Outgoing mail hangs

Over a month ago my G5 iMac with Leopard 10.5.8 and Mail 3.6 (936) started having this same problem.

After almost a month of trying several things with my connection to no avail, I found a solution that seems to have worked for me. I repaired my disk permissions then re-installed Mail from my Leopard installation disk. Mail has worked perfectly for the last week and a half since then.

To repair the disk permissions: Open Applications folder> Utilities folder> Disk Utility> highlight the name of your start-up disk, then click the button (in the lower center of the panel) repair disk permissions. This could take from 15 minutes to 1 hour or more to complete.

To re-install Mail from your Leopard installation disk: Insert your Leopard installation disk into your CD/DVD drive: A window for Mac OS X Install DVD will open> open the folder marked Optional Installs> Click on the Package Optional Installs> click the agree and continue buttons, highlight your start-up drive to install to> click the triangle to expand the applications, then check the box next to Mail and click to continue, finish installation, eject the Leopard DVD, and re-start your computer.

The true fix could be as simple as doing one or both of these, but I did them both, and my Mail is working like it's fine again. Good luck!

as always,

just a rambling joe

So anyone have a fix beside reinstalling Mail? Really hate to do that but if it's the only thing...

I, like everyone else, was having the same issue. Much like everyone else it would just take closing and reopening mail to get things moving, sometimes a reboot, but other times is just seemed to start working. As I was reading this thread my mail popped up with a request for a password for one of my 4 email accounts. Once I entered it, the mail went right out. Mail may be hanging on an email server authorization request, but not displaying it well. One of the other suggestions up on the thread was to switch the outgoing smtp server you are using (if you have multiple). I have done that before with success as well.

I tried to find a way to force a password authentication via the email client admin screens, but don't see anything that would do it. It may be that you just need to wait until 'mail' asks for the password again.

While this answer is partly a guess, everything seems to be working fine now.

Does APPLE read these posts or not? I have the same problem with Apple Mail that everyone else is having. I tried calling SUPPORT and was told to reinstall mail. That worked about two days, then I was right back to the same problem. So ... what is up here.

And more importantly in the BigPicture - why is Apple not at least acknowledging the problem. A fix would be nice too!

---jon---

so here goes another one- i use 10.5.8 leopard, mail 3.6 (936), sounds familiar?

Out from nothing mail just stoped.

It opens, but those lines going around and around endessly ... well you know.

But now, here is something new ... are you ready ?

I have - a Mac Pro 2x3.2 quad intel xenon, and also a Macbook (black) and,also, a Powerbokk G4

an, also the old Titanium.(ox10.4.11) with mail - V2.1)

Ok, NOTHING WORKS !

No mail ANYWHERE.

I can only access my email accounts by webmail in me.com.

I think, something is not working the way it should ... .

Oh, by the way, i have changed, and back, ALL possible settings related with mail.

Hoppe this helps (just joking)

I had similar issue where mail client hangs for gmail. I figured this was caused due to some firewall issue, as this happens ONLY when I VPN to work or from office network.

I changed gmail smpt port to 465, and its working fine now. I guess other ports are blocked.

I'm having this problem as well. About every 4th email I send hangs for a minute or two before popping back up with the error message, "Cannot send message using Yahoo server."

After trial and error, I've found that it's best to just click "edit" and then send again, rather than selecting a different server. This is not a solution to the underlying problem; just the best way to handle individuals hangs.

I'm not positive, but I think this only happens with my yahoo mail account. I'm curious if that's true with others.

I've had this happen infrequently for years, but it's become a near-constant in the past month. It's so annoying. I don't want to stop using Apple Mail because it's fantastic for organizing and searching all of my accounts and mailboxes, but it can be a real pain! Sometimes I hit send and then go to lunch, only to come back and find that a couple of emails are still in my outbox.

Same problem.

Dos anyone knows WHY is apple not telling us ANYTHING?

This is an APPLE SUPPORT COMUNITIES place is it not?

Cant they just say _hi people, we are reading this, we will try to find out the solutions- or something like ..." sorry, no answers, it was nice to have you with us all these year, but, please change to microsoft..."

Same problem... I use Windows Live and for a couple of days it worked and now it only receives mail but sends NOTHING. I'm going to try and reinstall the Mail app again, but from reading the discussions... it might only be a temporary fix 😠

Add me to the pile. Has been a problem for several weeks.

Not only does Mail hang while sending, it hangs while checking for new mail (I do this manually, not as a timed, automatic process). Happens with all accounts--POP and IMAP. The accounts are spread across four servers and three providers, so the only common thread is Mail on my MBP.

Mail > Window > Connection Doctor shows all connections green, so no hiccups there.

A quit/restart of Mail used to kick it back into shape, but alas, now even that's become a problem. Once Mail gets stuck in its hanging loop, it refuses to quit. The only way out is a force-quit, which I'm having to do between 4-6 times per day.

Thunderbird is beginning to look reeeeeeeeally good right now.

I just had the same problem but the solution that works for me is to delete the account from within the preferences and then add it again.

Well, brand new iMAC, 3.4GHz, 8GB Ram, 1TB + 256GB SSD, feel the power - cant send an email with no content just a title - and it still takes forever!

Do Apple not respond to any of these comments?

MAC it just works, well it doesn't for me. I have spent a lot of money on a top end MAC and I still have to use my PC to send emails.

Also started up my MAC this morning and it was keeping 6GB of Ram wired with only the monitor running! HAd to reboot then it cleared - need to put in another thread I know, but I thought I was meant to be leaving the reboot days behind moving to MAC.

Please Apple, show us a sign you are listening.

Tim - it just works wrote:

Do Apple not respond to any of these comments?

No. They do not. This is a user-to-user tech support forum.

Please Apple, show us a sign you are listening.

They aren't.

Did you delete the preferences plist for Mail? I haven't tried that. I think.