.Mac mail craziness

Folks never in my life have I seen things as crazy as my .mac mail account and Mail have been acting since I upgraded to Tiger. So here's the deal:
I have three computers: An iMac and a PC at home and a PowerBook for work. I was using Mail on the Macs and Outlook on the PC and all was fine for two years. Then I upgraded to Tiger. Immediatly things went crazy. Mail couldn't seem to decide where to put my new messages. First they were in the Inbox, then in the Trash (this is where it was downloading my new mail). It would hang all the time, messages that were there one minute would disappear after the next server link up. It was nuts.
So I thought I may have better luck with Entourage. Used that for awhile and all was fine. Then I added a Gmail account and all h^%l broke loose again. Half of my inbox was where it should be, the other half ended up in the inbox in the "Folders on my Computer" menu. Duplicate messages were being downloaded and placed in the Deleted Messages folder along with the Sent Messages folders. Stuff that would download on the PowerBook would not then download on the iMac. All this happened without me not touching a single setting except for the initial setup.
I work in IT and support 35 Macs everyday. We have an Exchange server that works great with Entourage (minus a few isolated weirdness's but that's not for this story...). MY own Exchange account works great, no issues at all. I only use it at work. But no matter where I am or how I'm hooked up to the 'net, my .Mac account acts like it's drunk. What gives? My yearly renewal of .Mac is coming up and I really don't think I can renew if this cannot get fixed. It's not worth $99 for such horrible problems.

I forgot to add that I get "Ghost" messages all the time. I will get a notification that an email has arrived and is unopened in my inbox (or, today, in my Drafts folder which has decided to be my inbox) but nothing is there and it will not go away.
Another great thing that just happened is my entire inbox just moved itself to the "Sent Messages" folder and the sent messages are now in the trash. Also, in Mail (not Entourage...I wanted to test Mail again), it has created two accounts under every folder: ",Mac" and "[email protected]".

Similar Messages

.mac mail - This is crazy

Just upgraded to Tiger 10.4.3. All mail accounts work fine except .mac mail
Under 10.3.9 my .mac mail account acted just like any other POP mail account. Is there any way to set up Mail in Tiger to have .mac mail work as a POP account?
I shouldn't have to:
1. Get my mail through .mac web mail
2. Sync the mail box
3. Rebuild the mailbox
It's stupid to have to log on to .mac web mail and read my mail in order to have it delivered to me through Mail app.
I can't forward my mail from .mac to my normal ISP because I often receive large files (customer artwork) that my ISP is gonna block because of size. That's why I HAVE a .mac mail account in the first place! It's CRAZY!
Am I doing something wrong? Help would be greatly appreciated!
swampy

Ernie,
I'm not sure why you mentioned the URL references you did, since they confirm pretty much everything I have said. The POP concept is centered around the idea that mail is held on the server until downloaded; IMAP that it is held indefinitely on the server until it receives a specific request to delete it.
A little thought should make it obvious that neither POP nor IMAP can possibly determine if all computers have had a chance to download a message -- neither knows anything about how many computers or other information devices might be authorized to do so. POP can handle this by allowing a client to request that messages not be deleted after downloading them; IMAP, by allowing a client to request that they be deleted at any time. Not all client software has this ability.
Regarding knowing which messages have been read, IMAP manages this for the inbox, which represents messages that may or may not also be stored locally on a client. Local mailboxes are still managed by the client, which might confuse some users not aware of the difference. I don't consider this a failure of IMAP or of .Mac but more of a problem with client software like Mail, which doesn't make the distinction between locally & remotely stored mail as clear as it could be.
More than anything else, I think this is what drives people crazy about .Mac, IMAP, et al. It's all well & good to have a consistent looking interface & a single app to handle all your mail, but unless you know where all your mail is stored, there is no way it will make sense.

Hi, i am having trouble with my mac mail account, i cannot send or receive any emails because of the server connection problems. Message says it could not be connected to SMTP server. Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi, i am having trouble with my mac mail account, i cannot send or receive any emails because of the server connection problems. Message says it could not be connected to SMTP server. Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello Sue,
I have an iPad 3, iPad Mini and iPhone 5S and they are all sluggish on capitalisation using shift keys. I hope that Apple will solve the problem because it is driving me crazy.
I find using a Microsoft Surface and Windows 8 phone, which I also have, work as well as all the ios devices before the ios 7 upgrade.
It has something to do with the length of time that you need to hold the shift key down. The shift key needs to be held longer than the letter key for the capitalisation to work. For some reason, this is a major change in the way we have learnt to touch type on computers. I am having to relearn how to type!
Michael

Gmail ... IMAP ... Mac Mail.app ... Mavericks ... SOLUTION -1

hi all,
hopefully this will give you enuff info to figure out what to do (if anything), but i urge you to read thru the links below to see if you are experiencing the same issues or not, & if so, what to do about them.
THE BACKGROUND INFO:
i've been using the Mac's Mail.app pretty exclusively since its inception, and with Gmail's IMAP option since mid-2009. the settings have always stayed & worked well...
• on Gmail.com > Settings > Forwarding & POP/IMAP >
    - IMAP Enabled
    - Auto-Expunge Off
    - Move Deleted Messages to the Trash
    - Folder Size Not Limited
• also on Gmail.com > Settings > Labels >
    - Only the Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Spam, & Trash System Labels CHECKED to "Show in IMAP"
• then in the Mail.app > Preferences > Accounts > Mailbox Behaviors >
    - i had everything CHECKED & all the dropdown options set to "One Month Old"
      --note: a year or so ago, i had to UNcheck the option to Store Drafts on server due to a hideous multiplication of draft messages showing up in the Trash
• also in Mail.app > Preferences > Accounts > Advanced >
    - the IMAP Path Prefix was always "[Gmail]" to allow folders to show properly in the Mail.app
• and lastly in Mail.app >
    - made sure the Sent, Drafts, Spam, & Trash folders/labels were properly mapped via the Mailbox menu > "Use This Mailbox For" option
...and i've always kept 'local' mailbox folders for archiving old emails in the "On My Mac" section in addition to keeping more current emails for reference in the "Gmail" section.
THE INITIAL PROBLEM:
after upgrading my Mac to Mavericks OS 10.9, i started noticing that any email i would delete or move from my inbox kept re-appearing in my inbox after changing views (like going to another mailbox then back to the inbox).
of course this drove my OCD crazy, & thus began the research. i've read a LOT about this issue from official sources to user discussions and have pieced together a procedure that seems to be working (for the most part) for me.
THE RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:
a lot of people, tek/industry people, & blogs are pointing to these webpages as good summaries of issues & fixes (yes, there are SO many more, but i personally found these to be the most helpful in my quest)...
          http://tidbits.com/article/14219
          http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/10/mavericks-issues-and-fixes/?viewall=true
          http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1222267
          http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/making-gmail-and-os-x-mavericks-mail-play -well-together
THE DISCLAIMER:
of course, if you aren't greatly affected by the Mail/Gmail wonkiness, then it might be worth waiting another week or two (or 3 or 4...) & keep your eyes on further reports from these sites (links above or others you may like better) in case Apple &/or Google pushes an update to remedy the situation. likewise, if you do make these changes, it would still be a good idea (imho) to keep up'to'date in case such pushes do come out & affect these changes too. ugh ;-)
THE OUTCOME:
the below process, for me, has been SUCCESSFUL in every aspect except one...
THE LAST PROBLEM:
whenever i move a message from the gmail inbox (or any other gmail imap folder/label) to a local folder in the "On My Mac" section, it moves it just fine, but then it keeps a copy in the gmail "All Mail" folder/label, when i would want it deleted from gmail.
unlike when i "delete" a message, where gmail appropriately moves that message to the trash box, in this situation it simply strips the message of "any" label, and thusly it stays in the All Mail. so if anybody can amend this with a fix for that, we should be all set :-)
but aside from that last issue, the below procedure has brought back my Mail.app program to use Gmail as "I" believe it normally should work, and has always worked pre-Mavericks.
THE PROCEDURE (assuming all your settings are set like mine were as listed above):
go to gmail.com in Safari (or other web browser) > Log in > Settings > Labels > and check "Show in IMAP" for the "All Mail" system label (which was previously a no-no, but now a yes-yes).
also on that same page, you will need to UNcheck the "Show in IMAP" option for Drafts. and then slide over and for BOTH the Drafts & Spam labels, click the "show if unread" options.
then go to each & every one of your custom "Labels" (you know them as Mailbox Folders). they will all start with "[Gmail]/foldername". click on each and remove the "[Gmail]/" leaving ONLY your custom folder name.
once done, click on your Inbox to get you out of the settings area.
now you will need to go thru ALL of your folders/labels (i know... big ugh!) to fix the labels attached to all the emails inside them ;-)
click a folder/label to reveal all the emails inside it.
click the checkbox in the header row of buttons/options that will cause all emails on that page to be selected/checked.
then, IF you have more emails than what fits on that page (in other words, if you have more than one page of emails in this folder as indicated by the "1-###" and page arrow buttons at the top right), then you will see a new small row that sits above the list of emails that says "All ### conversations on this page are selected. Select all ### conversations in "Folder/Label Name" - you WILL NEED TO CLICK this text link!!!
once you have, the sentence will change to "All ### conversations in "FolderName" are selected" - do NOT click the "Clear selection" link next to that.
next, click on the "Label As..." button in the header row of button/options - the icon looks like a price tag of sorts.
then in the resulting popup box that lists all your folders/labels, you will want to make sure ALL checkboxes are UNchecked EXCEPT the single folder/label that these emails are in. note: some of them may or may not have dashes instead of checkmarks in the boxes - you will need to click it to check it and then click it again to get it UNchecked & UNdashed.
after you've got only the one label checked that should be checked, then click the APPLY word at the bottom of that little popup box. note: if all the selected emails are labled correctly, then you won't see the "Apply" option & you can simply move on to the next folder.
if you get a dialog confirmation box pop up asking if you are sure you want to continue... click OK.
then WAIT! this may take a while depending on how many emails it's affecting and how fast/reliable your internet speed/connection is. when you see the "Loading..." notification at the very top of the page change to "All conversations have been removed from (and it lists them all)", then you can move on & do that same procedure (steps 5-13) to fix another folder/label.
WHEN DONE WITH ALL THAT, you can exit your browser.
now go to the Mail.app > Mail menu > Preferences > Accounts > Advanced > and remove the "[Gmail]" text from the "IMAP Path Prefix" field.
then go to the Mail.app > Mail menu > Preferences > Accounts > Mailbox Behaviors tab and if the Store Drafts on Server option is checked, UNcheck it.
then close the Mail.app Preferences window to get the option to SAVE that change!
now go to the Mailbox Menu > Synchronize > Gmail, in case it hasn't started doing that on its own.
then open the Window Menu > Activity, so you can see when it's done synchronizing. this may take a while if you've got a lot of mail. according to some, it took a day! so, just kick back & leave it alone till then.
THE END FOR NOW:
hopefully this helps other folks that were setup like me & want to keep it working that way. and yeah, again, if anybody knows how to fix the last problem described above, please let us know.
.peace.:.jason.

hi Dean Suhr,
i just went back & re-read my posts... i find no where that i said anything about dragging emails into the ALL MAIL folder. i mentioned the issues with dragging messages into "any other folder that i've created" from either the INBOX or "any other folder that i've created". it copies instead of moves the message. but ONLY Mac Mail does this. the iOS Mail app does NOT do this - it moves as it should move.
as far as what you said "who cares what Gmail says the labels are"... well... I do :-)
there are occasions where i need to utilize the web browser gmail interface, and i want it to be correctly synced.
i don't think it's unreasonable to want that, as that's how it's been for YEARS, till now, AND that's how it still is with iOS 7.
besides, what happens if i get a different device/computer and need to add the same account - i imagine it will not sync up correctly if gmail has labels on messages that it shouldn't.
fortunately for me, i don't have quite as many messages & accounts as you; it only takes aprox 30 minutes for mail to sync up after i started over with it.
.peace.:.jason.

My email name in the "to" field disappears in Mac Mail

In Mac Mail when I write my own email address in the "to" field, it disappears. And when I respond to an email, it comes into the recipient as "no sender sender." No one has been able to help me solve this. So I had to switch to Thunderbird (Mozilla). Any suggestions?

Oh, thank you so very much, that was the problem!!!! That name had my e-mail listed!!! It was making me crazy and now it's solved!!!!!!!
Thank you, thank you!!!!!!

3 issues with Mac Mail on Leopard...

We just bought a NEW Imac at work, but my email doesn't work correctly. The first issue is that I get no New email sound at all. I need this at to work.
Second thing is when I attach a file and send it to a PC, it embeds its and instead of attaching it. I attach by dragging and dropping it into the email. I had no problem doing this on my old IMac and mail program. It does work correctly if I actually go and locate the file and attach it, but this takes a lot long to do than just dragging and dropping. I do have "Window Friendly Attachments" checked, but it just won't work the way it did before.
The third thing is that my IN box says I have 6 new emails, but nothing is there. I can't get rid of it. It is driving me crazy.
Please help!!!!!

Hello kgoody,
I have not been able to use my mac mail for 2 months now because of the server issue. "Try later" or "Try with selected server " were at the beginning of this nightmare. Since then I have not received a single email in the inbox. I downloaded an article "How to use Gmail with Apple's Mail" by Stephen Korecky and tried to fix the problem. It did not work because the Apple Mail windows did not show what they were supposed to. I called my software wizard and he said he will have to come and fix it. He did not show up yet. It is very frustrating.
Etela

Mac Mail incoming messages stuck in endless loop

My Mac Mail (Version 7.3) suddenly went crazy on me this morning - when you check for incoming messages, it will show under mail activity that it is checking but the progress bar will fill 80% of the way then stop, with no messages downloaded. And if you go to check for incoming messages again, the total number of messages will double. On and on like that in an endless loop toward infinity. I was able to see that I do not, in fact, have thousands of e-mails waiting for me by clicking account info -> messages on server. Like a dummy I deleted my account (without backing up my sent and drafts, much to my combined shame and dismay) but that didn't fix the problem. I only have one account, a POP3, in my Mac Mail. OSX version is 10.9.4

First thing to do is never post your actual email address in the forums; you don't want to get lots of spam as a result of spambots harvesting that address.
Next, login to the web interface of your .mac account and verify how many messages are actually there, both new Unread messages, and already Read messages. Write those numbers down and then logout.
Quit Mail and go to Home/Library/Mail and remove the mailbox for your IMAP (.mac) account. Then delete any files that start with Envelope Index.
Restart Mail and wait for it to download your .mac email again and rebuild your Mail index; then check to see if the problem continues.

Mac mail not working after ios 10.9.5 update

After updating to OS X 10.9.5, both of my email accounts are only sporadically sending email through Mac Mail. About 50% of my outgoing mail is rejected by my mail server Comcast. My email works on my iphone. My families' emails using Comcast work. Seems the latest ios is the culprit. How to fix?

I have the same problem as you, I reported it here:
Re: Mail app drives me crazy, does not sync since last update 10.9.5
But the only answer I got is the same link to Troubleshooting.
Thank you Eric for your answer but this does not solve the issue.
You have to understand that EVERYTHING is IN ORDER!!! Yes, the emails sometimes leave the outbox, suddently, after beeing blocked for a long time.
I also lost a lot of emails like that, they went to Outbox, never left, and were erased.
Apple HAS TO DO SOMETHING and stop saying that it is our connection or settings that wrong. If it can work, it means all is in order. I really believe this comes from the last update. Please give us a solution, make it work!

Mac mail typing error

When I type in Mac Mail my cursor jumps ahead about 5-6 spaces.
Example, if I wanted to go back and make a correction to the first sentence of this post and say I inserted my cursor in front of the "s" in spaces, it would start typing in the middle of word "about".
This is about drive me bat crap crazy. I have repaired permissions, restarted over and over, rebuilt my mailbox, stood one foot and jumped around...
Is there away to trash mail preferences without having to through terminal?

Log out under the Apple in the Menu bar.
Log in with Shift key down. (This disables all login items)
If the problem goes away it's a conflict with one of your login items.
Still have issue? Restart in Safe Boot mode.
Safe boot
* shutdown
* start the Mac and *wait* for the startup chime to sound
* after the sound, press and hold down the shift key
* keep holding and *wait* until the grey  Apple logo appears
* now release the shift key and just wait (it could take a few minutes)
* eventually the login screen appears with the words SAFE BOOT
* continue to login to see if the problem goes away.
Validate your Fonts
How to use Font Book to validate fonts
1. Open Font Book in your Applications folder.
2. Select All Fonts.
3. Now click in the list of fonts and select all (Edit > Select All).
4. Under File in the Menu bar, select Validate Fonts.
5. Duplicate fonts will be marked with either the yellow badge or a black dot.
6. Select to remove or delete duplicates.*
7. Delete font caches
8. Restart your computer
* Step 6 – remove or delete duplicates is where the tricky part comes in. You can select to let Font Book disable or remove duplicates, but I’ve found that it removes the one you have not been using rather than selecting the best option. See Font Management in OS X, by Kurt Lang, for more info on fonts.
http://www.jklstudios.com/misc/osxfonts.html
See Kurt Lang's directions here to remove font caches
https://discussions.apple.com/message/26188553#26188553
Let me know if you still have issue and we can do further steps to resolve.

TS2998 Help! My Mac mail uses another person's name in stead of mine in the "from" heading when trying to send e-mail. How can I fix this?

Mac mail started using another person's name instead of mine. In the "From" line it shows someone other than me so the receipient will not know I am sending them an e-mail. HELP!, This is crazy. Is there a fix?

Does this problem happen EVERY time you send an email?
Do you see the wrong FROM entry before you hit the send button? Or does the recipient report seeing another name other than yours?
Do you recognize the incorrect name being shown? Is it something you or someone else using your machine have ever used? Is it a name you have never heard of before?
Go to your SENT folder in Apple Mail. What do you see when you open one of your SENT emails, in the FROM slot? Is the name correct or incorrect?
Also, I don't understand your comment "I noticed it when I try to send a link via e-mail to another person." are you saying that when you paste a link into an email to someone that your name in the FROM field changes? Where are you putting the link, in what place in the email?

Mac Mail autodiscover not working?

When trying to create an Exchange mail account on Mac Mail 6.5, I enter the username, e-mail address, and password. However the autodiscovery service is not working as it should. It's polling autodiscover.<companydomain>.com when in fact it should be polling autodiscover.outlook.com.
Any ideas?
(Crazy thing is that Macs must be configured differently because my iMacs in house work fine, but the Macbooks out in field do not).

how to add the account manually, this article explains. good luck, I wish you.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1277
may the force be with you.

Mac mail 4.5 and yahoo mail

Anyone else having problems with mac mail 4.5 and sending mail with yahoo.mail server. Mine is so erratic It's driving me crazy. It works fine for a while then all of sudden it will just stop working for days at a time. This happens without me changing any settings whatsoever. I have other mail programs using the same servers AND THEY WORK FINE. So this is total crap. When I try getting help from my ISP they said it is a mac mail problem. When I try to get help from APPLE (which is pretty much non existant) they say its an ISP problem. The only thing I know is that its' my problem and I've given both these companies tons of money and they've left me hanging out in the breeze with arguably the most basic and important funciton of having a computer and an internet connection. Screw them all I say.
Anyone out there to help with this quandry. By the way I've used mail connection doctor. It has problem connecting to the outgoing server, but then it does and says all is fine. But I still cant send mail. I go back to connecton doctor and do a "check again" and now it CANT connect. Jeez this is just awful

I finally got my "Send" to work:
Mac Mail Version 4.5 (1084) Settings for YahooPlus email accounts:
In your Yahoo account:
Before setting up Mac Mail, check that you have:
     Subscribed to Yahoo! Mail Plus
     Enabled POP
In Mac Mail:
Preferences > Accounts >
     Select your Yahoo account.
Account Information tab:
     Incoming Mail Server: plus.pop.mail.yahoo.com
Advanced tab:
     Port: 995
     Select: Use SSL
Account Information tab: > Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)
     Click on the up/down arrow and select Edit SMTP Server List
     Select your Yahoo account
     Select the Account Information tab
          Server Name: plus.smtp.mail.yahoo.com
      Select Advanced tab:
          Port: Use default ports (25, 465, 587)   [Or you can also select Use Custom Port: 465]
          Select Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
          Click OK
     Close Preferences (Save settings when prompted)
The information was extracted from
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/ymail/mailplus/pop/pop-30.html;_ylt=Akicod 1myG2IJofQmUDz9qdfPnpG

.Mac Mail as Email Archive

Ok, with the 10 gig now available for .Mac, there is now enough storage for me to consider using my .Mac account to store my historical emails.
Yes, yes, I'm a pack-rat of emails and I have some going back to 1999 (yes...I know)
So my question is: Do I keep things local or now use my .Mac account as off site storage? Specifically in this post, for my email.
I ask this because I've already experienced a catastrophic drive failure (on an external device) and lost a lot of memories and other things and I'm looking for permanent options for backup, recovery and storage (I have another post asking about this as well).

Just to close this question, I've done a lot of experimenting lately and found out several things:
Using .Mac as an email archive works great. It's a real hassle consolidating your emails depending on where they are, what's supported (POP3, IMAP, Web), but with a little sweat equity I got it to work. I have emails spread across Yahoo, Hotmail, Google, and .Mac and was able to get things consolidated to .Mac mail.
The worst was getting emails from old Windows Outlook files (PST). This involved a crazy amount of Googling and trial and error, but between Thunderbird and Entourage I was able to get things consolidated.
Now that Google supports IMAP, I'm not sure moving my Google stuff to .Mac was necessary. If you primarily use Mail.app, you can now connect to Google via IMAP as well as .Mac all in a single interface and copy between the two without messing around with POP3.
If you use .Mac web, you'll only be able to see your .Mac folders unless you want to download via POP3 (works, but not ideal) or have other accounts forward to .Mac (a hassle to setup if you don't know what you are doing).
Anyway, question resolved.

Mac Mail client sent messages not on iPhone (Yahoo mail)

I have been having this issue for a while now and it's driving me crazy. Whenever I send a message on my Mac Mail client (using 2010 MacBook white unibody), the sent message does NOT show on my iPhone 5 in the mail app sent folder. I have tried everything I could find to fix this. The Mac Mail settings are set to save the emails on the server and it's set up on Mac Mail as IMAP. My outgoing mail server on my iPhone is set to Yahoo SMTP server.
Strangely enough, emails I send from my iPhone DO show in the sent box on my Mac Mail just not the other way around. Anyone have any insight?

Hi there,
I have the same problem. I kept a watch to see what was happening exactly when I send the mail, and this happened right in front of my eyes: The mail goes and leave the outbox.. it goes into the 'sent' mailbox.. and after a few minutes , it disappears and goes into the trash. It happens not on all mails, but randomly on a few..
After some research, I came to find this and was exactly the problem:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2339555&start=15&tstart=0
it appears that the client 'mail' has a problem in the synchronization with Imap, or any related accounts that is to be synchronized with a distant server account.
I don't know why Apple is not doing anything because this problem appears for some time now, and mail is getting the worst mail client on the market (can't even protect an account with an access pwd to prevent mails from being seen on a shared mail client ) It would be time that Apple really upgrades the most basic and necessary soft on a computer.

Mac Mail won't send - spinning wheel

Hi,
This is an intermittent problem that nobody has an answer for. Anyone up for a challenge?
Sometimes, when I use Mac Mail to send with my business account (hosted by GoDaddy), I'll click Send and nothing will happen. The spinning gear will appear beside the Sent mailbox and just....spin. For 5 minutes. 20 minutes. Random times. Then, it will either give me the error that the server is offline or it will just quietly send the email at some point.
It's not fatal, it works eventually, but you never know when. I need to respond when I send mail, not sometime in the next several hours.
I've got no idea what the problem is, and it's making me crazy. Never happened before I upgraded to Lion last year, and I'm not about to leap into Mountain Lion unless I know this is fixed.
Thanks for any suggestion or advice.
Bryan

Hello, mrselisec.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
I would need more information regarding exactly what is happening when you attempt to send to an AOL email address to better assist you. However, he are a couple basic troubleshooting guide that may help with this issue.
OS X Mail: Troubleshooting sending and receiving email messages
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3276
iCloud: Troubleshooting iCloud Mail
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts4002
Cheers,
Jason H.

.Mac mail craziness

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for