Faithful Mail.app wont throw in the towel

[skiff]

Several weeks ago, I encountered a great deal of misery on my G3 iBook, Mac OS X 10.3.9 — my Mail.app stopped retrieving messages from the POP server. My dialup ISP support person concluded that the "queue was choking on a humongous file." I didn't have a clue what that meant, but apparently a message with several images (3.9 MB) was the culprit. Somehow, it finally became unchoked and I thought everything would be okay. I was wrong.

I soon noticed that that status bar was still displaying the troublesome 3.9 MB file and attempting to download it from the POP server despite the fact it had already been downloaded and was safely parked in my Inbox. I also noticed that the Activity Viewer was tirelessly churning away on a lost cause. For what it's worth, the following file is apparent still causing mischief: "46 messages — Fetching 1 of 28: FWD: New Addition to The Smith Family."

Meanwhile, none of my incoming mail is getting through. I have no problem sending, only receiving.

I will be grateful to whoever knows how to cope with this and helps me overcome it.

 

[blaster_boy]

If you have webmail, the solution is very easy - you log in online via your web browser to your webmail, and you delete the offending message - in your case that would be the 'new addition to the smith family' message.

You don't OPEN the huge message, not in a web browser unless you are prepared for a very long wait...

After you have deleted it, you can have mail.app try to download the rest of the messages once more.

If you don't have webmail (most ISP's offer it now) you can either try to configure another mailclient to go get it (with the risk that it chokes as well on the message) or you can call or mail your isp with the request to delete the message.

Hope this helps, regards.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

It's been a while since I used 10.3, but here's a thing to try (that works in 10.4 at least):

In Mail, hit cmd-I to get up the Account Info, choose the troublesome account (if you have more than one), click on the size field to sort the messages (or just find the large message), choose that message and click the Remove From Server button.



Here's an example from my spam account...

 

[2nyRiggz]

Try removing those pictures out of your server/inbox(save the pictures to your HD if you want them) and restarting mail.



Bless

 

[skiff]

After rereading my opening post, I can't believe I failed to mention that the first thing I did was to make hard copies of the images and jettison the file — I trashed it and for good measure I emptied the trash. I also archived all my files, there's nothing in my Inbox to clog up anything.

Having said that, I must say everyone is missing the point. That file was downloaded, it was no longer clogging anything. What I can't do is get that errant dialogue off my status bar.

Incidentally, I created another email account, another user, and actually downloaded another email client (Thunderbird), but nothing I've done has erased that message from my status bar. I'm convinced something is corrupt in my Mail.app.

I'm not at all eager to try to reinstall Mail 1.3.11 from my original CDs. I'll lose all my saved mail, and end screwing something else up. I'm through experimenting, I need to hear from someone who has had this problem and knows what to do.

 

[orangemacapple]

I'm not at all eager to try to reinstall Mail 1.3.11 from my original CDs. I'll lose all my saved mail, and end screwing something else up. I'm through experimenting, I need to hear from someone who has had this problem and knows what to do.

all your mail is in user/lib/mail.
copy it from there to someplace else and you won't have to worry about losing it on another install.

i also like MyPopBarrier to see what i get and delete spam before mail pulls it in.

 

[skiff]

Thank you for the support, but the truth is I'm too chicken hearted to go that route just yet. Besides, it galls me to within an inch of my life that I can't remove that invalid status information from the Status Bar. Clearly it should have disappeared after I trashed that 3.9 MB file. I may yet get disgusted enough to try to reinstall Mail.app, but then I have to do all the upgrades, I also worry about the law of unintended consequences.

I'm a cockeyed optimist, I believe there's someone out there who knows how to excise that inappropriate text from my machine and will help me do it. It's hard for me to believe that I invented a problem so exotic that no one knows how to solve it.

 

[Mal]

I wonder if deleting the error log for Mail.app would help it clear the problem. Also, you could try deleting the preferences, though I'd recommend not trashing them, merely moving the preference file to another location. It doesn't sound like a pref problem, but sometimes that can solve weird issues.

jW

 

[skiff]

I haven't the faintest idea what the error log is, and although I think that and the Preference file idea may have merit, I'd be afraid I'd lose my mail. Does Mail.app make a new preference if you move it to your desktop? Suppose you solve the problem with that tactic, what do you do with the file on your desktop? Trash it?