Mac Mail I get this: Mail cannot update your mailboxes because your home directory is full. You must free up space in your home folder before using Mail. Delete unnedded documents or move documents to another volume. I can't open mail.

On 10.4.11 iMac Mac Mail I get this message: "Mail cannot update your mailboxes because your home directory is full. You must free up space in your home folder before using Mail. Delete unneeded documents or move documents to another volume." I can't open mail to do this. I have reinstalled software but no effect. How do I get into Mail to delete?

Found this on the "more like this" Worked like a charm!
With the Mail.app quit and using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Mail. Copy the Mail folder and place the copy on the Desktop for backup purposes.
Go to Home > Library > Mail > Envelope Index. Move the Envelope Index file to the Desktop.
Launch Mail and you will be prompted to import mailboxes. Select OK and allow the import process to complete.
After confirming all mailboxes were successfully imported and available, you can delete the copy of the Mail folder and old Envelope Index file from the Desktop and this should resolve the problem.

"Mail cannot update your mailboxes because your home directory is full"

I have a 250 GB hard disk, 4.34 GB of which is in my "Home" folder. (Total HD usage is about 27 GB.) This happened suddenly after Mail had been working fine for eons. I deleted a bunch of files (107 MB) in a "Drafts" folder (none show up in the Mail app's "Drafts" icon), but it made no difference. I re-installed the Mac OS X 10.4.11 combo update... no difference. Mail version is 2.1.3.
Any help here? I cannot use Mail at all.
Message was edited by: Bill Strohm

Hey there,
Have you had a chance to look at this Apple support document relating directly to this issue. Hope it helps.
[Mac OS X 10.4: "Mail cannot update your mailboxes because your home directory is full" alert|http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24486?viewlocale=en_US]
B-rock

"Mail cannot update your mailbox because your home directory is full"

For some reason when I try and open Mail I get this prompt with "quit" as the only option. I've repaired permissions to the disc. I've emptied some data from the 'home folder' as the prompt suggests. I've restarted many times. Any ideas?

Corruption of HOME/Library/Mail/Envelope Index is known to cause this bogus error message in Mail. AFAIK, the file that needs to be re-created is Envelope Index, not Envelope Index-journal. The latter may very well not be present at all (actually it shouldn't be present when Mail is not running).
I wonder, however, whether Envelope Index-journal is present in your case, and whether just removing that file makes any difference, so please try what Mulder suggested first and post back with your observations. If that doesn't work, the procedure I suggest in cases such as yours follows.
Verify/repair your disk first (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
After having fixed all filesystem issues, if any, and making sure that your disk does have enough available disk space and that the error message is indeed bogus, try this:
1. Quit Mail.
2. In the Finder, go to HOME/Library/Mail/. You may want to make a backup copy of this folder, just in case something goes wrong -- e.g. by dragging it to the Desktop while holding the Option (Alt) key down.
3. Locate the Envelope Index file and move it to the Trash. If you see an Envelope Index-journal file there, delete it as well.
4. Launch Mail again and proceed to re-create the index -- Mail says it's "importing", but it just re-creates Envelope Index if the mailboxes are already in Mail 2.0 format.

Mail cannot update your mailboxes since Home Directory is full

eMac G4 1.25GHz SuperDrive Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1 GB ROM
This error in loadig Mail has occured after an Erase disk and re-install Tiger.
All my old Home Folder files where imported from Backup volumn.
The root administrator was activated to chown and chgrp
w/ the Terminal.app
Still something is going wrong.

How much disk space do you have available on your Mac's boot drive? To find out, click once on the boot drive, then pull down the file menu and select "get info."

"Mail cannot update your mailboxes because home directory is full

This is on my laptop, not my desktop. How do I fix this?

The "home directory" that error message talks about is supposed to be your Home folder, but the error message is bogus and the problem is often something else. What's the capacity and space available on the startup disk?
BTW, a post can only be edited during the first 15 minutes after posting it.

Mail cannot access your mailbox information because it is in use

I have my mail on a Truecrypt drive and I have an alias pointing to that drive in my library and so sometimes I get this message:
"Mail cannot access your mailbox information because it is in use."
Options are:
"Quit and rebuild Information" or "Quit"
If I rebuild then I was losing all my sent messages which is a drag and it takes a while to re-download all the messages. So what I tried was deleting the Envelope Index.lock file and then launch mail and it started up with no problems.
I think the reason this is happening is that it is possible that when I shut my computer down, Truecrypt dismounts the drive while Mail is accessing the mail folder (hence the lock file) and so when I start up again and remount the truecrypt drive that lock file is still there and I have to delete it or Mail thinks some other program is using the mail folder. Just a guess.
Hope this helps someone else if they Google this error.

I do but I do it from another computer -- that is the whole point of IMAP, by the way. I don't see how my accessing the IMAP server from another computer should cause Mail.app to think that my mailboxes on my local host, which are just copies, need to be rebuilt. I filed a bug on this and Apple gave me the annoying "Known issue" response, which means maybe they'll fix it, maybe not, thank you very much. It went away for a while, and now it's back again... sigh.

"Mail cannot access your mailbox information because it's already in use. Rebuild Mailbox information Quit" Both quits Mail.

After installing Yosemite, my Mail stops working after about 20-30 seconds when this Dialog Box pops up, freezes Mail and says:
"Mail cannot access your mailbox information because it’s already in use.
Another application on your computer or on your local network is using your mailbox information. Click Quit to quit Mail. Then log out of this computer and any other computer you’re using. After you log in again, open Mail on one computer only.
If this message reappears, there may be a network server problem. Contact your system administrator to determine if it can be resolved by rebuilding your mailbox information. Then click Rebuild Mailbox Information.
If this message reappears, there may be a network server problem. Contact your system administrator to determine if it can be resolved by rebuilding your mailbox information. Then click Rebuild Mailbox Information.
Rebuild Mailbox information Quit"
Clicking on either one quits Mail. I am receiving my emails. I can even send my self a test email and receive it before it freezes up in 20-30 seconds. My ISP thinks it's a "Kernal" software problem.
Through advice by a friend, I have tried:
Applications - Utililities - Disk Utilities - and selected my hard drive and then click Repair Permissions
Rebooted a bunch of times. The first time Repair Permissions printed a few pages of stuff. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th times, it printed out this:
Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”User differs on “private/var/db/displaypolicyd”; should be 0; user is 244.Group differs on “private/var/db/displaypolicyd”; should be 0; group is 244.Repaired “private/var/db/displaypolicyd”
Permissions repair complete
But I still have the same problem I stated the the beginning of this:(
Any more advice?

I have the exact same issue, just after installing Yosemite. Please advise

Mail cannot update mailbox

When I try to open Mail I receive the following message and the only option is to select quit which closes the mail program. How do I delete these unneeded documents? Thanks.
"You must free up space in your home folder before using Mail. Delete unneeded documents or move documents to another volume."

Hi John, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Are you using Filevault?
"Mail cannot update your mailboxes because your home directory is full' alert"...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24486
Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4: FileVault - How to verify or repair a home directory image ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2631?viewlocale=en_US

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I have the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, and my Apple Mail has always worked just fine. About a week ago, I recieve a message saying "Mail cannot access your mailbox information because it’s already in use." The dialogue box gave me the options of "Rebuilding Mailbox Information" or quitting the application. Rebuilding does absolutely nothing, and every time I try to open Mail I get the same response and have to quit. I haven't added any apps or anything that would affect my mail; what's going on? Thanks!

Try this first.
Isolating Issues
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Just upgraded to Yosemite 10.10.2 on my iMac 24 inch and now my Suddenlink POP email account won't accept messages. The message says unable to receive Mail and the warning says: Mail cannot send your password securely to the server. You can remove th

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I have the same problem.
Late 2012 imac 27", intel i7 core
When I upgraded to Yosemite, suddenly my email account (netvigator POP) gives an error:
Mail cannot send your password securely to the server. You can remove this restriction in the Accounts preferences by setting “Allow insecure authentication”, which could put your password at risk.
I have shut down & restarted mail, but no success. If I select Allow insecure authentication, it works, but that's not a long term fix.
I also have a hotmail POP account enabled, and that is working fine.
What's happening Apple??
(Long term apple family - iMac, iBooks, TimeCapsule, iPhones, iPads, AirportExpress etc etc)

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MAIL cannot update your mailboxes---error in MAIL 2.1

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