Ticket Options

Question Profile

Question Details

TICKET ARCHIVE -> Mail won't save messages anymore

chef_craig - Dec 29, 2007 - 2:36 pm

All of a sudden, when I want to compose a new Mail message I get an error message saying "error, message can not be saved". I cannot send emails anymore. I have OSX Tiger 10.4.11 and am unable (all of a sudden) to send any messages. I've tried deleting my user account and starting again, same problem.

Any help would be much appreciated, thank you.

craig bloxom

Cheryl - Dec 29, 2007 - 7:42 pm

Craig,

This could be caused by a couple of things. Are you able to get emails?

First, go to Home>Library>Cache>Mail.
Trash all the folders in that folder.
Empty the trash.

Now go to Utilities and open Disk Utility. When that opens, click on the second hard drive icon in the side bar at the left, then click on Repair Permissions.

When that is done, quit Disk Utility and give Mail a try.

Cheryl

chef_craig - Dec 30, 2007 - 3:17 pm

HI Cheryl, thanks for helping me. I have done as you suggested and deleted all the folders in the Home>Library>Cache>Mail folder and then run Disk Utility.

But I still have the same problem: email message won't save. I'm also not receiving the volume of emails I used to get (a lot of junk) and friends are telling me they sent a message which I have not received.

Any more ideas? Thanks again for the help.

Craig Bloxom

Cheryl - Dec 30, 2007 - 4:13 pm

Craig,

How much free space do you have on your hard drive? To find out, just open a window (go to the Go Menu and select Home). Look at the very bottom of that window. It will show you how many items in that window and how much free space. You need 10 - 15 % free space for the computer to work smoothly.
With the 100 GB drive you should have 10- 15 GB free. If you have anything less than that, you need to do a clean up. Trash any files that you no longer need. We are all guilty of downloading a program with the intent of using it, but never do.

And with that said, how many emails do you have in your in box in Mail? Delete those emails that you no longer need such as jokes that you have already read and passed on. If you do want to save them, try saving them as text. Just open the email, then go to File>Save As and select as text - saving to your Home folder.

In the meantime, you can check your email from your ISP's web mail.

Keep me posted.

Cheryl

chef_craig - Dec 31, 2007 - 7:39 am

Thanks again Cheryl. I only have 9 emails in my Inbox and none in Saved because they all vanished when my program went wonky. I have 25G of memory available on my computer (that's enough) so this is a conundrum. I don't get to use the word "conundrum" very much so now I feel very clever.

But I wish I knew what was going on with my Mac. Something I haven't mentioned before is that I'm working offshore as the head of the Catering department on a drill-ship in the Gulf of Mexico. Our internet comes via satellite and the speed is pretty slow.

I also have a Gmail & Yahoo mail accounts which are working fine, but my .Mac account (ISP) is not saving messages either. I have written and sent a lot of messages that way (ISP .Mac Mail) but they aren't being delivered either. So all in all, the whole .Mac mail program (on my computer and on the ISP) are not working properly.

Any more suggestions? I appreciate the time you're taking to help me. Look here if you're interested or have time: http://www.myspace.com/craigbloxom

Many thanks, Craig Bloxom

Cheryl - Dec 31, 2007 - 10:08 am

Craig,

First do this:

Open Mail.
From the Mail menu, choose Preferences.
In the Preferences window, click the Accounts button if it is not already selected.
In the Accounts list, if you have multiple accounts, click your .Mac account.
Click the Server Settings button near the bottom of the pane.
Verify your SMTP server settings with the following information:
Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.mac.com
Server port: 25 (or 587 if your ISP is blocking port 25)
"Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)" should be checked (enabled)
Authentication: Password
User Name: Your .Mac member name (without "@mac.com")
Password: Your .Mac password
If the information above is correct and you are certain the your username and password are correct, try changing the Server port to 587. Port 25 may be blocked by your Internet Service Provider.
In Mail, from the Window menu choose Connection Doctor.
A new window will open and it will test the connection to the .mac server. You should get a green dot if all is well.

One more thing - in Mail>Preferences>Accounts>Advanced check to make sure You have Enable Account checked.

I am assuming that you are not exceeding the limit of sending 200 emails daily. Also - as a note, the ISP you are using maybe blocking the port that you have set for the .mac account in Mail. You will need to use your ISP's outgoing mail server.

Log into .Mac and check your storage allocation. You can do this if you have the full .mac account (not just email).
Click on Account in the left side bar.
You will need to give your password again for security
Click on Storage settings
When the window opens, adjust the allocation so you have more in Mail rather than storage.

Click on Save
Now click on Preferences
In Viewing select Show 50 messages per page and Short message previews.
Uncheck the boxes under HTML
Click on Other. Double check that you do not have Forwarding checked.
Now click on Save.
Do you have Junk mail enabled? Check that folder on the web mail page - this is just to make sure all your emails are not going there.

If you continue to have problems with Mail and the .mac web mail, you may have issues that I can not help you with.
Contact Apple's .mac tech support here: (scroll down to the bottom of the page)
{url]http://www.apple.com/support/dotmac/mail/#form[/url]
It might be something on their end and the .mac experts can correct it.

Cheryl

chef_craig - Dec 31, 2007 - 6:17 pm

Hey Cheryl, I've done all the things you suggested and I think it's running better now. I actually saved a message and it sent ok. There still seem to be some anomalies but I'll wait and see. Most of the things you suggested were already facilitated in the way you proposed, so I didn't really change anything. That's one of the fascinating things about computers I think. They seem to have a mind of their own once and a while. I'm glad I've been raised with Macintosh because they are much easier than the Windows I use at work.

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me. I'm not sure whether it's totally resolved, but I'll be back home to cable internet on Thursday so I'll see if the internet works better on land.

Thanks again, Craig Bloxom

Cheryl - Jan 1, 2008 - 5:17 am

Craig,

Would you like this ticket to stay open until you are on land?

Do you shut down your computer at night? If you do, the nightly jobs that OS X does is not being done. One of those jobs is emptying the temp folders of various programs. Many of these temp folders are invisible to us, so we can not do this manually. On my work machine, I have installed Macaroni to do these jobs at start up. It makes the computer run smoothly.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9633/macaroni

Another thing that some people have forgotten is the cache folder. You can empty the cache folder of Safari (or your favorite browser) and Mail manually. The cache is saved files of web sites (as an example) so that your browser can load them up quickly. Trouble is when that cache folder gets loaded down, it takes longer to scan them and compare.
Just go to Home>Library>Cache
Open the folder labeled Safari and delete all the folders in there.
You can do the same with Mail and Dashboard Client.
Empty the trash.
You will notice a big difference.

Cheryl

chef_craig - Jan 1, 2008 - 9:59 am

Great advice Cheryl! I appreciate it and I've emptied my cache folders. I'll look to download "macaroni" when I get home. I'd like to keep this ticket open until I get to land please. However, my "relief" has a relative who has died so I have to work-over until she gets back from the funeral. This is one of the downsides of working offshore. The upside is getting 21 days off! I live in Mexico (work in USA) so my standard of living is very good. I will have to stay on board the rig until Sunday perhaps, home Monday or Tuesday. I'll respond again then. Do I give you a "donation" after closing this ticket because I'm happy to do so for the help you've given me.

In touch soon, Craig Bloxom

Cheryl - Jan 1, 2008 - 11:11 am

Craig,

Our system will close the ticket after three days of no activity. If this ticket does close, you or I can reopen it with no problem.

You can make a donation at any time. Here is the link:
https://macosx.com/order/vip/index.html

Cheryl

chef_craig - Jan 1, 2008 - 11:52 am

Ok, I'll donate a tenner for all your great advice. I need it! My Mail program is saving emails again (on my mac) and it appears to send them. They save to the Sent Mail folder. But they aren't getting delivered. I've sent one to myself at Yahoo and it never came through. My friends are telling me they aren't getting any messages from me.

Any ideas? Craig Bloxom

Cheryl - Jan 1, 2008 - 12:24 pm

Craig,

If it is in your sent folder (and you heard the swish of mail sent - that is if you have sounds enabled in Mail's preferences) then the email has been sent. It is probably stuck in cyberspace. Satellite internet has a lot to do to bring itself up to speed of DSL & cable.

Try sending an email via .mac web mail and see what happens.

Cheryl

chef_craig - Jan 1, 2008 - 3:10 pm

Yes, I hear the "swoosh" as the mail is sent & saved to my "Sent" folder. I think you're probably right about the satellite internet being the culprit. However, all the mail in my inbox keeps vanishing also. It's there one minute, gone the next.

I've gone onto the .mac website and everything is gone from the "inbox" there also. I've sent messages from .mac and they're not coming through either.

Craig

Cheryl - Jan 1, 2008 - 4:58 pm

Craig,

In Mail you have Mailboxes showing in the side bar at the left. Click on the arrow next to the Inbox so that the arrow points down. This will show the inboxes for all your accounts.
Now click once on Inbox. Do all your emails show now?

Go to View Menu and select Display All Messages.
Do they appear now?

If you have Mail set to remove from server after retrieving message - then web mail will not have those emails. (Mail Preferences>Accounts>Advanced)

Do you have any Smart Mailboxes? Smart Mailbox filters through your emails and places them in the specific mailbox that you created. A Smart Mailbox has a gear on the folder icon.

Did you create a rule that moves your email to a folder before you read it? My son did that and wondered why I got mad at him for not answering my emails. My email would move in a folder he created and he didn't check that folder for new mail.

Cheryl

chef_craig - Jan 2, 2008 - 9:27 am

HI Cheryl, the conundrum continues. In Mail, I have one Inbox on the left with no submenu mailboxes. Just the one, which is empty. When I log into .Mac to view my messages online, that inbox is empty also.

I have preferences set to keep messages on the server for one month before deleting. No smart mailboxes at all. I have no rules to move emails. I have a very simple set up. One inbox only.

I cannot go to View>Menu and click Display all Messages because it's in grey and won't respond.

Interestingly, I've opened a Gmail account and set it up to receive mail from my .mac address and it's coming into that account no problem. All my .mac mail goes to Gmail, but nothiing shows in my actual .mac account, or on my powerbook G4. So I'm accessing all my .mac mail from Gmail now. I got my wife to send a message and it came through there no problem, but nothing in .mac or my computer.

This is getting weird. Thanks again for your advice! You must be a mac lover like so many of us! Craig Bloxom

Cheryl - Jan 2, 2008 - 9:44 am

Craig,

Did you just do the forwarding to the gmail account recently? Remember that nothing will show up in .Mac while you have forwarding turned on.

Question: - do you have the .mac account in Mail set as an IMAP or POP account? Many people were having trouble with IMAP (including me).

Delete the account in Mail and quit Mail, then go to Home>Library>Preferences and trash the com.apple.mail.plist file.
Next go to Home>Library>Mail and trash all the files there.
Now open Mail and create a new one using POP. All the files that you deleted will regenerate a fresh new files.

The only way to test this though is to turn off forwarding in the .Mac web mail.

Keep me posted.

Cheryl

p.s. I sure don't do windows.

chef_craig - Jan 2, 2008 - 1:52 pm

Cheryl, I've done as you requested and deleted my account, deleted all the files you told me to, and closed out Mail.

Opened Mail and have a brand new account, reflecting my .mac account on the .mac server. This is a IMAP .Mac account, just like the old one.

So, I try to open a POP account and it's going well until it asks me to choose the "outgoing" mail server. I try to use smtp.mac.com:MYemail and it gives me an ERROR message! AH HA! It says: "the smtp server (MYemail) is not responding. Check your network connection and you entered the correct information in the Outgoing Mail Server field (which I did) If it still doesn't respond, the server might be temporarily unavailable. If you continue, you may not be able to send any mail".

That's the whole story. Interestingly, I get email from my other accounts fine. I can access the 'net out here fine, it's just a bit slow. I've gone to Gmail and unchecked the "get mail from .mac account" button.

That's where I'm at. I can feel success just around the corner. I'm grateful for your help.

Craig Bloxom.

Cheryl - Jan 2, 2008 - 2:22 pm

Craig,

Yes, .Mac wants you to use IMAP, but you can set Mail to get your .mac via POP. I have had no problems since using POP for my .mac email.

Did you try using the smtp server port 587?
Your user name is the part of your email address before the @mac.com. (just to verify your settings)

Is Mail set to get your other email accounts? What smtp server are you using for those? Some ISP's (like your satellite connection) are blocking port 25 or any other smtp server connection as they want you to use their smtp server. This is to prevent email blasting - spam/junk emails. At least they want you to believe that.

Cheryl

chef_craig - Jan 3, 2008 - 7:39 am

Hey Cheryl, I think Mail's working. Hallelujah. I think trashing the account, deleting all the old files and starting again (totally) has made it work. I'm getting emails and sending them. They are saving to my Saved mailbox. I've noticed an absence of Junk mail. I usually got 10 or so a day, now I get none. But that was happening when my initial problem began.

I'd like to keep this ticket open until I get home please. I have to work over because my relief is going to a funeral. I won't get home to Mexico until Sunday.

Thanks so much for all your help. I've learned a lot from your expertise. I love Macs so much, they are the cleverest, easiest computer on the planet. It's great to see Apple doing well (with iPod etc.) after years of derision from Windows folks. I remember people used to tease me in 1998-96 for using Mac but where are they now? Far behind.

What's Leopard like? Should I get it right now? Have the bugs been worked out? Will it work on my 1.5 GHz G4 Powerbook?

Craig Bloxom

Cheryl - Jan 3, 2008 - 8:15 am

Craig,

That is great news! Yippee !

Yes, your Powerbook can run Leopard as long as you also have 512MB of memory, DVD drive for installation, and 9GB of available disk space. My computers can not take Leopard as they are under the 867MHz or faster processor requirement.

I am one of those people who believe in Apple so much that I am a stock holder (bought at $25 a share). My hubby doesn't tease me anymore since the stock split and soared.

As long as we keep the conversation going here, the ticket will not automatically close. (it does after three days of non activity)

Cheryl

chef_craig - Jan 3, 2008 - 3:03 pm

I'm so happy to hear from someone who actually purchased & kept hold of Apple stock! I never purchased any but I'm glad to know someone who did.

9 Gigabytes is a pretty big program. Is Leopard such innovative stuff? I only use iDVD for movies, iPhoto and iTunes. All the other stuff just sits around. I should dump Garage Band I suppose because it uses up space and even though I'm a former professional musician, I've never even opened it up. My wife wants me to write a hit song so we can retire.... but I tell her it's not that easy!

My Mail program is still a bit "iffy" but I'm hoping when I get off the rig it will start running properly but I could be wrong. I've changed my ports to 587 and they seem to be working ok, but I send emails to myself and they aren't delivered.

Only one more day to go on this rig then spend the night in New Orleans. The food there is awesome and I go to a restaurant in the French Quarter for crab cakes & fresh oysters in the shell, opened by the man in the window. But after 21 days at sea, I mostly want to sleep.

I'll keep the dialogue open until then, thanks again for your advice.

Craig Bloxom

http://www.youtube.com/user/hotziggettypancakes

Cheryl - Jan 3, 2008 - 3:23 pm

Craig,

Seems like you are being missed in the land down under.

As for Mail - sometimes you have to quit it, then open it and it will behave. I have to do that with Safari at times as well.

Have you run a utility on that powerbook lately? I mean start up with a Utility CD and have it scan the drive and repair - like Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro.
You should do that periodically just to keep everything running smoothly.

Cheryl

Cheryl - Jan 6, 2008 - 4:45 pm

Craig,

I am keeping this ticket open until I hear from you.

Cheryl

Cheryl - Jan 7, 2008 - 6:01 am

Craig,

Have you settled down on land and able to use Mail?

Cheryl

Cheryl - Jan 8, 2008 - 6:03 am

Craig,

Are you getting your emails correctly now?

Cheryl

chef_craig - Jan 8, 2008 - 10:15 pm

Hey Cheryl, sorry for the delay. I've been napping and relaxing down here in Mexico. It's very warm in the day, but gets a bit nippy at night.... I have to wear a long-sleeve shirt.

Now guess what? Since I got home, my email is working fine. All the messages save, and there's simply no more problems. It must have been the poor quality of connection between the server and my Mail program.

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it. You're a life-saver.

All the best Chery

Craig Bloxom

Cheryl - Jan 8, 2008 - 10:29 pm

Craig,

Glad to hear that Mail is behaving. I will close this ticket.

Cheryl