Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Level 1

3 points

Mail sitting in Outbox with gear spinning on Sent

All of a sudden when ever I send an email and it could be 1KB it sits in the Outbox. I can shut down and restart Mail 10 times, and eventually it might be sent. Also the "gear" is always spinning on the Sent folder. If I click Check for mail, sometimes it works (send email) most of the time, I have to shutdown mail, and restart it a bunch of times for it to send the mail.

Any ideas?

-Paul S.

MacBook Pro 13.3" 2.53GHz, 8GB SDRAM, 250GB SATA (MB991LL/A), Mac OS X (10.6.4), 24-inch LED Cinema Display, iPhone 4 16GB, iPad 16GB WI-FI

Posted on Aug 31, 2010 7:15 PM

28 replies

Mar 24, 2011 3:28 PM in response to RPXCS

I'm having the same issue. The default mail client is junk, I'm going to upgrade to something else (maybe Thunderbird or the like).

jdar25

Level 1

0 points

Apr 1, 2011 3:31 PM in response to Carl Perkins

Same here! Mail is getting out of control.
I might have lost a potential client because of that... Will Apple pay me back for that?...
My email was not delivered, just stayed in the outbox (I'm using mobile me). It looked like it was delivered but several hours later suddenly it appeared in the outbox.
Another email was duplicated in the outbox...? I sent it out again just to find it in the outbox again a day later. What is going on? Anyone has an idea??!

Apr 3, 2011 5:51 PM in response to PaulSu

Hello
I've been reading this thread because I have been having the same problem. After much checking and testing and trying various options and, checking suggestions offered in this thread, I have come to the conclusion that it is the Mail app itself that is the cause of the problem.
I can send mail without a delay on my Macbook running Tiger, on an eMac running Panther etc. No problem at all. It's only in Snow Leopard that the problem exists for me on my iMac. Sometimes, if I send an email straight after another one, the second one goes off straight away. Of course, the first one sits there for 30 secs with the beach ball spinning before it goes.
Sorry I can't offer a solution but I think it's down to Apple to provide a fix.
Al

RPXCS

Level 1

0 points

Apr 6, 2011 1:55 PM in response to PaulSu

I upgraded to Thunderbird and use Lightning to get my IMAP calendar. The calendar syncs perfectly through Google Calendars and my iPhone (I set up the calendar as an Exchange account for the iPhone).

This is the best alternative to Outlook/Entourage I've had yet on my Mac. It took some time to set up, but it was free.... Thanks, Mozilla!

I never really liked Mail, and this SMTP bug turned me off for good.

Invertek

Level 1

4 points

Apr 15, 2011 3:51 AM in response to RPXCS

add us to this list, 2* MacBook's, gmail accounts, iPhone4's sync with Google Exchange. Hopeless....mail sitting around in the outbox, is it sent....have I just sent it again, and again......I deleted it, it's back.....what rubbish is this? Would give it away but easier to send using "file/send" than having to "file/print/PDF/Outlook" or similar.

oracle_ab

Level 1

102 points

Apr 15, 2011 11:57 AM in response to PaulSu

Same issue for me. Trying Newk's solution.

Apr 26, 2011 5:18 AM in response to PaulSu

Having the same problem here.. argh. I'm going to try the solution posted in this thread hope it will work. I like Mail app very much so hope that i won't have to switch to Thunderbird..

Apr 26, 2011 6:00 AM in response to newks

Tried Newks' solution, but didn't work for me. Still the same problem. Thunderbird seems the only solution for me 😟

Apr 26, 2011 10:44 AM in response to PaulSu

When you compose a mail, there are two sets of pull-down menus, side-by-side between the top of the message box and the Subject field. The one on the left is what's going to be in your From field, and the one on the right is your outgoing mail server. If you have an OMS that is unreachable from whatever your current location is (e.g. it's the outgoing server for a network at a hotel you stayed at 2 years ago...) then it's not going to send.

I usually get the panel asking me to try again with a different outgoing server, and I can change if it's not going to work. But that only comes up twice, after that it just spins and there is no way to get to it. A trick that often works is to reset your network, which you do by turning your airport off and back on, or by unplugging your ethernet cable and plugging it back in.

Apr 27, 2011 9:37 AM in response to cathy fasano

Thanks for the reply Cathy,

I was awaare of the two pull-down menu's. I guess the problem is that i cannot connect to my outgoing server, but it always worked and now after quitting mail several times, the mail does get sent. :S

I'll call my ISP tomorrow 🙂

mpickar

Level 1

4 points

May 21, 2012 8:57 PM in response to Koen Poelhekke

My wife was experiencing this same issue - using the information above, I checked the Mail Activity window and the Connection Doctor window - turns out that what was happening is the messages were trying to go out via an old SMTP server configuration from an account that was still "active" in Mail, but shut down from the ISP side of things.

I had tried a few things, including re-selecting the correct SMTP server setting and changing the preferences for that account to only use the SMTP server setup with that account, but eventually had to drag the messages out of the 'outbox' and into draft folder. Then I verified they were using the correct SMTP and resent the messages successfully.

MacBook Pro 15", Mac OS X 10.6.8, Mail 4.5, originally 4 accounts configured (mix of IMAP and POP), 3 active. deleted the one active POP account that wasn't actually "active", leaving 3 IMAP accounts (2 active).

Sep 13, 2013 4:36 AM in response to cathy fasano

Thank you Cathy - I know this is a long time after you posted your solution, but it was very helpful to me! A much more convenient solution than a total rebuild. Thank you!

John Nez

Level 2

186 points

May 11, 2015 8:24 AM in response to cathy fasano

Thanks Cathy! That seemed to work and it's a lot simpler than the total rebuild approach.

On my Mail I have to go to the 'customize' pulldown box to see all the fields.

But that simplifies things and it got rid of that spinning wheel. I have about 7 years of correspondence on my Mail account, that I don't want to lose, so it's back to working great again.

Mail sitting in Outbox with gear spinning on Sent