writergirl2

Q: mail constantly goes offline

Hi

 

For the last two weeks my Mac Mail continually goes offline and when I click on the wrning triangle I get the following message:

 

There may be a problem with the mail server or network. Verify the settings for account “iCloud” or try again.

The server returned the error: Connections to the server “p12-imap.mail.me.com” on the default ports timed out.


There's nothing wrong with my internet connection, I cana get mail on all my other devices and access it on iCloud.


Does anyone have any ideas - at first it happened once a day. Now it's happening every five minutes.


thanks

WG

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Dec 1, 2015 2:54 PM

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Q: mail constantly goes offline

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  • by tmakes3,

    tmakes3 tmakes3 Aug 17, 2016 3:50 PM in response to writergirl2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 17, 2016 3:50 PM in response to writergirl2

    I get this all the time.  I have searched everywhere for a fix, all to no avail. 

    All apple products except for cable modem.

    iPhone and iPad never have issues.

    Macbook, and macbook air before it, lose connection all the time.

    It usually starts with Mail, when the triangles show up and IMAP is offline

    Then I can't print

    Then iTunes can't connect to server

     

    All I have to do to "fix it" is turn off the Wi-Fi on my MacBook, and turn it back on again.  This resets everything and I am up and running until the next time it goes down.  Happens every day. 

     

    I've search articles and discussions on my Airport Express router setup, all to no avail.  Everything is as it should be, and my mac refuses to maintain port connections. 

     

    So frustrating. 

  • by trailerboy531,

    trailerboy531 trailerboy531 Aug 23, 2016 1:00 PM in response to tmakes3
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 23, 2016 1:00 PM in response to tmakes3

    Has anyone found instances of this happening on other forums or elsewhere? Maybe they have found difference solutions?

     

    I've had it happen to me twice today already. It's driving me nuts and I still have next to no hope that Sierra, a whole 2 months away, will help.

  • by Stefano Pini,

    Stefano Pini Stefano Pini Aug 25, 2016 4:45 AM in response to Eric Root
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Aug 25, 2016 4:45 AM in response to Eric Root

    I've also the same problem with exchange server...

    Any idea?

    Thanks

    Stefano

  • by tygb ,

    tygb tygb Sep 1, 2016 6:21 AM in response to writergirl2
    Level 2 (185 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 1, 2016 6:21 AM in response to writergirl2

    It happens sometimes and is due to sudden drop in wi fi connection .

    You can follow recommended article : OS X Yosemite: Resolve IP address conflicts

  • by benleetaylor,

    benleetaylor benleetaylor Sep 1, 2016 6:57 AM in response to tygb
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Sep 1, 2016 6:57 AM in response to tygb

    If it were simply an IP address conflict, wouldn't it affect all apps using that connection? In other words, why would Mail be the only app affected by such a conflict and not, say, Safari, Skype, Dropbox, Messages, etc.? In my experience with this issue, Mail is the only app that experiences these constant disconnects, and often times after opening the Connection Doctor in Mail, it appears that it is only the incoming servers that go offline (the outgoing servers show as OK and connected). In my mind, an IP address conflict should affect the connection as a whole rather than just the incoming mail servers on a specific mail client (I have used other mail clients like Airmail without a single disconnect like the constant ones that occur with the default Mail client).

  • by tygb ,

    tygb tygb Sep 1, 2016 7:36 AM in response to benleetaylor
    Level 2 (185 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 1, 2016 7:36 AM in response to benleetaylor

    Yes the way you thought is remarkable . why incoming mail server goes offline for short while .

     

    Some stuff is to be read that i collected from google articles :

     

    What is DHCP server : Dynamic host configuration protocol is a network protocol that enables a server to automatically assign an IP address to a computer from a defined range of numbers configured for a given network . DHCP assigns an IP address when a system is started .

     

    Dynamic allocation ( address pool ) : In this method , the DHCP server will assign an IP address from a pool of addresses for a period of time or lease that is configured on the server or until the client informs  the server that it doesn't need the address anymore . This way the computer user will be receiving their configuration properties dynamically & on a first come first served basis .

     

    When a DHCP user is no longer on the network for a specified period the configuration is expired & released back to the address pool for use by DHCP clients . This way , an address can be leased or used for a period of time . After this period , the client has to renegotiate the lease with the server to maintain use of the address .

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Sep 1, 2016 8:07 AM in response to benleetaylor
    Level 7 (31,893 points)
    iPad
    Sep 1, 2016 8:07 AM in response to benleetaylor

    Please read your non-disclosure agreement for beta software - which means you are not discuss it publicly anywhere.

     

    https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/faq

     

    https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/legal

  • by benleetaylor,

    benleetaylor benleetaylor Sep 1, 2016 8:13 AM in response to babowa
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Sep 1, 2016 8:13 AM in response to babowa

    My apologies—just trying to help solve this issue. I will refrain from discussing the beta any further.

  • by Andhrimnir,

    Andhrimnir Andhrimnir Sep 1, 2016 9:34 AM in response to writergirl2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 1, 2016 9:34 AM in response to writergirl2

    After experiencing this maddening Mail behavior for the past several weeks, I also searched deeper this morning and was glad to find this post getting some renewed attention. I've got three accounts monitored under mail and all three will go offline simultaneously, then come back online in 5 minutes, and then go offline 10 minutes later. 2 Gmail and 1 iCloud all have the same behavior, so the issue is either with my system or my provider (Comcast). Only thing to add to this conversation is what I found in the SocketStreamEvents.log this morning (the only log file with any concrete information):

    Sep  1 12:03:10  Mail[536] <Debug>: ERROR: Reading failed from socket: 0x7fe5e037cc30, error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=60 "Operation timed out"

    Sep  1 12:03:13  Mail[536] <Debug>: ERROR: Connecting failed for socket: 0x7fe5e804b4f0, error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=60 "Operation timed out"

    I get six sequential Reading failed errors with different sockets and then 8 sequential Connecting failed errors, also with unique sockets and not repeated from the Reading errors. When the cycle starts again the sockets are again different. Looking forward to a solution.

     

    -- John

    MacBook Air (early 2015)

    El Capitan 10.11.6

  • by psquare,

    psquare psquare Sep 5, 2016 2:09 PM in response to writergirl2
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 5, 2016 2:09 PM in response to writergirl2

    I have ATT U-verse, so my Mac is on an ATT LAN, I have the exclamation point inside the triangle almost all the time. Connection Doctor says IMAP doesn't connect, but SMTP is fine. If I quit/restart Mail it works for a minute, then back to the triangle. Sometimes I will glance at it and all is well, then back to the triangle. My iPad (on the same network) and iPhone have no problems at all.

    No acknowledgement of this by Apple? What is going on?

     

    27" iMac, late 2013

    OS X 10.11.6

  • by adevkota,

    adevkota adevkota Sep 5, 2016 5:46 PM in response to writergirl2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 5, 2016 5:46 PM in response to writergirl2

    I had reset my Vram etc...and user account stuff and, surprisingly had no problems for a couple weeks with no other system or internet changes, as some of you had mentioned. (As mentioned, I also have an airport express as my primary router)

     

    The problems has now resurfaced, which points to an obvious software flaw having eliminated all the other possible factors with the help of ya'll.

     

    I'm just baffled at how this does affect my other iCloud services (like iTunes, iTunes Match, and iTunes Music, all of which I am subscribed) and only my e-mail client serving my iCloud email is having problems. I'm also baffled at the radio silence from Apple's representatives considering there are several threads concerning this issue.

  • by trailerboy531,

    trailerboy531 trailerboy531 Sep 6, 2016 10:51 AM in response to adevkota
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 6, 2016 10:51 AM in response to adevkota

    There are other threads? Could you link them here? The more backup we have on others having this issue the better.

  • by tmakes3,

    tmakes3 tmakes3 Sep 6, 2016 11:15 AM in response to adevkota
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 6, 2016 11:15 AM in response to adevkota

    Does anyone notice their wifi printers going offline as well when mail won't work?  I can surf the web, but when this happens mail and printer go offline. Can print wirelessly from iPad and iPhone and mail works great there, so my network seems good.  Weird just weird.

  • by Martha59inoz,

    Martha59inoz Martha59inoz Sep 8, 2016 5:33 AM in response to tmakes3
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 8, 2016 5:33 AM in response to tmakes3

    I have problems with wifi printing from my macbook air, but not as often as I have the IMAP problem with my icloud email address.  Printer access problems occur probably every other day and when I reboot the macbook I can print again. The icloud email goes offline multiple times every single day and drives me crazy. I also occasionally have the triangle on my bigpond email address, but this is only about every second day.  I have no problems with any of the above on my iPad which is running on the same wifi network.  Router is a Telstra TG799.  Roll on Sierra ...

  • by fvg321,

    fvg321 fvg321 Sep 10, 2016 5:11 PM in response to Andhrimnir
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Sep 10, 2016 5:11 PM in response to Andhrimnir

    New to this thread and responding to you because I am also a Comcast subscriber using the Comcast wireless router built into the Comcast modem.  My problems have been the same as outlined in other posts in this thread - can receive email but the smtp.comcast.net server for outgoing mail is constantly going offline.  I'm using several devices and thus different editions of Os and iOs: iPhone 5, iPad, older MacBook Pro running Mavericks, a really old 17" MacBook and a year old iMac.  All of them have the same problem.  One goes offline, then all of them go offline.  This leads me to think it is not the equipment and/resident mail linked software.  To double check I took the older Macbook, iPad and iPhone to a friends house and used their Wifi to see if I could connect.  They worked!  Came home and everything went offline.

    (By the way, I can connect to the outgoing server from the iPad by turning off Wifi and using my cellular data link.)

     

    After explaining my trouble-shooting process, I finally convinced Comcast to escalate this and spent three hours on the phone with a senior tech last week.  He did many things with the router, had me make all kinds of changes in my email setting but nothing resolved the problem.  His solution after saying "I'm stumped, never seen this before" was for me to get a new router.  I did and it worked!  For four days.  Then it went to "offline" for a while and then came back.  Unfortunately, now all outgoing email sever assignments (comcast, gmail, yahoo, my private domain,) are offline.

     

    It sure seems to me that something is changing in the router.  What are the chances one of my devices is sending a message to the router that changes a setting or warning to the router/comcast that blocks outgoing mail?  Any help is greatly appreciated.

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