Mail downloading 1 of 842 but nothing happens and there are no emails to dl

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Mail downloading 1 of 842 but nothing happens and there are no emails to dl

I have an IMAP server and randomly the Mail Activity bar says it is downloading 1 of (insert random number between 1 and 1000) and will do that for a few minutes, show it's "completed," and stop. There is no indication from my inbox that emails are actually coming in.

Otherwise Mail downloads like normal, as in I do receive emails when they are actually there to download, but what is the deal with the magnitude of these ghost emails?

I tried to look through the forum after trying my hand at a google search but to no avail. I wouldn't be surprised if this has something to do with the account being set up as an IMAP, but the number always changes and this thing happens at least a few times whenever Mail is open.

Also, this was an issue with 10.5.8 (and previous) as well, so SL didn't fix it as I hoped.

Thoughts?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.1), 13" Aluminum

Posted on Nov 3, 2009 6:23 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 3, 2009 6:44 AM in response to Nick.Nitro

You should review your settings in Mail Preferences/Accounts/Advanced regarding keeping copies of messages and their attachment for Offline Viewing. With an IMAP account only the list of messages needs to be downloaded until you click on a particular message to view and read. But with the setting to keep messages, all the messages will be downloaded and kept as a temporary copy. If you read and delete a message while Offline, for example, when you next go Online Mail will sync the copies you have on your computer with those on the server and update.

It sounds like your copies, if set to be kept, are for some reason not being retained between sessions and are reloading the cache -- but just a guess?

Ernie

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Answer 2

Nov 4, 2009 4:45 PM in response to Nick.Nitro

I am seeing a similar problem with a POP account. The Mail Activity window briefly shows download progress and a number of messages. The progress bar completes and goes away but there are no new messages. Like Nick, I am getting mail but also these ghost downloads. Interestingly, the number of messages reportedly being transferred has increased over time. This morning, it was 2, now it is up to 4.

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Answer 3

Nov 5, 2009 4:59 PM in response to Keith Burgess

I was able to isolate the problem to a specific mailbox. When I checked it through a Web interface, I found that I couldn't delete certain messages. The Web mail utility eventually crashed and I had to log in again. I tried reading one of the suspect messages and got a login error. I logged in yet again and found seven copies of the message instead of one. At this point, I was able to select and delete all of the copies without any problems. Since then the phantom download has stopped. I'm guessing it was a corrupt file.

I hope this helps.

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Answer 4

Jan 6, 2010 7:46 AM in response to Keith Burgess

Hi all,

I wonder if there have been any more found on this subject? I use POP for all my emails and I get (for example) a downloading 6 of 6 message but only one arrives. If I check my host server, via webmail, I seem to have all the emails but it's odd to see and leaves a concern that something is missing.

I don't think Keith's solution of deleting *** the server will work as I never use the server unless checking up on something like this.

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