HT204075: If you can’t send or receive email on your Mac

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reader458

Q: Apple Mail is having problems with my gmail accounts a great deal lately.

I have been having strange problems - primarily with Apple Mail - that keep cropping up. Right now, the problem is the alert "There may be a problem with the mail server or network. Verify the settings for account (Gmail account). The server returned an error: Connections to the server "imap.gmail.com" on the default ports timed out. I have it in my mind (but can't "prove" it) that I have been able to turn wifi off and back on, but that no longer resolves the issue. It works sometimes, so I know credentials are not the issue. When I check things with connection doctor, all logins succeed. After about 5 minutes of uptime - during which I was able to send and receive emails from 2 of the 3 accounts I have set up, the alerts are back, and connection doctor doesn't appear to be able to log in to any of my IMAP configured servers. The SMTP servers connect right away, but IMAP connections failed with "Could not connect to this IMAP server. Check your network connection and that you entered the correct information in the Account preferences. Also verify that the server supports SSL. If it does not, deselect the 'Use SSL' checkbox in the Advanced tab of Account preferences." This is Gmail so I know they support SSL. I did just go out and replace my older Time Capsule with a brand new Airport Express (which extends range VERY well, by the way), but I didn't notice any difference in this behavior.

 

I believe (but can't prove) that the behavior may be related to the El Capitan upgrade. This behavior is recent, but has been building for a month or two.

 

I typed for a while here, did a couple of other things, and then tried connection doctor again and connections succeeded just fine. I was able to bring all accounts online, and now no alerts.

 

This back and forth with no predictability is driving me a bit crazy - suggestions would be appreciated. Is anyone else seeing this type of flakiness?

 

Thanks,

 

Steve (Reader458)

Posted on Jan 3, 2016 12:03 PM

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Q: Apple Mail is having problems with my gmail accounts a great deal lately.

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  • by Maybela,

    Maybela Maybela Feb 18, 2016 6:07 PM in response to reader458
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 18, 2016 6:07 PM in response to reader458

    Just wanted to add to this post. 

     

    I wish someone would respond, hopefully in a simple way since I'm no computer expert.  I am having the same problem, sporadically, more lately.  I guess this started after the latest El Capitan upgrade also.  I haven't made any changes to the accounts'  setup, and I never had this problem before.

     

    This is the screen I get intermittently.  It can happen several times within 5 minutes.

    Screen Shot 2016-02-18 at 7.13.05 PM.png