Mac Mail Not Receiving New Mail from Exchange

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Mac Mail Not Receiving New Mail from Exchange

Hey everyone, in the last few days, I've noticed that my Mac Mail isn't downloading new messages from my company's exchange server.

I can log into the web-based exchange server and see new messages sitting there, unread. If I quit Mail and re-open it, it fixes the problem, but taking all of the accounts offline and bringing them back online does not fix the problem.

Does anyone know what might be causing this and how to fix it? I'm thinking some cache might be full or something.

Thanks in advance

Macbook Pro early-2008, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 15, 2010 11:23 AM

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Answer 1

gangee

Level 1

4 points

Jan 16, 2010 10:07 AM in response to Paul133

I'm having the exact same problem.

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Answer 2

Jan 16, 2010 10:56 AM in response to Paul133

Open Mail, then under Window open Activity and Connection Doctor and Get Mail - se what messages are generated - any errors ?

Is there a huge email waiting to be downloaded ?

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Answer 3

Paul133 Author

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Jan 19, 2010 8:20 AM in response to Graham Outterside

Hey, thanks for the reply.

Under Mail Connection Doctor, the Details reads "Connection and login to server succeeded."

If I open Activity, the bars on the right of the Adding Messages and Synchronizing with server rows aren't moving, they're white and blue striped, there's also a red octagon to the right of the striped bars, like a stop sign without the word STOP.

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Answer 4

Paul133 Author

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Jan 19, 2010 8:43 AM in response to Paul133

So I hit those octagons and hit Get Mail, that kinda fixed it. By "kinda" I mean that I got most of my email, the email that are in folders on the server, but not the stuff in my inbox. I'm almost positive that if I quit/re-open Mail, I'll get my inbox mail, too.

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Answer 5

Paul133 Author

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Jan 19, 2010 8:54 AM in response to Paul133

I quit and re-opened Mail and my inbox mail came in. Now that I know about this Activity window, I'm going to look at it at the first sign of trouble, see what it shows.

I'll re-post when it happens again, keep this thread open.

Thanks for the help, more to come.

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Answer 6

Jan 19, 2010 10:09 PM in response to Paul133

Same problems here. Glad I'm not the only one.

After looking at the Activity window, this is what it displays:
http://screencast.com/t/NWU4N2Q5M

The Connection Doctor just says that all accounts were able to log in successfully, so no help there.

After clicking on the Stop Sign icon beside the stuff in the activity window (which effectively "stops" that task it's beside), I can then right click and "synchronize" my Exchange account and it receives all messages immediately, including the inbox. It's a work around, but I'm not sure that just command+Q and reopen wouldn't be easier.

It appears that a receive action just freezes up, which is why a resync before you kill the first sync doesn't fix it and a quit+restart does. As a side note, I can send messages through Exchange just fine when this receive lockup occurs.

Apple, please look into this...you have a better mail client than M$, but at least theirs stays connected.

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Answer 7

Jan 20, 2010 10:39 AM in response to Paul133

I'm also having this problem. The issue began with attempting to use the native exchange support in Snow Leopard. It didn't happen too much in 10.6, but with 10.6.1 it was happening all the time. The problem vanished with 10.6.2 until yesterday. Now I'm having the issue again. Not downloading new mail from my exchange account, having the endlessly spinning "waiting" icon appearing, needing to do a "force quit" to get the program to stop hanging. Sometimes it works if I close the program and reopen it. Other times, I have to delete the accounts and try again. Sometimes I have to do that several times before it will start working again.

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Answer 8

Paul133 Author

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Jan 20, 2010 2:01 PM in response to joycem137

I've never had to delete/re-add the accounts to fix it, that doesn't sound like fun.

I have been keeping the Activity window open and while sometimes I do see it take a while to sync, today, for instance, I was getting all of my mail except for the mail from my boss, which is in its own folder (folder stored on the Exchange server). While my boss' email was absent, the Activity window showed nothing.

I think I've found a pattern, though. I run Apple Mail, the one with which I've been having these problems, on my macbook, which I sleep and take home at night. I'm wondering if maybe by putting the computer to sleep kind of upsets Apple Mail, causes it to get confused or locked up or something. Are you guys experiencing this problem with a computer that stays on all of the time or one which you hibernate?

I'm glad I have company 🙂

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Answer 9

Jan 20, 2010 2:33 PM in response to Paul133

I have had general wonkiness with constantly sleeping my macbook. I always close all my programs before I sleep it, but every once in a while, I just have to reboot it to make wireless work, or because it gets sluggish. And this is a brand new reformat of a mid 2009 with Snow Leopard.

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Answer 10

dtbell99

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Jan 21, 2010 7:49 AM in response to D-OveRMinD

I was having this same issue but have found a solution. I had too many items in my exchange trash that it was trying to sync. The activity window would freeze while trying to deal with the trash, only only clicking the red stop sign or shutting down and restarting mail would fix it. Once I cleared out all the folders and mail in the trash folder, the problem went away. Don't know if this will help anyone but wanted to share.

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Answer 11

bg1999

Level 1

44 points

Jan 23, 2010 5:40 PM in response to dtbell99

Have you tried rebuilding the mailbox? I've seen some improvement when my inbox gets too big. Apparently, this triggers a reindexing of the messages and that might improve the flakiness you're seeing?

bg

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Answer 12

Paul133 Author

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Jan 25, 2010 10:15 AM in response to bg1999

Thanks for the suggestion. How do you rebuild a mailbox?

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Answer 13

Paul133 Author

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Jan 25, 2010 10:18 AM in response to dtbell99

Thanks for posting.

My trash has no more than, oh, I don't know, like 100 messages in it, so that's probably not what's going on in my case, but hopefully that solves one of the other readers' problem.

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Answer 14

Jan 25, 2010 2:59 PM in response to Paul133

Just go to mailbox in your title bar and go all the way to the bottom and select rebuild.

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Answer 15

bg1999

Level 1

44 points

Jan 25, 2010 4:29 PM in response to Paul133

The rebuild command is located under the Mailbox item in the mail menu. It will create a fresh index of all messages in your inbox. Right now I have about 10,500 and it has helped to rebuild it occasionally.

I guess you could rebuild trash but it's better to start with inbox and sent.

bg

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