Mail troubles... probably from 10.4.6

[rye9]

Ever since I updated... my Mail is acting funky. It keeps saying my address, or account name/ screen name is rejected by the server and will place all sent emails I send in the Outbox. Help!? 😱

 

[Doctor Q]

You might as well start with all the basics that sometimes help with Mail problems:

* Restart, just in case the problem goes away.

* Review your Account settings in the Preferences window, in case something got mis-set.

* Open the Activity Viewer window while you try to send (or receive) mail, in case you can catch messsages going by.

* Try the Connection Doctor feature (in the Window menu).

* Quit Mail, delete file (your home directory)/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist, and launch Mail again. You'll have to check your preference settings again.

 

[rye9]

You might as well start with all the basics that sometimes help with Mail problems:

* Restart, just in case the problem goes away.

* Review your Account settings in the Preferences window, in case something got mis-set.

* Open the Activity Viewer window while you try to send (or receive) mail, in case you can catch messsages going by.

* Try the Connection Doctor feature (in the Window menu).

* Quit Mail, delete file (your home directory)/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist, and launch Mail again. You'll have to check your preference settings again.

I'd rather not restart now as I just restarted twice yesterday. I used the Connection Doctor and the IMAP and SMTP server were fine. My account settings are fine. I dont know what or where Activity Viewer is... and what exactly is that last option?

 

[Doctor Q]

Restarting is unlikely to help, but just in case is worth doing when it won't be inconvenient.

I was referring to menu choice Window -> Activity Viewer. Apple (stupidly) made it a status window instead of a message log, so the messages appear and then disappear as you send/receive mail. However, I've sometimes been able to read the messages that appear (over and over) by sending the same message over and over or clicking "Get Mail" over and over.

The last option I mentioned above was to delete the file where Mail keeps some of your preference settings, in case Mail has "stepped on its own foot" by messing up its own recordkeeping. By deleting the file manually (in the Finder, outside of the Mail program), you force Mail to regenerate it, which sometimes cures Mail problems. If your Mac OS X user name is rye9, it is disk file /Users/rye9/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist.

You might also try using another e-mail program to send/receive mail, to prove to yourself that there is no problem with your e-mail server, i.e., to be absolutely certain that the problem is indeed something wrong with Mail.

 

[rye9]

The last option I mentioned above was to delete the file where Mail keeps some of your preference settings, in case Mail has "stepped on its own foot" by messing up its own recordkeeping. By deleting the file manually (in the Finder, outside of the Mail program), you force Mail to regenerate it, which sometimes cures Mail problems. If your Mac OS X user name is rye9, it is disk file /Users/rye9/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist.

So if I delete this, I dont have to do anything to get my settings back? Once I delete this Mail will regenerate?

So you want me to delete this file?

Would resetting the preferences even possibly fix the problem that the outgoing mail server rejects my "address" as it calls is?

 

[Doctor Q]

So if I delete this, I dont have to do anything to get my settings back?

You will not lose any e-mail (the messages themselves) but you WILL lose preference settings if you delete the plist file. That's why this is not the first choice when there are other actions to try that might help. I haven't deleted a Mail preference file since last year so I don't remember which settings you retain and which you lose. It would be wise to save info about your preferences if they wouldn't be easy to re-enter. For example, note any complicated rules you have in the "Rules" section of your Mail preferences. And to be extra cautious you could back up the files in your home directory before touching anything.

Deleting preference (plist) files is a commonly-used technique when a program seems confused for no good reason. The tradeoff is usually the same - you "reinitialize" settings that can fix problems, but you have to re-enter preferences within the application. The Safari web browser even has a builtin way to do the equivalent: the Safari -> Reset Safari menu choice.

You could choose to wait a bit, to see if another forum member posts here with (a) other sugestions and/or (b) the exact answer about which preferences you lose by deleting the plist file.

Carefully looking through all of the current preference settings should always be one of the steps to take before you "reset" a program. Since you said "my account settings are fine", we'll assume that's true. If not, be sure to check them carefully, including the "Account" section's three tabs (Account Information, Mailbox Behaviors, and Advanced) and the information behind the "Server Settings..." button on the Account Information tab.

Would resetting the preferences even possibly fix the problem that the outgoing mail server rejects my "address" as it calls is?

Since we don't know WHY that happens, it's POSSIBLE that this would fix it. If you can learn more, such as whether your mail account works with another mail client application, or whether other Macs can use Mail to send mail through the same mail server you are using, it would be help narrow down the problem and make it easier to guess whether the problem is in the preference file, is something set wrong in your current preferences, in Mail itself, on the server, etc.