I need to send this email now!

Question

My story starts wih me trying to scan a picture from the printer to my computer. The printer scans: Photo to email. After ten minutes a new message window pops up with the scanned picture in it. I tried to copy it and paste it into my other email so that I could send it from there and thats when I started having problems. The computer started freezing up with the rainbow swirl. I tried to just send it from the origanal pop up email window, although it kept buffering and wouldn't let me send it. After at least 9 hours now I still can't send it! My computer is not buffering as much after I restarted it, but it still won't send the email with the picture! The email is in is in my outbox and each time I try to send it it just ends up in my outbox again! I've tried this multiple times already! I tried to just send an email to my iPod that just says: "Hi." ,but that won't work either! I need to send the email by the end of today because the contest ends today! It is for an art contest! Please help! I am only thirteen so if you try to explain and help me please don't try to use complicated words!
Thank you so much!

Answer 1

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.
This will take a while to read.
A very VERY long while.
That's good, because in the meantime, your computer MIGHT fix itself and the email MIGHT send successfully.
I know, I know you have this contest deadline...
I. First things first.
If there is an adult (parent, grandparent, teacher, nanny, caregiver, or college student) nearby, ask them for help.
Now.
Even if they CLAIM to know nothing about computers.
They probably know a little SOMETHING about computers.
That might even be helpful.
Ask them.
Now.
II. Second, IF POSSIBLE print this whole message thread before continuing.
Now.
WHY?
At some point you're probably going to turn your computer off, or at least quit the Safari browser app, (the one you're using right now to read this information), and then you won't be able to read these instructions to know what to do next until you turn the computer back on and re-open the Safari browser and return to Apple Support Communities and find this message again.
If it doesn't print, don't panic.
If there is another computer or iPad or iPod touch or iPhone or other smartphone nearby, locate this message thread Apple Support Communities in the browser: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4165033?tstart=0
If not, don't panic. You will probably be able to print later.
III. So what is the problem?
A. The 'rainbow swirl' as you call it (I call it a 'beachball'), most often happens when the computer gets really REALLY low on free RAM memory. RAM is the electronic memory chips located inside your computer. Those computer chips lose all their information when the computer power is turned off, IF the information isn't saved onto the hard disk first.
To make more RAM memory available the first thing is to quit any other running apps that you don't need right now in your system Dock at the bottom of the screen.
For example, if you have iChat or iMessage running, and Mail, and iTunes, and Safari, and iPhoto and your printer/scanner app, all you really need in order to scan and send your picture is your printer/scanner app, and Mail. So you can 'quit' all the other apps running.
Command+click-ing (also known as 'right-clicking' if that option is enabled on your mouse or trackpad) on the running App icon in the dock will bring up the option to Quit.
If the app is open on your screen, Command+Q will 'Quit' any app. If the app asks if you want to save unsaved information, choose 'Yes' to be certain that you're not deleting important information.
If an app is 'stuck' (spinning rainbow swirly thing), the option MIGHT be available to 'Force Quit'.
Quit all the other apps you don't need first.
Do NOT Force Quit any apps just yet.
B. It's possible that you are (also) very VERY short of hard disk space. That's the mechanical drive inside your computer that stores your Apps and your music and your pictures and emails and lots of other 'computer stuff' important to how your computer runs, magnetically, so you can bring it back later. It is where your apps are stored and your 'stuff' is saved.
You think you MIGHT be able to erase some files to make more space available, but that's very VERY risky if you don't know what you're doing, so I don't recommend THAT.
First, see how much free hard disk space you DO have available. Open Finder (the 'face' icon probably located in the system Dock at the lower left corner of your screen, and click on your hard disk drive name in the upper left column. (It's probably called 'Macintosh HD')
At the very bottom of the Finder window there should be two numbers, one showing some number of items (not important) and another number showing how much hard disk space is available (important!):
If you have less that 15.00 GB available, you are very short of hard disk space.
That makes your system run slow or very slow, and can cause 'rainbow swirls' even if everything else is working correctly. We cannot do much about that right now if you're almost out of hard disk space.
You will need some adult help to decide what could be erased to make more space available.
If you share the computer with a parent or sibling, it's very risky to start deleting stuff.
So don't delete anything now.
C. It's possible that the file size of your scan exceeds the allowable maximum file size your email account can handle and has things all jammed up. On Hotmail.com, for example, the upper limit is 2.0MB (megabytes). Apple Mail (iCloud, .me or .mac) seem not to have that limitation.
You said it took '10 minutes' to scan your picture. That sounds like your picture is scanned at a very VERY high resolution: 1200 or 2400 or 4800 or even 9600 dpi (dots per inch).
That's great for working at home and for retouching photographs and for professional artists, but most likely, it is much MUCH too large to email to your contest.
300dpi is probably a good maximum number for email. Check the contest instructions. They might want some other smaller number like 72dpi (internet web images) or 96dpi (Windows on-screen displays)
A high dpi number means the scanned image takes up a LOT of space in RAM memory and when stored on your hard disk.
That also means that it would take a very VERY long time to send that scanned file in email, although 9 hours is probably way WAY longer than it should take.
D. READ THIS ONLY IF YOU ARE USING A "DIAL-UP TELEPHONE MODEM" to connect to the Internet.
(Your adult should be able to help you determine this):
A dial-up connection typically sends and receives information at up to 56Kbits per second. 
Most people have something faster today.
On my DSL internet account (pardon a bit of technical jargon, it's 3.0Mbit downloading (me downloading a music file from iTunes) and 512Kbit uploading (me sending a picture via email), sending one 2.0MB file can take 5 to 15 minutes. Sending the same 2.0GB file on a 56Kbps dial-up modem could easily take almost 10 times longer, or 50 minutes, up to maybe 2.5 hours. But that's still nowhere close to 9 hours.
IV. OK. Got it. But my computer is still sitting there with spinning rainbow swirlies, and I have this contest deadline quickly approaching...
What do I do to SOLVE this problem and get my picture emailed today???
A. You've 'Quit' every unnecessary application?
The only ones left should be the printer/scanner app, and Mail.
Sometimes, that frees enough memory for things to begin working 'normally' again.
So,while reading all of this, has your spinning rainbow swirly stopped and the computer returned to somewhat 'normal' function?
YES - Check your Mail, Sent folder to see that your message finally got sent.
Is your message with the picture in there?
YES - Great. Problem solved. Have a great day. And next time, don't wait until the last minute to submit contest entries!
NO? Check Mail, Outbox folder (Outbox is only visible and has a number showing IF there is something in the process of being sent, but not completed yet.)
Is it in the Outbox?
YES - It could be 'stuck'. You'll probably have to Force Quit the Mail program. That still MIGHT NOT clear your 'stuck' email with the email provider program though.
B. Were you able to Force Quit all remaining programs?
YES - Great. Now it's time to click , Restart.
That will clear memory and reset things to get ready to try again.
NO - If Force Quit doesn't work, then it's time for more drastic action:
C. It's time turn the computer OFF.
Why?
Because there's likely other no way available to you to 'fix' what's still 'stuck'.
WARNING: Turning the computer OFF shuts down EVERYTHING, and throws away ALL unsaved information in all apps that are still running but 'stuck'.
THAT DOES SOUND DRASTIC!!!
It is. But you have this contest deadline...
D. If the adult you have nearby is NOT comfortable with you doing this, then STOP!!!
You're going to miss your contest deadline.
It isn't the end of the world.
You're thirteen.
There will be other contests and other opportunities.
You're done until someone who IS comfortable helping you is there with you.
Sorry.
E. With your Adult's permission to turn off the computer, and with them standing or sitting next to you, hold down the computer power button for up to 10 seconds, until the computer screen goes black and the computer shuts off completely.
WHEW!
Take a deep breath.
Tell your adult to start breathing again, too.
(Blue adults passed out on the floor from a lack of oxygen aren't nearly as helpful as breathing ones.)
V. OK. Now what? I still have this contest deadline and now I have XX minutes less because I've been following your long drawn-out instructions.
HELP!
A. Turn the computer back on.
B. Wait for everything to come back up, and then log back in as you usually do.
C. If you have a lot of programs set to start automatically, like iMessage or FaceTime or iChat or Safari or Mail...
Use Command+Q to 'Quit' all of them NOW.
Why?
They all take available memory from the two programs you probably REALLY need at this point:
1. Your printer/scanner and
2. Mail, and
3. maybe Safari, if you need to refer to these instructions again. Now you should be able to PRINT them, if you couldn't do that before
If Safari normally opens with a WHOLE BUNCH (3 or more) of Tabs opening things like Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Google and...
Close EVERY open Safari tab except 1.
D. Next, check to see if your printer/scanner app has saved your previous scan.
I can't tell you how to do this, because I don't know what software you're running. Sorry.
E. If you KNOW the filename**, locate your saved scanned image and open it using Preview and refer to the ADDENDUM below
F. If you DON'T KNOW the filename, try re-opening the printer/scanner app.
G. If you CAN'T FIND the file in three minutes or less, it's probably quicker to re-scan your picture than to spend more minutes looking for the last scan.
H. Use your printer/scanner software to scan the file AT 300 dpi
AND
I. SAVE THE FILE TO YOUR DESKTOP, because it's MUCH easier and MUCH FASTER to find a new scan at the right resolution saved to your desktop than to 'fix' some huge image saved at the wrong resolution* in some file directory called My Computer/My Documents/My Printer/My Scanner/My Scanner App/2012/Aug/1/jpg/miscellaneous/Image_2952.png
J. Don't let the scanner program TRY to automatically send it via email again.
Do it yourself:
K. Open Mail (assuming it's all set up). If not, open Safari, and navigate to your email site like Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail...)
L. Select New Message or equivalent
M. Enter the email address you're sending your contest entry to.
N. Enter the Subject name the contest rules tell you to use.
O. Enter all the information you're required to submit for the contest.
P. NOW, attach the scanned image you just saved
Q. You saved the scan to the Desktop.
W. You might need to click Desktop icon in the left column to get the list.
X. Click on your image filename and click the blue Choose File button to attach it.
Y. Double-check everything to be certain you've included all the needed information AND your scanned picture.
Z. Click 'Send'
Check to be sure the message goes. On my MacBook, I hear the 'jet flyover' sound when mail goes out successfully.
You can start breathing again.
(And nearby your Adult helper can too.)
You're welcome!
ADDENDUM:
** THE "YES, I DO KNOW THE FILENAME AND DID FIND THE FILE AND OPENED IT WITH Preview..." instructions
THIS is how to 'FIX' your huge picture file scan so it will be smaller, and send faster, and not get 'stuck' because your email account cannot handle a huge file, so 'OK, I'M REALLY DESPERATE HERE', BUT LIKELY TO CAUSE A LOWER-QUALITY IMAGE:
A. Find the scanned filename in Finder.
B. Double click on the filename.
C. That should automatically open the file in Preview.
D. Select Tools, Adjust Size.
E. Scroll down to the bottom of the menu and select the Fit Into to largest size image available.
On my computer it is 1920 x 1280 pixels.
F. Now set the Resolution to 300 dpi.
You'll have to type in the numbers.
G. At the bottom left of the Resulting Size box, you should see two numbers, the 'was   MB' (original scan file size to the right), and the new   KB to the left, in both pixels and KB/MB.
H. Your goal is to adjust the size to make the new resulting file size listed at the bottom left about 1.0MB or LESS. In my example, I reduced a 5.7MB photograph to 615KB (nearly a 90% reduction in file size, but with some loss of image quality).
I. Then, click the OK button to make the change.
J. Now in the top menubar, click File, Save As. That saves your changes, but still keeps the original file unchanged, so you can go back to it and try resizing it again without scanning it again, if you don't like the results.
K. Now another screen pops up, asking you the name of the file
L. Add 'resized' to the name of your file, so you know which one is the original and which has been changed.
M. Notice that there is a slider labeled Quality.  Right now, it is probably about 3/4 of the way to the right.
Sliding it all the way to the right will increase quality AND increase the file size.
N. Try moving the slider to the right, and release it to see the change in file size.
O. Remember, our ultimate goal is a modified scan file SMALLER THAN 2.0MB.
P. When you're satisifed with the file size and the quality slider, click the blue Save button.
Q. Now, try emailing the 'filename'-resized image you just saved.