Mail 2.1 recently stopped downloading messages from POP server

Question

Hi there,
I am struggling with this one.
My mail has previously been workoing no problems, through a POP server (doctors.net.uk)
Since 26/06/06 it has stopped downloading messages from the server.
I can send mail from Mail no problem and it appears on the server.
The system preferences/network is fine.
The connection Dr tells me that it can access the account no problem.
The SOCKS proxy is not enabled.
I even altered the POP account preferences to delete all messages from the server older than 1 month (previously not enabled) whic it duly did without problem.
When I click get mail, it spins, there is no error message, but no new messages appear.
I have followed this with my POP account service who insist all is fine at their end.
Any ideas?
Thanks

Answer 1

Try this in case the problem is that Mail is actually downloading the messages but they are being incorrectly processed by the rules:
1. Quit Mail.
2. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/.
3. Locate MessageRules.plist and move it to the Desktop. If there is a file called MessageRules.plist.backup, move it to the Desktop too. You may also see MessageSorting.plist files there; this is where Mail 1.x stored the rules, and they are no longer used by Mail 2.0, so just move them to the Trash if you see them.
4. Open Mail. As a result of removing the rules file, the junk filter will be disabled now. You may want to either tell Mail to go offline immediately after opening it, or shut down the Internet connection before opening Mail, to prevent it from downloading anything until the junk mail filter has been enabled again.
5. Go to Mail > Preferences > Junk Mail, enable junk filtering, and configure it however you wish.
6. Go online again if you went offline in step 4.
If the problem persists after doing this, then you know the rules have no bearing on it, and you may move the files on the Desktop back to the ~/Library/Mail/ folder, overwriting any files Mail may have created anew there (quit Mail first).
Note however that, if you want to test this with messages already on the server, you need to also remove the MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded2 file again.