Mail.app - Check Mail when not open

farily simple to set up. go into preferences. it's the first screen to show up.

 

No. Mail needs to be running to check. There is no hidden system service that will do it (not as part of Mail, at least).

 

Yeah, just leave it open. Perhaps you are under the windows mentality that it is bad to leave apps open.

You can set it to chime as well when new mail arrives.

 

I use MacBiff for that purpose. It just sits in the menubar, and when I've got some mail, beeps and shows the number of new emails. Although you have to enter in your email server information, it doesn't get it from Mail.app, but it does support IMAP and POP, SSL, and multiple accounts.

 

Why not leave it open but hide the app rather than minimising the window.

Still means that your desktop and Dock stay tidy.

 

I just leave it open with the window closed so that all I see is the icon in the dock with a little arrow under it. If new mail comes, I get a pop sound and a highlighted number on the mail icon. It works really well and uses up practically no resources.

 

I hide it instead of minimizing, as was suggested earlier. Works well, Mail takes up almost NO processor while hidden.

Only bad thing - when composing a new message (from the dock), it automatically brings Mail to the front, although I don't want it to.