MacBook Pro M2 running OSX Ventura 13.4 is suddenly "re-downloading" the entire content of all my email inboxes. I haven't changed any settings, and I would expect this during initial setup of the computer and Mail accounts, but not sure why it's doing it now. Or how many more times it will in the future. Seems like an awful lot of data unnecessarily in transit.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.6
RagnarMoCo wrote:
MacBook Pro M2 running OSX Ventura 13.4 is suddenly "re-downloading" the entire content of all my email inboxes. I haven't changed any settings, and I would expect this during initial setup of the computer and Mail accounts, but not sure why it's doing it now. Or how many more times it will in the future. Seems like an awful lot of data unnecessarily in transit.
Some more information about what type of email provider you are using, and whether you are using Apple Mail (it looks like you are), would enable better troubleshooting by people reading this who can't see what is on your Mac.
I will presume you are using MS-Exchange or some other IMAP type email server. And Apple Mail.
I have found that Apple Mail sometimes does this type of thing (apparently downloading hundreds or even thousands of emails) with MS-Exchange, although I have never seen it with GMAIL, which has some IMAP-like features. It does this with my MS-Exchange account when the computer has not been connected to email for several days or longer. On other computers, same accounts, I use MS-Outlook and never see this, but I do see it with Apple Mail. What I have found resolves it is, with your Mac connected to a charger, to modify the Settings so the Mac never sleeps (the screen can and should be allowed to dim or darken). When left for several hours or overnight like this, the email "downloads" complete and then you can return Settings to normal.
If allowed to sleep, I have found the Mac sometimes doesn't complete the "downloads" as fast and sometimes seems to restart them when it is awakened.
Oddly, even when apparently downloading hundreds or thousands of emails like this, all my emails seem to be there already. Not sure it is really downloading much if anything. I suspect it is more of a massive bookkeeping update inside of Apple Mail. Apple Mail works with servers like MS-Exchange but not as smoothly as Outlook.
If you are growing impatient, you can also quit Mail, restarting your Mac in Safe Mode (instructions for Safe Mode depend on your specific model), then restart normally, then open Mail again. This may or may not help. But if left alone and not allowed to sleep, the mail downloading seems to complete and resolve itself, although it might take ~ hours for thousands of emails.
RagnarMoCo wrote:
MacBook Pro M2 running OSX Ventura 13.4 is suddenly "re-downloading" the entire content of all my email inboxes. I haven't changed any settings, and I would expect this during initial setup of the computer and Mail accounts, but not sure why it's doing it now. Or how many more times it will in the future. Seems like an awful lot of data unnecessarily in transit.
Some more information about what type of email provider you are using, and whether you are using Apple Mail (it looks like you are), would enable better troubleshooting by people reading this who can't see what is on your Mac.
I will presume you are using MS-Exchange or some other IMAP type email server. And Apple Mail.
I have found that Apple Mail sometimes does this type of thing (apparently downloading hundreds or even thousands of emails) with MS-Exchange, although I have never seen it with GMAIL, which has some IMAP-like features. It does this with my MS-Exchange account when the computer has not been connected to email for several days or longer. On other computers, same accounts, I use MS-Outlook and never see this, but I do see it with Apple Mail. What I have found resolves it is, with your Mac connected to a charger, to modify the Settings so the Mac never sleeps (the screen can and should be allowed to dim or darken). When left for several hours or overnight like this, the email "downloads" complete and then you can return Settings to normal.
If allowed to sleep, I have found the Mac sometimes doesn't complete the "downloads" as fast and sometimes seems to restart them when it is awakened.
Oddly, even when apparently downloading hundreds or thousands of emails like this, all my emails seem to be there already. Not sure it is really downloading much if anything. I suspect it is more of a massive bookkeeping update inside of Apple Mail. Apple Mail works with servers like MS-Exchange but not as smoothly as Outlook.
If you are growing impatient, you can also quit Mail, restarting your Mac in Safe Mode (instructions for Safe Mode depend on your specific model), then restart normally, then open Mail again. This may or may not help. But if left alone and not allowed to sleep, the mail downloading seems to complete and resolve itself, although it might take ~ hours for thousands of emails.
RagnarMoCo wrote:
MacBook Pro M2 running OSX Ventura 13.4 is suddenly "re-downloading" the entire content of all my email inboxes. I haven't changed any settings, and I would expect this during initial setup of the computer and Mail accounts, but not sure why it's doing it now. Or how many more times it will in the future. Seems like an awful lot of data unnecessarily in transit.
https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/b5844653-9b78-48cb-ba65-217bb2741e4e
It maybe out of your control if there was some server side change...
Report back if there is some other issue when it resolves.
Re-Downloading Entire Mailbox
