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Leopard Mail refuses to play notification sounds!

O

owen-b

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 30, 2005
526
0
I have recently thought I was going deaf because I was getting new mail and never hearing the sound for it. I thought maybe iTunes was on too loud or something. However, I've just done a test and no, Mail is definitely not playing the new mail sound. Speakers are the internal default ones, volume is up, but when I send mail to myself from a different Gmail account, when it arrives in Apple Mail there's no sound. This happens whether the app is active or in the background.

I'm sure I've heard it working a couple of times recently, but it's random and seems to be very much in the minority of occasions. Here's another weird thing it does - when I've received new mail during the day but Mail has been turned off, when I get home and open the application it searches for mail, downloads the new ones, and plays the 'No new mail' sound.

I've considered these things might be because I've already received the mail on my Blackberry, but this never used to happen in Tiger, and I'm using a POP Gmail service, not an IMAP one it shouldn't be able to tell I've already had them.

I have Dockstar installed but it worked fine with Dockstar before. Might it be causing a conflict somehow? Dockstar doesn't play any sounds, only changes how the mail notifications appear in the dock icon.

I don't use iChat so I don't know if this problem has affected other Apple apps. I've read some people having problems with that too.

Cheers!
 
wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
owen-b said:
I have recently thought I was going deaf because I was getting new mail and never hearing the sound for it. I thought maybe iTunes was on too loud or something. However, I've just done a test and no, Mail is definitely not playing the new mail sound. Speakers are the internal default ones, volume is up, but when I send mail to myself from a different Gmail account, when it arrives in Apple Mail there's no sound. This happens whether the app is active or in the background.

I'm sure I've heard it working a couple of times recently, but it's random and seems to be very much in the minority of occasions. Here's another weird thing it does - when I've received new mail during the day but Mail has been turned off, when I get home and open the application it searches for mail, downloads the new ones, and plays the 'No new mail' sound.

I've considered these things might be because I've already received the mail on my Blackberry, but this never used to happen in Tiger, and I'm using a POP Gmail service, not an IMAP one it shouldn't be able to tell I've already had them.

I have Dockstar installed but it worked fine with Dockstar before. Might it be causing a conflict somehow? Dockstar doesn't play any sounds, only changes how the mail notifications appear in the dock icon.

I don't use iChat so I don't know if this problem has affected other Apple apps. I've read some people having problems with that too.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
I know what you mean - I am having the exact same problem! I believe it is a bug in Mail, but it doesn't particularly bother me - at least not enough to post here about it. I do NOT have Dockstar installed, and I am also using POP with GMail.
 
O

owen-b

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 30, 2005
526
0
Well personally, an intrinsic piece of Apple OS software not working properly is enough to get under my skin!

Oddly it's been working a couple of times today. But not 100%, and not sure what caused it to work.
 
MacDaddy.G5

MacDaddy.G5

macrumors newbie
Nov 29, 2007
15
0
Hampton, VA
I'm curious, did any of you upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, if so, did you do a regular upgrade, archive & install or just a fresh, new install?

I'm having little, nagging issues with my Leopard too, but I just did a regular upgrade. I'm seriously thinking of hosing the whole system and start fresh.
 
wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
MacDaddy.G5 said:
I'm curious, did any of you upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, if so, did you do a regular upgrade, archive & install or just a fresh, new install?

I'm having little, nagging issues with my Leopard too, but I just did a regular upgrade. I'm seriously thinking of hosing the whole system and start fresh.
Click to expand...
I did not upgrade - I did a "fresh, new install" as you put it.
 
P

PaulH2008

macrumors newbie
Mar 28, 2008
2
0
I've noticed Mail doesn't make any new mail notification sound for me neither. I have a new macbook that had Leopard pre-installed, and I thought I was going deaf until I saw the the number 1 pop up in front of my Mail icon and heard nothing (Full volume etc).
Most confusing
 
wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
PaulH2008 said:
I've noticed Mail doesn't make any new mail notification sound for me neither. I have a new macbook that had Leopard pre-installed, and I thought I was going deaf until I saw the the number 1 pop up in front of my Mail icon and heard nothing (Full volume etc).
Most confusing
Click to expand...
Odd. For no apparent reason the notification sounds have come back. Now, though, it plays the New Mail sound only when it feels like it. Most of the time I just get the No New Mail sound, even if there IS new mail.
 
Duff-Man

Duff-Man

Contributor
Dec 26, 2002
2,984
17
Albuquerque, NM
fixed in 10.5.3?

Duff-Man says...I notice this "problem" as well sometimes, it is very sporadic. I always get my sound(s) when I manually check for mail but only sometimes when Mail checks on its own.

I've just read the initial reports out today for the 10.5.3 update and one of the items listed for fixes is "mail alarms" so it seems this little quirk is being dealt with....oh yeah!
 
S

susansoiree

macrumors newbie
May 5, 2008
2
0
Los Angeles
I have the exact opposite problem. I got Austin Powers saying "you got mail baby, yeah!" for my notification but it's so fricken loud. I turned the volume all the way down and it's still so loud my neighbors must be getting sick of it.
 
H

hodgjy

macrumors 6502
Apr 15, 2005
422
0
I've noticed on my system I only get mail sounds when I check mail manually or when it checks automatically according the interval I have set. I do not (ever) get new mail sounds when I have enabled IDLE commands and new mail is instantaneously indicated as new.
 
H

Halcyon

macrumors 6502
Sep 21, 2006
335
0
Must be a Leopard thing...in my case not only does it happen with Mail but also with some System alert sounds (like when emptying the garbage) and like everybody else here already mentioned sporadically/aleatory.

Maybe 10.5.3 will deal with it.
 
B

brunobrunic

macrumors newbie
May 7, 2008
1
0
bug with mail alert

mail alert doesn't work if iTunes is ON. no matter if song is playing or not. Just quit iTunes and that's all. I know this may not be the solution of your problem but it just possible that Apple did it on purpose, so that we are not disturb while listening to the music :D:p:apple:
CHEERS.:D
 
S

smerx

macrumors newbie
Apr 24, 2009
2
0
fix

Go to Mail->Preferences->Accounts->Advanced and deselect "Use IDLE command if server supports it"

Worked for me.
 
C

cpoticha

macrumors newbie
Oct 6, 2009
4
0
I have the same problem and I HATE it.

I use a pop mail account, so the option to turn of the "IDLE" option (whatever that is) is not available.

Not only do I not get a new mail sound, but neither does the icon bounce in the Dock.

I return to my Mail after several hours to find urgent messages awaiting me. :mad:

I've posted a Bug Report to Apple, but don't expect much help until I experience the same thing on Snow Leopard (once I upgrade).

My computer's brand new, with Mail pre-installed, though my mail archive is imported, and quite large.

Poop.

PS: Nice ancient Windows style interface for this forum! WTF?
 
R

randomerratum

macrumors 6502
Dec 3, 2009
289
0
Santa Monica, CA
Same Here

I've just noticed the same issue on both my PowerPC G5 (Leopard) and my Macbook Pro (Snow Leopard) - For a while I thought it was randomly working - like I just had to change some Mail Rules or Preferences, then today I realized I'd just been hearing the noise from my iPhone every time!

The IDLE selcetion is already checked... I use mobileme, so all my mail settings are pretty much default. Within the preferences it's even set to "New Mesages Sound"
 
Applepi

Applepi

macrumors 6502a
Aug 15, 2007
549
0
Yeah this is a very irritating bug, I don't think I've ever heard the sound when getting new mail.
 
S

snowpuff

macrumors newbie
Feb 10, 2009
13
0
same issue here

i just got my new macbook air in yesterday and the new mail arrival sound is sporadic at best... i really do not know what the problem is but i can barely get the sound to chime at all for the new mail notification yet all other sounds seem to be working properly. has anyone identified a fix yet?
 
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