Mail won't retrieve new messeges?

I have an ongoing issue with Mail, where periodically, Mail refuses to retrieve any new messages from my POP server, even though new messages exist, and the messages actually show up when you select Get Info on the account. Yet, they refuse to download, and Mail acts as if no new messages exist when attempting to download the new messages.
This problem has been going on for a while (few months), popping up every couple weeks for a few days at a time, and then all of a sudden, everything works fine again, and all the messages download. I've tried deleting preferences and disabling/re-enabling the account to no avail. It's really frustrating, because I can't use Mail to view my messages, and am forced to use another mail client (like Thunderbird, which works fine) or webmail. Is anyone else experiencing an issue like this, or know how to rectify it?
Thanks for any help!

Ok, this is strange. When I clicked "Get Info" and the messages on the server were populating, he message immediately following the two that keep downloading (the first of the messages that won't download) registered as 6.3k. After the "Get Info" window populated with all of the messages on the server, it restarted again from the beginning, except this time, it listed the message as 0k. Now, all of a sudden, Mail starts to download the messages, and everything is working fine again. But, this will happen again. It keeps stopping and then starting back up mysteriously like this. Any idea what could be going on? I think it has to be a bug in Mail that needs to be fixed, but I have no idea what to report to Apple. Thanks again for your help!

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Apple Mail won't retrieve new mail from Yahoo IMAP

I've been using Apple Mail with my Yahoo/Rogers account via IMAP for months with no problems.
Starting a few weeks ago, new mail in the Yahoo Inbox does not get delivered to Apple Mail.
I know there's lots of new mail - I logged into mail.yahoo.com with Safari, and see lots of unread messages in the inbox.
It's not a password problem. The Connection Doctor shows 'green': access to both the IMAP and SMTP servers is successful.
I have many other IMAP folders configured, and they all sync fine between Yahoo and the Mac.
Apple Mail is configured to use imap.mail.yahoo.com, port 993 with SSL.
I've tried:
- rebooting the iMac.
- quitting/restarting Apple Mail
- taking account offline, then back on-line.
- Ctrl-clicking on the Inbox and forcing it to Synchronize "Yahoo Mail".
- calling Apple. I spent an hour on the phone with a pleasant tech there. He concluded it's a Yahoo problem.
I found one thing that fixed it temporarily: last week I deleted my e-mail account from Apple Mail. Of course, this deleted all my mailboxes in Apple Mail. Years of messages vanished. Then I quit Mail, restarted it, and configured it anew with my Yahoo account credentials. Mail then proceeded to log on to the Yahoo server and sync everything over IMAP. It took quite a while (over an hour), but eventually everything in my Inbox, Sent folder, and a couple dozen folders ('mailboxes') of saved messages reappeared. Including all the unread mail that had been waiting on the Yahoo mail server.
That was a week ago, and my Apple Mail inbox had receiving new e-mail with no problems until two days ago. Once again, new incoming messages are not getting synced. This 'fix' (delete all messages and resync from scratch) is not a practical solution.
Any ideas?
(iMac has 10.8.5. Mail is 6.6)

@riiich,
As I last reported, I temporarily 'fixed' it by deleting the account from Apple Mail and creating it again. Thanks to IMAP, Mail then synced all the mail folders (took a couple of hours - I have a lot of mail folders), and then it was working again. For a few days. Then the problem returned - new mail arriving in my Yahoo Inbox would not sync to the Inbox in Apple Mail.
I spent hours trying to resolve it. Changed password. Rebuilt Mail's index. Ran Disk Utility on my hard drive. Etc. Etc. I have a lot of server-side folders (>30), and thought that maybe Apple+Yahoo were screwing up due the large number of folders (a.k.a. mailboxes) to sync. So I migrated a lot of the folders off the server (setting up new mailboxes On The Mac) in which to file my messages. That didn't help. Meanwhile, I started using Yahoo's webmail interface so I could get my new mail. Then one morning (perhaps a week later), the inbox spontaneously started syncing again. I had done nothing the day before - it just started working overnight.
Based on this experience, I concluded that the F***-up is entirely on the Yahoo side and has nothing to do with my Mac nor Apple's software. My ultimate fix has been to abandon Yahoo Mail. Prior to Christmas, I moved my mail account to another service provider who provides IMAP. Then configured my Yahoo account to forward all incoming mail to the new server (which has a new e-mail address). Since doing so, I've had zero problems. All messages sent to my old Yahoo address get immediately forwarded to the new mail server, which has been syncing to Apple Mail with no problems at all.

TS2537 Apple Mail won't retrieve new messages

Hi,
I have a user in my company who is using an iMac 27" 3.4GHz OSx 10.6.8 and Apple Mail 4.5 with GoDaddy IMAP settings. Recently all mails after 25/12/2011 are missing in his Apple Mail but it is available on GoDaddy's web mail. I've tried moving [email protected]+Mac-xxxxx from findings in other forums but to no avail. This has also affected the email that is retrieved in the iPad as well.
Can someone help me out with this please?
Thank you very much.

@riiich,
As I last reported, I temporarily 'fixed' it by deleting the account from Apple Mail and creating it again. Thanks to IMAP, Mail then synced all the mail folders (took a couple of hours - I have a lot of mail folders), and then it was working again. For a few days. Then the problem returned - new mail arriving in my Yahoo Inbox would not sync to the Inbox in Apple Mail.
I spent hours trying to resolve it. Changed password. Rebuilt Mail's index. Ran Disk Utility on my hard drive. Etc. Etc. I have a lot of server-side folders (>30), and thought that maybe Apple+Yahoo were screwing up due the large number of folders (a.k.a. mailboxes) to sync. So I migrated a lot of the folders off the server (setting up new mailboxes On The Mac) in which to file my messages. That didn't help. Meanwhile, I started using Yahoo's webmail interface so I could get my new mail. Then one morning (perhaps a week later), the inbox spontaneously started syncing again. I had done nothing the day before - it just started working overnight.
Based on this experience, I concluded that the F***-up is entirely on the Yahoo side and has nothing to do with my Mac nor Apple's software. My ultimate fix has been to abandon Yahoo Mail. Prior to Christmas, I moved my mail account to another service provider who provides IMAP. Then configured my Yahoo account to forward all incoming mail to the new server (which has a new e-mail address). Since doing so, I've had zero problems. All messages sent to my old Yahoo address get immediately forwarded to the new mail server, which has been syncing to Apple Mail with no problems at all.

Mail won't retrieve my gmail messages since this afternoon. Can anyone help me?

Since this afternoon, Mail won't retrieve any of my email messages. It sends my messages, but stays a long time "preparing to retrieve", until the activity closes as if there were no messages to retrieve (although they are in my gmail).
I haven't changed any settings at all. I use OS X 10.7.5.
Thanks a lot

Hey debdan1,
Thanks for the question. I understand you are experiencing issues with your email account retrieving new emails. The following resource may help to resolve your issue:
OS X Mail: Troubleshooting sending and receiving email messages
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3276
For additional help, see this resource:
Apple - Support - Mac Apps - Mail
http://www.apple.com/support/mac-apps/mail/
Thanks,
Matt M.

Mail won't retrieve Junk from Hotmail

Hello, I recently began using Mail on my iBook to retrieve my hotmail account. Everything works great except for the junk mailbox in the hotmail account. Mail won't retrieve any of these messages. I have to log back into hotmail and place the junk into my inbox, which Mail receives fine. In checking settings on both accounts I don't find anything which obviously prevents the junk in hotmail from being sent to the junk box in Mail. Is there a workaround or a setting that I don't have correct? I searched for this problem but haven't seen it mentioned before.
Thanks.

Hi Jbird1023, and a warm welcome to the forums!
Not many helpers look into Solved topics for people needing help.
It's quite acceptable, even preferable to start a new topic of your own, it will get more individualized attention, and many more helpers!
It can be hard to sometimes find where to start a New Topic, so here's the link...
http://discussions.apple.com/post!default.jspa?forumID=753

Mail won't retrieve Gmail messages

Since yesterday afternoon, Mail won't retrieve any of my email messages. It sends my messages from both my accounts, including my Gmail account, but stays a long time "preparing to retrieve" only my Gmail messages, until the activity closes as if there were no messages to retrieve (no retrieve or connection error messages or sounds) although they are still in my gmail.
I haven't changed any settings at all. I use OS X 10.7.5. Connection doctor says everything "succeeded"
Thanks for any help

Step 1
Take this step only if you have more than one incoming mail account, and only some of them are affected by the problem.
From the Mail menu bar, select
Mail ▹ Preferences ▹ Accounts
From the account list on the left, choose one of the accounts that is not giving trouble. Select the Account Information tab if not already selected, and then uncheck the box marked
Enable this account
Repeat with each of the other well-behaved accounts. Don't disable the problem accounts.
Step 2
From the Mail menu bar, select
Window ▹ Connection Doctor
Click the Show Detail button. A drawer opens. Click Check Again and post the text that appears. Anonymize any personal information before posting.
Step 3
If you took Step 1, re-enable the disabled accounts.

Mail suddenly duplicates all previous emails and won't retrieve new ones

At around 3pm today I saw that my my mac mail program download a 2nd copy of all the messages on my server, and won't retrieve any newer ones since. My Iphone will retrieve new ones and I am able to send from my mac mail program but just not receive.... I went on to my website email server and all the messages are still there too...

Sometimes messages left on the server clog up the account there, or Mail may end up losing track of which messages have already been downloaded, or Mail may choke on a particular message it cannot download and that prevents it from downloading the rest as well. Solving this problem will probably require removing one or more messages from the server.
You may tell Mail to remove from the server all the messages that have already been downloaded by means of Preferences > Accounts > Advanced > Remove now. Alternatively, you may use the Account Info window to remove specific messages from the server — choose Get Info (⌘I) from the Action menu (gear icon) located below the mailbox list in the main Mail window. And if the account allows web access, you may also remove messages from the server that way.
Try removing from the server messages that have already been downloaded and/or the first message not downloaded yet (i.e. the message that Mail appears to be choking on).

Mail won't retrieve Gmail messages on my iPad

I have no problems with any other email accounts in Mail on my iPad, but Gmail just won't retrieve emails. I have done everything that people recommend. Deleting the account and re-adding using Gmails instructions. I've made sure IMAP is enabled in Gmail. I have set a device specific password. I have disabled captcha in Gmail. I have also tried: turning off the account and turning it back on (in system), turning of Mail and turning it back on, turning off the iPad and turning it back on. Everything. I have deleted and re-added the account 3 times now. Each time it has verfiied the device specific password, but any time it checks my gmail account, it just says "checking for mail..." and then retrieves nothing. Help!

No, it shows absolutely nothing in the "Inbox" area, even when I had my husband send a brand spankin' new message, that I hadn't clicked on or checked in the browser of the iMac Mail client. I think it's pretty weird, too, but I haven't found anything that will help, other than just checking in the "All Messages" area of the account.

Mail won't get new mail after a while

Running Mail app on my Powerbook on OS 10.5.8. I use this as my work computer. More and more frequently I find that Mail is not retrieving my messages after being open for a while. The main account is a gmail IMAP account. I am also running Mail Act-On and MailTags, which are key utilities in my workflow.
I try clicking on Get New Mail, or "Synchronize IMAP Account," and taking all accounts offline and then taking them online, but these do not help.
Quitting and relaunching Mail sometimes helps, but not always! Is there anything else I should try? This is making me crazy!

I think you should open the Mail folder -- Home/Library/Mail -- and locate the file named MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3 and delete it, after having Quit Mail. Open each POP account folder in the Mail folder, and make sure there are no other files of similar name within these folders.
Deleting this file, and relaunching Mail will result in its downloading whatever messages remain on the server, and may give you some duplicates, but this import file will be renewed and fresh.
Ernie

Mail won't retrieve messages?

Hi there
I just got my first mac, a MacBook Pro. I have been setting it up today, and all was going well. I logged in my mail account and it was retrieving all my emails from my hotmail account (past messages that I have already read). Then randomly it stopped working, I can still use the app, but it has stopped receiving emails, even though it is not yet up to date. I have received new messages that came through on my iPhone but nothing on my mac. I have tried opening Mail's activity monitor and then clicking get mail. It connects to my hotmail account, says checking for new mail, the switches to "preparing to retrieve new messages" and stays there for quite a while, then eventually just goes blank. Any ideas what the problem is? I have tried closing the app and opening it again, restarting the computer etc.
Thanks in advance for any help

Judy,
Welcome to the Discussions.
If you Upgraded from 10.4.11 or earlier to Leopard 10.5.6, it is probably what has been covered by the support document at the link below:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2537
If you also find any files named to include MessageSorting (which would mean you once have upgraded from a version of OSX earlier than 10.4), remove those, also, but never restore those.
To find the correct location for the Mail folder, open a Finder window, click on the icon of a house in the Sidebar (this is known often as "Home"), click on Library in that Home user directory, and then to open the Mail folder found there.
Ernie

Mail won't retrieve automatically when waking from sleep.

Occasionally (1 in 4 times), when waking my iMac from sleeping with the new Mtn Lion Release, my earthlink POP mail account will have the triangle with an ! in it and it will say it cannot access mail on the pop server port 110. I click the get mail icon, and my new emails are retrieved. I did not have this issue with Lion 10.7.4. Any thoughts? Should I delete the account and re-add?

She still hasn't returned my call, but i know that she is able to type. Whether its wifi keyboard or not I do not know.

Mail won't retrieve

hi ...
my second imac is running mac os 10.6.8 and mail 4.5. i haven't used this one for a few weeks, and it won't retrieve mail any more - keeps telling me my password is wrong. it will send. all my other devices (ipad, iphone, other imac etc work fine).
presumably a transition from mobileme to icloud issue?
i've tried deleting the account and setting it up again, but it won't now recognise my password.
any suggestions? i asume (hope) it's something relatively simple.
thanks ... !

Ok, this is strange. When I clicked "Get Info" and the messages on the server were populating, he message immediately following the two that keep downloading (the first of the messages that won't download) registered as 6.3k. After the "Get Info" window populated with all of the messages on the server, it restarted again from the beginning, except this time, it listed the message as 0k. Now, all of a sudden, Mail starts to download the messages, and everything is working fine again. But, this will happen again. It keeps stopping and then starting back up mysteriously like this. Any idea what could be going on? I think it has to be a bug in Mail that needs to be fixed, but I have no idea what to report to Apple. Thanks again for your help!

Mail won't retrieve messages from ISP

Please tell me this is my ISP's problem, not my iMac's! I have 2 email accounts, one with my ISP and another with a spam-filtering service. As of yesterday, Mail no longer retrieves messages sent to my ISP email address, although it does retrieve from the other account. I know I have messages, because I can log in to webmail and read them there--but what a pain. My ISP, a small local outfit, seems overwhelmed, and I can't get through to support--so I'm guessing this is their problem.
If not, any suggestions! Many thanks!

Anything in the Deleted Messages box?
First Quit Mail, then I'd backup these two Mail folders, by right clicking on them in the Finder, then choose Archive/Compress.
Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail
Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail Downloads
(Could be a different folder here if you chose such in Mail Prefs)
Right click on that Mail folder, choose archive, you'll get everything in the folder, and the folder itself in a file called Mail.zip, move it to a safe place, same for the Mail Downloads folder... only the plist is separate.
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
I'd get EasyFind...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11076
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/8707
Search your whole drive for...
.emlx
Case Insensitive, Show Hidden, how many do we find? Sort by Date, when are the first & last?

Mail won't recieve new messages

Last week MAIL stopped receiving new messages. All the account info is correct, it's connected to the internet and it will still send messages. The new messgaes are there if I log onto the webmail, and they still bounce to my blackberry...but not in MAIL.
The only cause I can think of is that last week the hard drive was filled to capacity and that when MAIL stopped getting the new messages. I quickly cleared up 20GB of space but still no mail. Could the lack of free space have corrupted the MAIL program's abilty to get new messages?
Any ideas of what I can do?

Who is your ISP or email account provider for this account?
If a message cannot be successfully sent by the Mail.app for whatever reason, the message will remain in the Outbox mailbox. A message moved to the account's Sent mailbox is an indication the message was successfully sent.
Open a recent sent message that was reported by the recipient as not being received and at the menu bar, go to View > Message and select Long Headers.
If there is text next to the Message ID field such as:
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
This is another indication the message was sent.
You can contact your ISP or email account provider for the account and provide them this Message-Id number or they may have you forward them this sent message with long message headers for the sent message shown. Your ISP or email account provider for this account should be able to trace the message to it's final destination.
For the most part, a successfully sent message is either accepted or rejected by the recipient's incoming mail server. If rejected for whatever reason, you will receive a return email bounced error message from the recipient's incoming mail server indicating why the message was rejected. Other than that, this indicates the message was accepted by the recipient's incoming mail server and what happens to the message after that is beyond your control.
Regarding the receiving problem, quit the Mail.app first and using the Finder go to Home > Library > Mail > this POP account named folder (named by the user name and incoming mail server for the account) > MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded. Delete the MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded file (which may have become corrupt when you didn't have adequate free hard drive space) and empty the Trash.
Launch Mail and if successful, any previously downloaded messages that remain on the server will be downloaded again by Mail along with any new messages available on the server not yet downloaded.

Won't retrieve new mail

I am running Mail.app 3.6 on OS X 10.5.8. I have three IMAP mail accounts set up.
Last night, Mail.app stopped pulling in new mail. You can click the Get Mail button, it goes and looks (it all looks normal in the Activity Window), and returns with no new mail. Yet if I quit Mail.app and check with any other client (webmail, Alpine, iPhone via IMAP), I see lots of new mail.
My laptop had been up for a few days, so I closed mail (had to force-quit) and rebooted. No luck. I also repaired all permissions. I have tried deleting one of my INBOX.imapmbox directories. It quickly recreated it, with the same mail. Nothing new.
All three mail accounts are on different servers, running two different IMAP servers (Courier-IMAP and UW-imap). I have checked on one, and when mail quits, it closes all imapd processes. There are no other mail connections open, so I don't think it's a locking issue. I don't think it's a server issue, because it's happening on all three of my mail accounts.
Mail works fine with all the mail that is visible. You can delete messages, etc. If you log in via webmail and mark a message as unread, that change is reflected in Mail.app.
The short of the long: Mail.app just won't see any new mail since about 11pm last night.
Help! Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Seth

After trying lots of other ideas (including removing a mail account and recreating it), I have deleted my preference files and my Library/Mail folder. Starting over completely from scratch seems to have fixed it.
I'm disappointed that I could find a better solution.

Mail won't retrieve new messeges?

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