Mail Broken after 10.4.9

[AlBDamned]

I've been having a few issues since upgrading to 10.4.9, but the worst one is definitely that Apple Mail is now well and truly broken.

I haven't had any e-mails on my account for over 24 hours, I've repeatedly had the same error message on one e-mail I sent out (wrong address used and the undeliverable message came back about 12 times) and I'm completely stumped.

It's definitely a problem with Mail, as I've set up the same account in Entourage and it's downloaded my e-mails fine.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

 

[AlBDamned]

Hey guys,

seem to have got round this by simply setting up a new account with the same details and and editing the old account (incoming server etc) to fake stuff so the two can co-exist.

It's stupid though, the old account had exactly the same details as the new one and it wouldn't receive anything...

Other problems I've had with 10.4.9 include the finder icon detaching from the dock and just sitting on the desktop dead, several crashes and one complete freeze on the screensaver.

Not had a bad experience with an OS update so far so I guess it's about due....

 

[mad jew]

After the 10.4.9 update, both of my personal machines needed their permissions repaired and one of them needed a quick fsck.

 

[AlBDamned]

After the 10.4.9 update, both of my personal machines needed their permissions repaired and one of them needed a quick fsck.

I've never fscked my machine (what does that do again?!) but the permissions repair was massive after the update. In fact I don't think it's needed doing after the previous ones on Tiger?

 

[mad jew]

It needed some repairs early on the piece (10.4.3 and earlier, off the top of my head). As for fsck, that checks the volume structure and repairs where necessary. Rather than logging into Single User Mode at this stage, you can get Disk Utility to verify your disk (but not repair it). Follow my previous link if it returns any errors that need fixing.

 

[AlBDamned]

Ok cheers Mad Jew, I'll see if it turns anything up.

 

[AlBDamned]

crap, what does this mean?!

Verifying volume “PowerBook”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
%)
Checking Extended Attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Volume Bit Map needs minor repair
Checking volume information.
The volume The volume ook needs to be repaired.

Error: The underlying task reported failure on exit


1 HFS volume checked
Volume needs repair

 

[mad jew]

Excellent. You get a chance to fsck your Mac. Either boot from the OSX disc and use the bundled version of Disk Utility to repair the drive, or run fsck from Single User Mode. Hopefully that'll get it repaired.

 

[AlBDamned]

Excellent. You get a chance to fsck your Mac. Either boot from the OSX disc and use the bundled version of Disk Utility to repair the drive, or run fsck from Single User Mode. Hopefully that'll get it repaired.

Made it back from the dark side of single user mode and all appears to be ok now. although I'm not sure I'll bother trying to merge the old and new e-mail accounts as it seems to working as it is.

Cheers for the help, using fsck for the first time on a busy Friday morning - interesting experience!

 

[rympy]

Mail doesn't even open..

I can't even open Mail. Everytime I try I immediately get the message that Mail has quit unexpectedly. After that All I get is the spinny wheel. I can't set up a new account or anything like that.
Mail doesn't respond to the 'Reopen' option either. I have to force quit from the dock every time. I have managed to send some error reports to Apple. This started the day after 10.4.9 upgrade.
I've also tried restarting and repairing permissions..
Any Ideas?

 

[AlBDamned]

I can't even open Mail. Everytime I try I immediately get the message that Mail has quit unexpectedly. After that All I get is the spinny wheel. I can't set up a new account or anything like that.
Mail doesn't respond to the 'Reopen' option either. I have to force quit from the dock every time. I have managed to send some error reports to Apple. This started the day after 10.4.9 upgrade.
I've also tried restarting and repairing permissions..
Any Ideas?

Run through the fsck thing as above. I was also having problems closing mail and it required a force quit on three different occasions. However, after running fsck I just quit Mail without any problems.

I have just had another freeze though. I'm wondering if it's the new RAM I put in, although I can't remember if the first freeze happened before or after I added it

 

[mad jew]

I can't even open Mail. Everytime I try I immediately get the message that Mail has quit unexpectedly. After that All I get is the spinny wheel. I can't set up a new account or anything like that.
Mail doesn't respond to the 'Reopen' option either. I have to force quit from the dock every time. I have managed to send some error reports to Apple. This started the day after 10.4.9 upgrade.
I've also tried restarting and repairing permissions..
Any Ideas?

If you open Mail in a new user account on your Mac, does it freeze there too? If not, then the problem is almost certainly within your Home folder on the original account.

I have just had another freeze though. I'm wondering if it's the new RAM I put in, although I can't remember if the first freeze happened before or after I added it

Could be the RAM. Did you run fsck until no errors came back? In other words, you should have run it at least twice if there was an error/fix the first time. Run it 'til it makes no changes.

Having said that, new RAM seems like quite a likely culprit.

 

[AlBDamned]

Could be the RAM. Did you run fsck until no errors came back? In other words, you should have run it at least twice if there was an error/fix the first time. Run it 'til it makes no changes.

Having said that, new RAM seems like quite a likely culprit.

I ran fsck twice and it was all good to go the second time. Increasingly it does look like the RAM as it just crashed again while typing out this reply the first time!

I've re-seated it but if it happens again I'll take the it out. Gutted though as I was all pleased I'd pimped the PowerBook with a 160GB hard drive and 2GB RAM then it starts playing up!

Sending the RAM back will be a pain too as I ordered it from the US to save a few bucks...

 

[rympy]

If you open Mail in a new user account on your Mac, does it freeze there too? If not, then the problem is almost certainly within your Home folder on the original account.

Ran an fsck and everythings came back OK. Mail still not working.
Then I tried making a new account and running mail from there and It seems to be working fine. What can I do to my home folder to fix this..?

 

[mad jew]

Sending the RAM back will be a pain too as I ordered it from the US to save a few bucks...

That sucks mate.

What can I do to my home folder to fix this..?

Well, go back to your original account and start by backing up your email. There's a folder within your Library called Mail. Make an archive of this file (or a copy) and drag it to your Desktop. Excellent.

Now, when Mail is still closed, find a file named com.apple.mail.plist in your Preferences folder and drag this to your Desktop also. Open Mail. Did it work? If so, then reconfigure your settings and delete the two items on your Desktop.

 

[rympy]

Yes.

Thanks for the help. Once taking out the mail preferences (com.apple.mail.plist) Mail started working again.

I think the problem may have been my fonts used for my mailbox and my message list. I changed them right after the 10.4.9 upgrade to some cool fonts I downloaded from www.dafont.com (cool fonts there btw). That was the only thing that I changed that would have affected my preferences (as far as I know).

Thanks mate!

 

[AlBDamned]

Damn, another freeze.

Out comes the RAM. Back to 1.5GB

Good work on solving the mail problem though

 

[mad jew]

How's it going with the RAM drop? Has everything been fine?

 

[AlBDamned]

How's it going with the RAM drop? Has everything been fine?

I re-seated the RAM and tried it a few times but it just screwed things up.
I'm sending it back today for a replacement stick. When it wasn't freezing, the difference between 1.5 and 2GB was pretty awesome so I can't hold off!