Mail disconnecting from Internet, requiring new set up

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Mail disconnecting from Internet, requiring new set up

My Apple Mail program has been frequently disconnecting from the Internet even though my access via Safari is not affected. This has caused the need to quit and re-open - which only solves the problem temporarily - sometimes for less than a minute. I have also tried deleting the com.apple.mail.plist file but this has not seemed to make a difference. Twice, I have been prompted by my MBP to set up the Mail program from scratch via a wizard like process.

Any ideas of what is going on and how to keep Mail from disconnecting or requiring a new set-up?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4), Time Capsule

Posted on Sep 8, 2010 5:10 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 8, 2010 7:58 AM in response to kgrass

How many accounts you have setup in Mail ? are all of them disconnecting ? did you try to use Mail Connection Doctor to inspect the connectivity to your incoming/outgoing servers ?

Have you got a prompt to reimport your Mail messages ? if yes, does that happen frequently ? or only did happen one time or so ? it could happen when you apply system updates and it would be updating Mail database not reimporting messages.

Try giving as much information as you could please

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Answer 2

kgrass Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 8, 2010 8:05 AM in response to Hazem Malek

Hello Hazem,

I only have one inbox set up in Mail. I do not know what Mail Connection Doctor is or where to find it so it has not been used.

After following the set-up process when prompted the application re-imports all messages from 8/8/10 forward as unread. This has happened twice - each time after I had been prompted to set up Mail when clicking on the Mail icon to open the application.

Does this help? Please let me know if there is more information that I could supply that would be helpful.

Karl

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Answer 3

Sep 8, 2010 12:33 PM in response to kgrass

Connection Doctor can be found under Window Menu in Mail Menu bar

Your Mail account is POP, IMAP or Exchange ? Things you can try to fix this issue are :

(1) remove the Mail caches from your user Library folder ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.mail

(2) reapply the latest combo updater 10.6.4, you can download it from Apple downloads page

(3) if that didn't fix the issue, drag the preference file of mail from ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist to the desktop and sees if that fixes your issues or not, and if not, put the plist file back in place.

(4) from your user Library folder drag the file Envelope Index to the desktop, that would be ~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index .. then Mail should ask to re-import all messages but probably won't repeat that again.

Message was edited by: Hazem Malek

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Answer 4

kgrass Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 8, 2010 1:35 PM in response to Hazem Malek

Hi again Hazem,

I found Connection Doctor and everything shows a green status and connects fine. Also, I am on POP. I did not have a com.apple.mail file in my cache folders. I already have 10.6.4 so I am not sure of the value of downloading and reappying this. Finally, eliminating the com.apple.plist does not have an impact. I am not sure I want to try item (4) since I don't know how this would prevent it from dropping its connection and I don't want to re-import all messages again.

Was there anything in Connection Doctor that I should have looked at that might have provided another clue?

Thanks,

Karl

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Answer 5

Sep 8, 2010 2:04 PM in response to kgrass

if Connection Doctor shows all servers in green status, then Mail is connected to internet with no issues, disconnection if happens most probably would be related to a network issue that should disconnect network services in general, not only Mail and I would suspect your router if that is the case.

Your second issue of bring the Mail Setup randomly most probably is related to the Envelope Index file. That's why I suggested to move it outside the Mail folder and re-import your messages.

Sometimes re-applying the combo update fixes issues even if you already have it installed.

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Answer 6

Sep 29, 2010 9:45 AM in response to kgrass

I have the same problem.
2 accounts. POP

Status in the "connectinspector" are green but still I have manually connect.

Solution another mail application?
Apple can not be best on everything..

Message was edited by: Ola Ljungberg1

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