Custom interval to check mail?

Question

Level 1

10 points

Custom interval to check mail?

Hi all,

is there a way to have Apple Mail check for email every 4 hours or so? I really want it to check for mail 3 times a day, but I do not want to have to set it to manually - I know that way I could not resist checking it more often (funny, isn't it?).

Maybe there is some plugin or app or terminal thing I could do? I'd appreciate if anyone knows of a way to do this...

Pit

MBP C2D, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jul 3, 2008 11:54 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jul 3, 2008 12:07 PM in response to Pit29

you can set mail to check for Mail automatically every 5 min, 15min, 30 min or every hour in Mail preferences->general. there is no built in way to set longer intervals between automatic new mail checks. You can set them up yourself as follows:

Set Mail preferences to check for mail manually.
paste the following into Script Editor and save it as an application.

<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ADD8E6;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
tell application "Mail" to check for new mail</pre>

then set up a launch daemon to run this app every 4 hours.
Use [Lingon|http://lingon.sourceforge.net> to make a daemon.

Message was edited by: V.K.

Reply

Answer 2

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Jul 3, 2008 2:29 PM in response to Pit29

Okay, here we go:

1. Quit Mail
2. Download Pref Setter and install it (drag it to whatever folder you like).
3. Go to Users/username/Library/Preferences and find com.apple.Mail.plist.
4. Control-click on that file and select "Open With" and navigate to the location where you put Pref Setter and select it.
5. In the Pref Setter search field, type "poll"; only one item should appear, which is PollTime.
6. In the Value field, double-click to select it and enter 240 (the Check Mail interval in minutes) and press Tab or Enter.
7. Quit Pref Setter (it will ask if you want to save before it quits). Launch Mail and see if it works, which it should.

Mulder

Reply

Answer 3

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jul 3, 2008 2:36 PM in response to Mulder

this can also be done by running the following terminal command.

defaults write com.apple.mail PollTime 240

Reply

Answer 4

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Jul 3, 2008 12:14 PM in response to Pit29

I believe that can be done, but you'd have to edit a file, and if you don't know what you're doing, that is dangerous.

Have you considered just launching mail once every 4 hours and then quitting when you're done reading your mail?

Mulder

Reply

Answer 5

Pit29 Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 3, 2008 2:17 PM in response to Mulder

Thank you for your feedback so far... I'm generally not afraid of editing files, and certainly won't blame anybody else if things do not work after doing so (and I have backups!). So, what would I have to do for that option?

Reply

Answer 6

Mulder

Level 6

8,990 points

Jul 3, 2008 2:57 PM in response to V.K.

Yes, I know. But most people who aren't as tech-savvy as you and I prefer a GUI way to do things, so that's what I usually provide when asked. If it had been you asking, I would have given the Terminal command.

Mulder

Reply

Answer 7

hawkmoth

Level 1

30 points

Jul 21, 2008 4:19 PM in response to Mulder

I've followed the instructions, but it seems that if I go into Mail preferences to do something and then exit, it replaces the PollTime value with whatever the preferences say, which is one of the few values offered. Is there a way to prevent that change?

(I'm trying to set a time that will avoid having two clients try to poll a POP server at the same time.)

Reply

Answer 8

Pit29 Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 3, 2008 5:51 PM in response to Pit29

Thank you, that seem to work... (And I was actually asking for a "terminal thing"... 😉 )

Thanks again!
Pit

Reply