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My mail app seems to be broken....help?

F

faithfulFrank

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 31, 2003
114
25
Central Florida
Hello all,
My mail app all of a sudden seems to be broken. There is a triangle with an exclamation point inside of it right next to my inbox. Next to that there is a spinning wheel...not a beachball, just the spinning wheel, like it is still trying to get mail.

I have a .mac address, and using the internet and going to .mac, i can do everything. My connection is ok, because my internet is working.

I tried shutting down my computer and restarting, but that did not work. What do I do next? I have a G4 imac running Tiger. I tried repairing permissions, nothing was bad and that did not work.
I do not know what to do next.

thanks, Frank D.
 
Oh ok.
this is what it says when I click the exclimation point.


It says:

Connection failed

There may be a problem with the mail server or network. Check the settings for account "(my email)"or try again.
The server error encountered was: The connection to the server "mail.mac.com" on port 143 timed out.

then it has to buttons, stay offline or go online

thanks, frank D.
 
That's what I have too. Usually when .Mac goes down it's becuase of ummm... imminent release of full video iPods integrated with Quad Core Super MacBooks with 80 inch virtual screens the size of a gumball. :D
 
.mac seems to be working for me.......I just received e-mail to my .mac account two minutes ago,,,,my mail program is stil no t working, but if I go to a new safari window and open .mac, it seems to work.

I do not know what to think.

frank D.
 
Maybe try changing to port 587. Go to the Accounts pane of Mail's Preferences and click Server Settings. Change the field next to Port from 25 to 587. :)
 
mad jew,
I tried that, didn't work. I called my local mac guru, he walked me through alot of stuff, like taking my com.apple.mail.plist out, going to my imac, library, mail etc,etc,etc and taking out something else and trying to relaunch it. All of a sudden, my mail is messed up bad.

Thankfully, i can still send/receive e-mail, but I have to go to my browser and log on to .mac to do it. My mail app is not responding to anything. Keeps showing that exclamation point. When tryimng to shut it down, I would have to force quit it a few times, although now it seems to be able to quit by itself.

Funny that when I change the port number to 587, it seems to change it, but when I try to launch mail after, it still says that port 143 timed out.

I'm about to throw my tiger disk in and reformat everything, although I do not reallly want to do that.

Frank D.
 
yikes, no need to reformat your machine! my .Mac is currently not behaving either. get used to this guys, it happens fairly often. welcome to dot mac. :)
 
TJ,
Perhaps I do not have a problem?
A few have said that their .mac is not working, but when I go to .mac using safari, it seems to be working. I just got a new e-mail about 20 minutes ago.
Can it not work with my mail app but work online?

Frank D.
 
It probably is just a .Mac-side issue, but to check it's not a problem with your network accessing port 143, can you test Mail on a different network/internet connection? :)
 
Well, I guess it was just a .mac side issue.......everything is working fine today.
I wonder why .mac could work fine online. but not work with your mail app?

Thanks for all your help!
Frank D.
 
As far as I know, the Webmail face of .Mac uses different port settings at Apple's end to the email client (Mail) settings. I get the same thing sometimes with my ISP-hosted email. :)
 
Thanks.....I guess I did not need to spend an hour with my local guru trying all sorts of stuff to fix it...:(

I learned something. Then I found today in very small letters on the .mac page something talking about this very thing happening.....oh well. i'll look harder first next time.

Frank D.
 
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