RoshBaby2

Q: Why do my SMTP/IMAP/POP servers keep going offline in OS X Yosemite Mail app?

I have a MacBook Pro from summer of 2011 and just upgraded to OS X Yosemite. Now my Mail app keeps taking the servers offline randomly and keeps it can't reconnect. I can fix it by quitting the app, shutting my computer, and then opening it and restarting the app, but if someone has a permanent fix that would be much appreciated.

 

I've gone into the accounts and made sure the information was correct, reentered it, etc. And I think the port numbers are correct (I changed them but that didn't help anything). I've also repaired my Keychain because that seemed to cause problems in previous OS versions.

 

Everything else on my computer still logs in and accepts the passwords (so far), it's just the Mail app that broke. And it was working great until I upgraded to Yosemite.

 

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 21, 2014 8:04 AM

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Q: Why do my SMTP/IMAP/POP servers keep going offline in OS X Yosemite Mail app?

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  • by AGWfromCA,Helpful

    AGWfromCA AGWfromCA Oct 21, 2014 8:05 AM in response to RoshBaby2
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 21, 2014 8:05 AM in response to RoshBaby2

    Since downloading the OS X Yosemite upgrade Apple Mail isn't working. I think there's a major bug.

     

    It hangs and won't respond. Can't access the Mail menu bar commands to make any changes. It crashes. It isn't displaying email content. And, quite oddly, the message viewer window is doing a "punch through" and revealing what's displayed on the desktop behind it.

     

    I see many similar complaints about Apple Mail in these forums. I contacted Apple to see if the issues could be resolved - They acted like they haven't heard anything about Apple Mail problems. They had me re-install Yosemite. Same Apple Mail issues still exists. This is a disaster for those of us who use Apple MAil in our business communications. APPLE HELP!

     

    Does anyone know of a solid work-around, a patch or alternate?

     

    I'm on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014; 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3)

  • by W.W London,Helpful

    W.W London W.W London Oct 25, 2014 2:34 AM in response to AGWfromCA
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 25, 2014 2:34 AM in response to AGWfromCA

    If Mail is working elsewhere (i.e. on iPhone or iPad) but not working on laptop, try this.  In Mail > Preferences > Accounts, in the 'Advanced' tab, uncheck "Automatically detect and maintain account settings", then check "Allow insecure authentication", then save.   For me [MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)] this, so far, has got things back to normal - about 24 hours now of receiving and sending mail with no issues as yet.


    Don't keep re-entering your mail password as this might have your mail provider's alert software shut you down.



  • by pullober,

    pullober pullober Oct 26, 2014 9:33 AM in response to RoshBaby2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 26, 2014 9:33 AM in response to RoshBaby2

    Changing the DNS (for example to the ones google provides: 8.8.8.8 and 8.4.4.4) worked immediately! Every other solution i tried, did not!

  • by photosolve,

    photosolve photosolve Oct 27, 2014 1:19 PM in response to RoshBaby2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 27, 2014 1:19 PM in response to RoshBaby2

    I had this same problem but NOT in all of my SMTP account connections, only one. My wife's iMac and mine are the same except she has Mavericks installed and I "upgraded" to Yosemite. I WAS able to receive mail from the accounts. I could not send through this particular SMTP server. It repeatedly went off-line despite multiple re-entries of the detail.

     

    Her mail connection worked fine (receiving and sending)...mine did no so I checked my setups for each account against the ones she had. They were exactly the same. After hours of frustrating back and forth (they rebooted SMTP servers and performed multiple checks) with my ISP support team (who, with me finally agreed that it was MY machine that had the problem), I tried something totally illogical. In addition to the suggestions (elsewhere in the forum) to deselect the auto detect of settings, I changed the authentication from PASSWORD to MD5 Challenge-Response. The Port number is the same (non-SSL for mine). The User Name is the same, and the Password is the same. Amazingly it just started worked again. When I set it back to PASSWORD authentication, it stopped working. I do not know (nor do I want to know) the design differences between PASSWORD authentication and MD5 Challenge-Response authentication that might be causing this oddity. It is simply more anecdotal information that you may wish to investigate in your situation. I hope that it is of some help.

    Phil

  • by pcgoingtomac,

    pcgoingtomac pcgoingtomac Oct 27, 2014 1:27 PM in response to RoshBaby2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 27, 2014 1:27 PM in response to RoshBaby2

    Sorry I'm no help, but I have a similar problem !!


    Since upgrading to Yosemite my mailbox is empty and I have no idea where new mail goes.   I suspect there is a new (empty) mailbox involved, and the old one exists somewhere. 

     

    I downloaded & installed Apple updates to iPhoto, etc 10/19/14 on my mid 2011 Mac as recommended for Yosemite.  I was using Maverick at the time. I downloaded Yosemite a few days later. I think the first email problem showed up between those two events.

     

    At this time I use time machine to recover mail, and then mailbox use is normal.  When the mail program or computer is turned off it resets to an empty box.

     

    I can send and receive mail on my iPad but not my Mac.


    Frustrating !!


  • by cah444,

    cah444 cah444 Nov 2, 2014 4:08 PM in response to RoshBaby2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2014 4:08 PM in response to RoshBaby2

    I seem to have solved the problem for both my Gmail and AOL accounts. Somehow the outgoing mail settings were screwed up with the Yosemite upgrade.

     

    Here are the directions:

    To verify whether your account settings are accurate

    1. Click the Mail icon on the Dock.

    2. Click Mail, and then click Preferences.

    3. In the Accounts window, verify the following settings:

    • The Description can be any name of your choice.
    • The email Address should be your Username followed by @aol.com or @aim.com. (This also worked for Gmail.)
    • The Full Name can be any name of your choice.
    • The Incoming Mail Server should be imap.aol.com or imap.aim.com.
    • The User Name should be your AOL or AIM Username.
    • The Password should be your AOL or AIM password.

    4. Click the Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) drop down menu, and then click Edit Server List.

    5. Click the Advanced tab, verify the settings given below, and then click OK.

    • Ensure that the Use custom port option is selected and type 587. (This also worked for Gmail.)
    • Ensure that the Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) check box does not have a check mark in it.
    • Ensure that Password is selected in the Authentication drop down menu.
    • Ensure that the User Name is your AOL or AIM Username.
    • Ensure that the Password is your AOL or AIM password.

    6. Close all open windows.


    Again, the AOL directions worked for Gmail, too.


    Good luck!

  • by sylvainmartin,

    sylvainmartin sylvainmartin Nov 4, 2014 5:55 AM in response to W.W London
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2014 5:55 AM in response to W.W London

    Hi,

     

    it's ok for me.

    But, check "Allow insecure authentication" it's ok for security ?

    Thanks

    Sylvain

  • by schweve,

    schweve schweve Nov 4, 2014 7:41 AM in response to cah444
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2014 7:41 AM in response to cah444

    This does not address the issue that *after* I've made these changes, they revert to the old (useless) settings.

  • by Mugget0,

    Mugget0 Mugget0 Nov 4, 2014 4:45 PM in response to schweve
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2014 4:45 PM in response to schweve

    I had been using the Mail > Add Accounts... or Accounts... menu to add my IMAP accounts, had the same problem that it just wasn't working.

     

    I think the issue is that it's not properly saving the usernames, at least that's what I found. All of my usernames need to be in the format of name@domain.com but it was deleting everything after "@".

     

    My solution was to add or edit new IMAP accounts from Mail > Preferences...

    That was where I could see all my usernames were incorrect, but if I changed them there it seems to save properly. All the changes I made from Preferences seemed to stick so far.

     

    Hope that works for some others as well!

  • by BarBs1000,

    BarBs1000 BarBs1000 Nov 5, 2014 1:18 AM in response to W.W London
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 5, 2014 1:18 AM in response to W.W London

    It worked for me: uncheck "Automatically detect and maintain account settings", then check "Allow insecure authentication", then save".

    Many thanks!


  • by martbarnes,

    martbarnes martbarnes Nov 6, 2014 12:09 AM in response to BarBs1000
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 6, 2014 12:09 AM in response to BarBs1000

    Sadly that doesn't work for me.

  • by Monsignor Paolo,

    Monsignor Paolo Monsignor Paolo Nov 7, 2014 12:23 PM in response to RoshBaby2
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 7, 2014 12:23 PM in response to RoshBaby2

    Turning off SSL authentification is very bad idea. You simlpe can lost your email account.

  • by zurent,

    zurent zurent Nov 21, 2014 9:11 PM in response to BarBs1000
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 21, 2014 9:11 PM in response to BarBs1000

    This suggestion seems to work (at least for some time).  Though there appears to be no need to check the "allow insecure authentication".

     

    Few things that help me manage the Apple mail problems with IMAP clients that have appeared since my Yosemite upgrade:

     

    * Using the app-specific passwords (if you have that set up, example for Gmail on Mac) to set up the Gmail account.  Use the generated password instead of the one you use for login to Gmail.

     

    * The default setting and the auto detect functionality should allow the mail to start flowing, both in and out.

     

    * If the auto detect of settings does not work, checking the smtp outbound port info.  As this post suggest, turn of auto detect and use the specified port.  E.g. Gmail uses Port 465 with SSL (also 25 as another option) and Port 587 with TLS.

     

    Agree that Mail has become a bit flaky after the Yosemite upgrade.

  • by BllBnnttCR,

    BllBnnttCR BllBnnttCR Dec 8, 2014 11:38 AM in response to cah444
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 8, 2014 11:38 AM in response to cah444

    I could swear that I have made this change a half dozen times in trying to solve this issue -- which seems to come up with every upgrade!  But this time it seems to be working -- based on one data point.  Thanks!

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