Mail preferences hosed

Anyone else having occasional glitches/hangs on shutdown? Time to wipe & reinstall?
Had a hang at shutdown earlier today & apparently lost a number of my preferences because of it.
Logged back into my Powerbook this evening, & Mail didn't know there were 7 accounts already setup. After the initial scare, I got the accounts imported (thanks to other forum posts!) & all seems well.
Lost Dock prefs, my Address Book and all my bookmarks in Firefox too - hundreds, that represent literally months of research. Looking through backups for those.
This is highly frustrating, and I'm very surprised it even happened.
Gary.
Powerbook 1.5GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.5)   17GB free space, 1.5GB ram

The apparent loss of application preference files is usually caused by a lack of adequate free hard drive space.
What does had a hang at shutdown mean exactly and I'm assuming this required a hard shut down?
If so and as you probably know, a hard shut down is not good for a hard drive under any platform and one of the reasons for maintaining a regular backup.
Regarding the hang at shutdown, I suggest Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption for system troubleshooting procedures and when doing so, follow all steps/instructions in the order provided.

Similar Messages

  • Unable to open Mail Preferences, can't remove/add accounts.

    Sorry I posted this under Tiger discussions as well, but it wasn't my intention. I am running Leopard now:
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    - Setup walked me through and I configured another account (besides the .mac account created automatically).
    - I wanted to change settings of the newly configured account, but when I go to Mail->Preferences... NOTHING HAPPENS!
    - Tried reinstalling Mail from CD. Tried rebooting MAC. Tried removing and reinstalling again... nothing!
    So I can't open Mail Preferences to modify existing accounts. What can I do?

    Ernie,
    Thanks again.
    This is strange indeed! I can not do what you suggested. We must not be on the same page.
    When I select the Mail pull down menu right under "About Mail" is the "Preferences" item. There are a series of periods behind it which usually indicates more options when the item is selected or highlighted. In this case nothing happens until it is selected at which you are taken to a "general" screen full of items with scroll through lists to select from. Accounts is not an item. Holding down the option key doesn't change the results at any point I tried.
    My Mail version is 3.0 (912.1/912).
    I may have to give up on Mail and go back to Entourage or thunderbird.
    Dan

  • How do I add another e-mail address to my mail preferences?

    How do I add another e-mail address to my mail preferences?

    Mail > Preferneces > Accounts > click + on bottom left

  • I am unable to send mail-in mail preferences at accounts page I am unable to type in the incoming mail server

    On my mac pro I have lost the abillity the send mail--no a probllem on my desk top Mac.
    In mail at preferances --the Accountstab -on the macpro 'incoming mail server ' is blank and I can't type in to the box with the sever name.
    Help please

    You need to open Mail>Preferences>Accounts>click on "Accounts Information" over to the upper right in the window>click on the drop down list button at the right of "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" line> click on "Edit SMTP Server List">click on fIrst "Account Information" and then "Advanced", filling in each of the information fields with info that your ISP provides you with>click on "OK" button>click on the drop down list button at the right of "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)" line>click on the correct SMTP Server in the list for that Account to select it.
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  • Error message says error writing Mail preferences

    There’s a discussion about the very same problem I’m having at <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2047886&#2047886> about Mail not being able to save preferences... or at least a message pops up each time despite the fact that the preferences are saved. Annoying, really. I’ve followed all the steps suggested in the above thread, including terminal commands and repairing of permissions. However, the problem didn’t go away. Unfortunately, the thread above was closed (without being answered), so I had to open a new post. Here’s a description of the problem as stated in the above thread... and the problem occurs exactly like that on my Powerbook running 10.4.7.
    **** Original question follows ***
    At some point in time, I suddenly began having the problem of every time I close my Mail preferences window, I get an error message stating, "Error Saving Preferences - Writing your preferences to disk has failed. Your preferences may not have been saved. The permissions on ~/Library/Preferences may be wrong or your disk may be full."
    My hard disk has many GB free, and I still keep getting the error message after repairing permissions.
    I ran a test of changing a couple of prefs, then quitting Mail and relaunching, and my changes stuck.
    But some prefs such as changes to signatures won't stick (although they never did, so the latter may be unrelated to my current problem).
    In any event, it's disconcerting that I keep getting the error message.
    Anyone know what's up? Is there a fix?

    The preference file may be corrupt.
    Try the following:
    Quit the Mail.app first and using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Mail. Copy the Mail folder and place the copy on the Desktop for backup purposes.
    Using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.mail.plist. Move the com.apple.mail.plist file to the Desktop.
    Note: Moving the com.apple.mail.plist file out of the Preferences folder will require re-entering all email account information when re-launching Mail.
    The only exception to this is if you have a .Mac account and/or you created an email account as part of the original computer setup assistant used when first turning on the computer after it was purchased which will be re-created automatically.
    Launch Mail and decline the prompt to import mailboxes. After re-entering all email account information, the Mail.app should rediscover the existing account named folders and mailbox files at Home > Library > Mail.
    After confirming all mailboxes were successfully rediscovered, you can delete the copy of the Mail folder and old com.apple.mail.plist file from the Desktop.
    Test if this resolves the problem.
    My hard disk has many GB free, and I still keep getting the error
    message after repairing permissions.
    What is your hard drive capacity and available free space?

  • Mail Preferences Disappeared

    Mail was working just fine all day. My wife tries to reply to a message received earlier and gets the following error message:
    "This message could not be delivered and will remain in your Outbox until it can be delivered.
    Verify that you have addressed this message correctly. Check your SMTP server settings in Mail Preferences and verify any advanced settings with your system administrator."
    I go to Mail->Preferences and the only Preference pane I get is for Junk Mail. General, Accounts, Fonts and Colors, Viewing, Composing, Signatures, Rules are all missing. Can't very well verify the SMTP server settings if the Preference pane isn't there.
    My Inbox looks OK and I have received one message since this all started. I can read the contents and was able to empty the Junk Mail and Deleted Messages mailboxes. File sizes in Users->xxx->Library->Mail all are the right size and appear intact.
    I've tried a reboot and a complete system shutdown (including power disconnect), but Mail Preferences are still missing. There's nothing in the Trash that looks fishy. I've tried a couple of test messages back to my own e-mail account and got the same error message.
    Is there a way to reinstall only the Mail app? Is there some way to find/verify that the Mail Preferences exist?
    Need help, here. This is weird-and-a-half. First time in 20 years on Mac that I've seen anything like this.
    Dual 2 Ghz G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)
    Dual 2 Ghz G5   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

    OK, I found the answer in a reply to another question. The pill-shaped buton in the upper right corner of the Junk Mail Preference pane retrieved the rest of the Preferences and I was able to check my SMTP Server settings, which were correct. My test messages also came through this morning, leading me to believe that my ISP had a problem on their end, which was subesequently corrected.
    My habit has always been to close any Preferences window while in the "Show All" mode, so I didn't think to check that first.
    Dual 2 Ghz G5   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

  • I want to forward a message with the default headers included, but can't seem to set my mail preferences to include the headers when forwarding, just the original message ends up in the forwarded message and not the headers?

    I want to forward a message with the default headers included, but can’t seem to set my mail preferences to include the headers when forwarding, just the original message ends up in the forwarded message and not the headers?  What I'm trying to do is report SPAM and add headers to a spam message to forward to sites that go after the spammers.

    Did you check the article and the add-on mentioned there?

  • Mail preferences has disappeared how do I get it back

    A couple of days ago my mail went crazy and most things suddenly dumped themselves in Junk.  I spent some time sorting it out and adding a lot of rules.  Yesterday I found I had missed a couple and wanted to add a rule or edit an existing one.  Click on Mail Preferences and nothing happens.  Was busy, went away, forgot about it.  Tried gain today.  Nothing.  Checked other Preferences eg Safari, Excel.  They're there.  What do I do now?

    Hey MingtheSiarmese,
    Thanks for the question. Let’s try quitting the Mail application and restarting your computer. If you have trouble quitting the application, see this article for information on how to Force Quit:
    OS X: How to quit an unresponsive application using Force Quit
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3411
    Thanks,
    Matt M.

  • Error message when changing Mail preferences

    Whenever I change anything in the Preferences of Mail 2.0.8 even just opening the preferences and then closing them, I get an error message that says "Error Saving Preferences" " Writing your preferences to disk has failed. Your preferences may not have been saved. The permissions on ~/Library/Preferences may be wrong or your disk may be full." However, the change seems to have been made anyway as the expected new behavior occurs. The disk isn't full (haven't had it long enough!) and I don't know what to do about the preferences.
    Is there anything I can do to find out what might be wrong BEFORE something horrible happens? Tomorrow is back up day. Should I change anything before I do it?
    10.4.6
    Mac Mini Intel Core Duo   Mac OS X (10.4.6)   1 gig RAM

    This particular issue is still a mystery to me. In the rare cases when I've seen it reported, none of the suggestions that one would expect should work did.
    Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and type the following commands -- you can copy them here, one at a time, and paste them in Terminal to avoid having to manually type them:
    ls -ld ~/Library/Preferences
    ls -l ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
    What do they say?
    If you want to try re-creating the preferences file, be sure to do it properly, i.e.:
    1. Quit Mail.
    2. Make a backup copy of the ~/Library/Mail folder, just in case something goes wrong. You can do this in the Finder by dragging the folder to the Desktop while holding the Option (Alt) key down, for example. This is where all your mail is stored.
    3. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Preferences/. Locate the com.apple.mail.plist file and move it to the Desktop (to be deleted if this fixes the problem).
    You'll have to set up your non-Mac accounts from scratch all over again. If given the option to import existing mailboxes or something like that, don't. Just enter the account information and Mail will automagically rediscover the data in ~/Library/Mail/ when done.
    You'll also have to re-configure most of your settings in Mail > Preferences. For spam-related security reasons, the first thing you should do is go to Preferences > Viewing and disable Display remote images in HTML messages if it's enabled.
    Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user's home folder. You can easily locate any of the folders referred to in this post by copying the file path here, doing Go > Go to Folder in the Finder, and pasting the file path there.

  • I am trying to set up e-mail on a second user account but mail preferences is grayed out.  I have looked at some posts which indicate it could be corrupt file and say to deletee .plist but I cannot find that at all.  Any suggestions?

    I am trying to set up a Mail account for a second user.  I have made the user account but when I try to set up Mail, it fails as if the password or e-mail is incorrect but I know it is correct.  When I try to go to Mail preferences, it is grayed out.  Any suggestions?

    1. If you haven't tried this already, just delete the user account entirely, and then try setting it up again.
    2. To find the permissions file:
         a. hold down the option key
         b. go to the Go menu in the finder
         c. scroll down to Library and open it
         d. in Library, go to Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences
         e. drag it to the trash and restart.
    3. if that doesn't work, go to Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access. In the Keychain Access menu, do Keychain First Aid, and repair.
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  • An error occurred while updating mail preferences

    Hi guys, i get this error "An error occurred while updating mail preferences" when try to enable vacation message in uwc.....any idea? is a hosted domain uwc...

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  • ICloud not listed in Edit smpt in Mail preferences

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    Back up all data before proceeding.
    Launch the Keychain Access application in any of the following ways:
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    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Keychain Access in the icon grid.
    Select the login keychain from the list on the left side of the Keychain Access window. If your default keychain has a different name, select that.
    If the lock icon in the top left corner of the window shows that the keychain is locked, click to unlock it. You'll be prompted for the keychain password, which is the same as your login password, unless you've changed it.
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  • No Mail Preferences Need to Look at My Account Settings

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    Please read this whole message before doing anything.
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