Mail not retrieving mail from (Cox) POP server

Question

Level 2

254 points

Mail not retrieving mail from (Cox) POP server

Multiple user accounts on the Mac. My user account has about six POP email accounts (three from our Cox ISP) set up in Mail. All are working fine. Wife's user account has only one POP email account (from our Cox ISP). It is not working.

Her MAIL ACTIVITY panel (in lower left of Mail) shows "Incoming Messages... xx of 31" and a progress bar. Then, at end of progress bar, it makes the "no new mail" sound and, of course, there are no new messages in the Inbox.

Browsing to Cox's Webmail server shows -- sure enough -- there are 31 new messages sitting there. Mail just won't grab them. (considering that maybe they were marked as "read" on the server, I sent her a new mail message from my account... now the activity shows 32 messages... but still won't get them.)

Again, Mail and Cox are working just peachily under my user account.

I consider myself Mac savvy. I tried an increasingly aggressive approach to fixing this. Deleted some plist files in her ~/Library/Mail directory. Then moved her entire POP-xxx@spop.west.cox.net folder out and restarted mail. Deleted and recreated her account info in Mail. Last straw was to backup the .mbox files, delete the entire ~/Library/Mail directory and walk into Mail like a brand new customer.

It still shows the activity (of downloading) but won't pull them into the Inbox.

Help??? I'm pretty stumped and Wife doesn't want to learn a new way (Webmail) to read her email.

Message was edited by: Todd M Taylor

20" 2.0 GHz iMac Aluminum |, Mac OS X (10.5), | 3 GB RAM | Maxtor 500 MB external HD

Posted on Apr 16, 2009 9:33 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Apr 17, 2009 12:45 AM in response to Todd M Taylor

Hey Todd...
Having the same problem here, identical to what is happening with you, and I'm on Cox as well. I have an iPod touch that I CAN receive emails on from Cox, so I'm pretty sure it's happening with the Mail program, and just like you, one of my accounts IS retrieving emails, and the settings for all of the accounts are identical. If I find out anything, I will share the info with you.
I have subscribed to your thread, so if someone gives you a solution, I'll get it as well. It's driving me nuts to have to log onto Cox to get messages or to use my little iPod to manage my email...
Good luck buddy! (to us BOTH!)
Roger Penton
Phoenix, AZ

Reply

Answer 2

Apr 17, 2009 2:32 AM in response to Todd M Taylor

Ok, Todd..
I contacted Cox and they fixed the problem for me, and I will explain it to you and see if it works for you. He told me to go to Mail<Preferences<Accounts<highlight a problem account<choose the "Advanced" tab<at the bottom, uncheck "use SSL" and make sure the number in the port reads 110.
As soon as you go to highlight another account, it will ask if you want to save changes... Save them and move to the next problem account and do the same for each. It works like a charm. I had some huge number in there like 995 and I had all of those boxes checked and those two things were my issue. I hope this helps you. I found Cox's support page with the "chat with a pro" feature very helpful. Actually, this is the most helpful THEY have ever been for me!
Best of luck, buddy!
Roger

Reply

Answer 3

jam4532

Level 1

9 points

Apr 17, 2009 11:14 AM in response to Rogerdodger

Roger,

Thanks for the info. I was having the same problem with mail not being retrieved from Cox. I followed your directions and now I'm receiving my mail again! So if anyone else is having the same problem, follow Roger's directions. Thanks again Roger!

jam4532

Reply

Answer 4

thatsgr8

Level 1

0 points

Apr 17, 2009 5:56 PM in response to Todd M Taylor

I had the same problem. Never changed any settings and it started yesterday (Thursday) morning. The other weird part is I deleted my acct in mail and created it again. It only downloaded email up to Wednesday, Thursday or Friday would not download. I have applied the fix that RogerDodger mentioned. Hopef;;y this works.

Reply

Answer 5

Todd M Taylor Author

Level 2

254 points

Apr 17, 2009 8:23 PM in response to Rogerdodger

So... I wish I had been more patient. I completely gutted all aspects of email from my Wife's account (after backing up the actual .mbox files on a separate hard disk). And, when that didn't work, I went into webmail and literally moved her mail messages into a folder I created (in the webmail "space"). Then, I moved them all back into her Inbox, 5 messages at a time (thinking that maybe one message was corrupt and killing the download).

When I got to the last group of messages, I was surprised. They all went to the Mac (Mail app) just fine. Then I sent her a few more test messages from my email (to her Cox account) and Mail was back in business.

FWIW, I marked the approach as "Solved" because it appeared to help the other reader. It's disappointing that, for whatever reason, you have to use UNENCRYPTED MAIL TRANSFER to Cox on that particular account. I don't know if that would have worked for me. Because, like I said, I did the really hard/long fix before I saw your fix to try.

Thanks, though, for participating in the Discussion. That's what this place is all about. It doesn't work if people don't help out. And you did!

Thanks again.

Reply

Answer 6

Apr 21, 2009 9:53 AM in response to Todd M Taylor

I think I can shed some additional light on this one, even though it's marked as Solved. If you take a peek into Keychain Access, you'll likely see a certificate for spop.east.cox.net which expires May 16, 2009. I also see one for *.east.cox.net which doesn't expire until 2011. I also had disabled SSL on my Cox POP account to workaround the issue. I deleted the spop.east.cox.net certificate from Keychain Access, then reenabled SSL for the Cox account. It's working again. I think Cox revoked the spop.east.cox.net certificate in favor of the *.east.cox.net one, but I haven't verified that.

Hope this helps.

Alan

Reply

Answer 7

bossers

Level 1

0 points

Apr 21, 2009 12:49 PM in response to Todd M Taylor

Same problem, port 995 change to 110 and uncheck ssl. Fixed it.

Reply

Answer 8

Apr 21, 2009 1:12 PM in response to Todd M Taylor

Amending my earlier post, for you folks in Arizona and California, your certificates are likely labeled spop.west.cox.net and *.west.cox.net.

The object for my instructions is to re-enable e-mail retrieval over an SSL-encrypted connection. I also noticed that I had to perform at least one unencrypted "Get Mail" before re-enabling SSL for the account.

Alan

Reply

Answer 9

Todd M Taylor Author

Level 2

254 points

Apr 27, 2009 8:05 AM in response to Alan Blumer

Hi Alan.

Of course, I had told you I'd resolved the issue (for Wife's account). But, when I saw your solution, it made sense as a "better way." Well, today MY email is doing the same thing. I went to try your fix and I see ZERO certificates from Cox, whatsoever, in my Keychain Access.

I am planning to switch SSL off for one "access cycle" and then switch back. Again... no certificates to delete... just saved PASSWORDS for spop.west.cox.net -- one for each account.

Reply

Answer 10

May 6, 2009 4:58 PM in response to Todd M Taylor

Just spoke with AppleCare on the phone. They said that Cox had changed the way their POP server works. They had me go to Mail - Preferences - Advanced - Accounts and uncheck "Use SSL". Thats all, and the mail started pouring in. I asked AppleCare to post their answer, and they said Apple employeeswere not allowed to do that!

Reply

Answer 11

Revived1

Level 1

4 points

May 11, 2009 4:13 PM in response to Rogerdodger

Thank you thank you-I have not received my cox mail since the 9th. I deleted it, and put the acct on again per their directions and again it loaded up to the 9th and stopped. And yes it was prt 995. changed it as you said and mail flowed right in! thanks so much
Sandy

Reply

Answer 12

Grizah

Level 1

0 points

Jun 4, 2009 12:55 AM in response to Charlielu

Wow Google totally helped me find this thread and get the answer I needed right away. I noticed as of May 20th I hadn't gotten a new e-mail. And here it is June 4th. So I figured something was up. Sure enough I was able to see newer e-mails on Cox's webmail service, but not actually download them from the server in mail. So I google searched "Cox Pop3 mail not downloading to mac mail" in google. Then bam this is the first thread I get.

Reply

Answer 13

kaguirre

Level 1

0 points

Jun 9, 2009 5:58 AM in response to Charlielu

This is what worked for me! Thank you so much!! I had become very frustrated with Cox!

Reply