Mail deception - says messages are sent o…

Mail deception - says messages are sent out but are not delivered

The Mail program appears to send my outgoing e-mail messages but does not actually do so. When I send a new message or reply to a message, Mail behaves as though the message has been sent: the spinner runs and the swoosh sound occurs when the message leaves my Outbox. The message then appears in my Sent folder. However, the mail is never received by the intended recipients. I apparently operated like this for weeks until my sister mentioned my lack of response to her e-mail a couple of weeks prior. (Honest, I really did reply.) Upon investigation I learned that others had not received messages I had sent. I then tried sending a message to myself at the same account and at my work account (different ISP) and the messages were not received.

I am using a POP account at core.com. If I access my account via the core.com webmail site, I am able to actually send messages. Getting them from the Mail program on my computer is the problem.

I noticed several other questions posted about Mail not sending messages but those queries mentioned receiving an error message or the program timed out trying to send and knowing immediately the mail was not sent. My situation seems unique in that the program is behaving deceptively - it tells me a message is sent but it is not.

I followed the steps Apple posted regarding Leopard Mail not sending messages but no success. I am using OS X5.6 on an Intel MacBook.

I have spoken with the core.com technical support staff and they assure me the problems is with the Mail program or my iMac. They are most likely correct. As an experiment I set up MS Entourage as an e-mail client for my core.com account. Entourage had no trouble sending messages to intended recipients.

I have double and triple checked the settings in Mail Preferences. The core.com technical support representative confirmed I am using the correct settings and suggested I use a different e-mail client program and forget about Apple Mail. However, I understand it is not possible to export information from Mail to a different e-mail client program so I am reluctant to make the change. The representative also suggested I remove Mail and reinstall it as a way of possibly correcting the problem. I do not want to go that route if I can avoid doing so. If that is the best approach, how do I go about saving my messages and addresses in Mail before removing Mail? Other suggestions to get Mail to behave properly?

Thank you!

iMac Intel Core Duo 2.4GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.6), MacBook Intel Core Duo 2.2GHZ

Posted on May 12, 2009 7:43 PM

Jun 8, 2009 9:10 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

Corecomm provided me with a fix to my problem. They provided me with a server address that now accepts and processes my e-mail messages properly. It is not clear (to me at least) why Apple Mail did not work with the server that I had been using. I recall my problems began about the same time that they upgraded their servers last June. I do not know whether that is merely a coincidence or a contributing/causal factor. I did share that observation with their technical group.

Here is a summary of the steps I followed on Friday and Saturday. Corecomm had me send a test message with a large file (approx 1 Mb) from Apple Mail and their web-mail site to three e-mail accounts they could monitor. Amazingly both messages were received at all three accounts as well as the copies I sent to my voyager.net address and my verizon.net address. Minutes later, however, I responded to an e-mail received on my laptop Apple Mail program via voyager.net account. I copied myself on the reply. The reply did not go through based upon lack of receipt of the copy in my account. A subsequent small test message I sent met with the same failure. (If this indicates the problem discriminates against small messages versus large messages, the reason remains unaddressed.) They have a Mac available in their technical support group for diagnostic purposes (Model and OS version were not disclosed.) They used that Mac to send me a short test message at both my voyager.net account and my verizon.net account. I received those messages.

At Corecomm's request I next configured Apple Mail on my iMac to send and receive messages via voyager.net. Test messages sent from this computer met with the same failure as those from my MacBook. That proved that the version of Apple Mail on the MacBook was not corrupted.

From my interpretation of these outcomes, it appears the problem I was having was unique but definitely something involved with the interaction between their server and Apple Mail. Corecomm indicated that other Mac customers on their system are able to send messages using Apple Mail; therefore, it does not appear to be a "universal" problem between Apple Mail and their servers.

Bottom line, I have a fix to my problem even though I do not have a technical answer as to the cause of the problem.

Ernie, thank you for your time and efforts on my behalf. I really appreciate it. I feel the discussion process helped me focus on the right direction. Demonstrating that Apple Mail works with another ISP's mail server was key to obtaining Corecomm's recognition that the problem was on their end. Unfortunately I do not have the information or background needed to provide a technical explanation for the problem and fix that may help others. The process of obtaining a fix was long however. If others experience the same problem, I suggest patience and persistence. Fortunately I could access two different ISP's and had two Mac available for running comparison tests.

Steve