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Mail is driving me crazy

C

Cg313

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 20, 2011
31
0
Email used to be simple.. I don't know if the problem now is Lion, Gmail... IDK what's going on - I can receive email, but I can't send.

imap.gmail.com

smtp.gmail.com
SSL, password auth

deleted all accounts but one to troubleshoot (one account in accounts pane, one outgoing server configured in SMTP.

When I send the email, a dialog box pops up for 1/10 second and then the email comes back onto the screen with the send button greyed out. when I attempt to close the message with the close button (red x), it tones.. i have to force quit mail to close the message.

I'm about to reinstall mail, don't even know how to do that on a Mac, but i'll have to look it up..

any idea what's going on?
 
I take it that you're currently using Mac OS X Lion? For me, even using an older version, it's working fine... It should be the same on lion. If not, try using an alternate mail app, like sparrow.
 
Cg313 said:
Email used to be simple.. I don't know if the problem now is Lion, Gmail... IDK what's going on - I can receive email, but I can't send.

imap.gmail.com

smtp.gmail.com
SSL, password auth

deleted all accounts but one to troubleshoot (one account in accounts pane, one outgoing server configured in SMTP.

When I send the email, a dialog box pops up for 1/10 second and then the email comes back onto the screen with the send button greyed out. when I attempt to close the message with the close button (red x), it tones.. i have to force quit mail to close the message.

I'm about to reinstall mail, don't even know how to do that on a Mac, but i'll have to look it up..

any idea what's going on?
Click to expand...

Go to google's page for help on setting up mail.app. I have never had problems when I followed their instructions. Another thing to try is the freeware thunderbird email app. It will at least allow you to send (without resorting to webmail) until you get mail.app straightened out.

To "reinstall mail", you go to ~/Library and look for folders belonging to mail.app. Rename them and mail.app should start all over again like you are a new user on a new Mac and you can put in your settings "from scratch." Note that if you delete them, any email you have downloaded will be gone as well. If you are keeping all your email in the cloud this is no big deal. If you rely on email stored on your Mac, proceed with caution when deleting mail's data folders.

"Resetting" mail.app as described above, along with following google's instructions should get you up and running again.
 
GGJstudios said:
It sounds like it may be rejecting your password.

How-to: Proper Gmail IMAP for iPhone & Apple Mail
Click to expand...

STOP. If what GGJStudios is saying is true, you have an email client that is hitting gmail with a bad password. There is a badly designed robot somewhere (named Dean Wormer) at google incrementing an undocumented unseen counter to lock you out of your account!

Be sure to set up password recovery methods for your gmail account if ANY of your devices or email clients is experiencing password problems as google's robots work in mysterious ways and getting human intervention is almost impossible. If you don't have password recovery options set up properly BEFORE you have a problem, you may have to endure a "time out" for 72 hours with all your email fetching clients shut off before gmail will let you back in or in the worst case scenario you could lose access to your account permanently. I know because I had to go through this when my wife decided to change her password before I had a chance to set up password recovery options for her gmail account. In another instance of the same kind of thing, RIM's email server somehow got my password wrong and it was hitting my gmail account more than once a second. I got locked out in under a half hour. Luckily two of the three password recovery methods I had set up were up and running. If you ever change your gmail password, be sure to shut off all your IMAP devices first or at least update them to the correct password as soon as possible so they don't blow through your failed logins "counter" and land you in "Double Secret Probation".
DoubleSecretProbation.jpg
 
r0k said:
STOP. If what GGJStudios is saying is true, you have an email client that is hitting gmail with a bad password. There is a badly designed robot somewhere (named Dean Wormer) at google incrementing an undocumented unseen counter to lock you out of your account!
Click to expand...
I can't tell if you're serious or being facetious?? My sarcasm detector is in the shop, getting re-calibrated.
 
GGJstudios said:
I can't tell if you're serious or being facetious?? My sarcasm detector is in the shop, getting re-calibrated.
Click to expand...

I was being serious. The Dean Wormer reference was merely to lighten the mood. I had gmail accounts rendered inaccessible because they were being hit at a rapid rate by various IMAP clients though I would say RIM is the champ when it comes to nuisance tripping google's rather clueless "somebody is trying to break in" bot. I found myself answering captcha challenges dozens of times. Even if I had just answered one, if "it" decided my account was offline today, I got a fresh new captcha challenge for my next login attempt. I guess that's why I thought of Animal House. Google's handling of the situation was so bad it was comical. When I tried to find phone numbers or email for help I found out that google's customer approach to customer support isn't comical, it's tragic. Hence my loyalty to mobile me and iCloud for my primary email server. Apple didn't become the most valuable tech company in history by treating people like insects or refusing to answer their phone.
 
r0k said:
I was being serious.
Click to expand...
Interesting! I've had typos in entering passwords when setting up Gmail accounts in Mail, which resulted in the passwords being rejected, but I've never encountered what you described. I just corrected the password once I discovered the problem and everything was fine.
 
GGJstudios said:
Interesting! I've had typos in entering passwords when setting up Gmail accounts in Mail, which resulted in the passwords being rejected, but I've never encountered what you described. I just corrected the password once I discovered the problem and everything was fine.
Click to expand...

I agree that one or two password typos is normal, but if you had RIM's server sitting in the background "polling" your gmail account every few milliseconds with the wrong password so it could push email to your Blackberry, you would have found yourself in "Double Secret Probation" pretty quickly.

Better gmail is one of a plethora of improvements in my tech life when I put down my crusty BB and picked up an iPhone.
 
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