Mac Mail 5 Lion - IMAP connection problem

Hi Michael - I checked SMTP settings and they are correct. I then deleted passwords in Mail and in the Keychain, quit Mail, restarted, entered the requested passwords...and we'll see if that fixes the issue. I'll report back later today. Stay tuned! 🙂

Follow-up to my previous post... the behavior is repeating again in that I cannot retrieve messages from my IMAP server without closing Mail.app and restarting. 😟

OK, It seems to me there is either one setting that is not right.

When you access the mail box that acts as your "server" i.e. ,the on line web site you would normally go to check your mail.....do you see all the folders there that you should see in Mail on your Mac?

Have you set the "send / receive" retreival time to repeat ?

Go to your Home folder (house icon)...select Library...select Mail...select V2...

....select one of the 'IMAP- name" folders and there you should see a list of trays all ending in .mbox.

If you see these then Mail has set them up correctly.

Now what you can do is create online, a GMX account, to see if it is your existing mailbox providers that are at fault. Go to gmx.com and create a new address, with a name you could use. Follow the set up instructions for IMAP and create a new Mail mailbox. Now if this works fine then you have found the problem.. and got one more free email address to boot.

If not, delete the mailboxes you have set up again and remove the 'com.apple.mail.plist' file found in...

...Home folder (house icon)...select Library...select Preferences...scroll down till you see 'com.apple.mail.plist'. select it and drag it to Trash. Then restart Mail as it will automatically create a new plist.

Create the mailboxes again once you have established the info for IMAP client applications (Mail) is 100% pucker.

Do you know anyone else who uses the mail facilty you use? Who are your hosts for the troublesome mail boxes? You could compare the settings.

Also you could ensure that under the Mailbox pull down menu all the Mailboxes have been 'Taken On Line".

Synchronize all the Accounts.

Now I am pretty sure its a setting but if we cant fix it then you can make an appointment with the Genius Bar in all mac stores. I have used them on a couple of occasions and problems solved (Hardware issue) with no cost except getting there.

Let me know how you fare. I am driving down to Brighton and will be back up here on Sunday and will check in to see how things are going.

Michael

I have the same problem. maybe it's:

----------------------------

Mac OS X Lion's Apple Mail client, fails to authenticate with imapd-2007e.

In the b64 encoded authentication parameter "authzid\0authcid\password", authzid is empty when sent by Apple Mail.

As a result, authentication fails.

----------------------------

found here: http://www.mail-archive.com/imap-uw@u.washington.edu/msg02830.html//www.mail-archive.com/imap-uw@u.washington.edu/msg02830.html

I am no technic specialist?

maybe someone is understanding and can comment?

br

dadila

Back from Brighton..thankfully.

Anyway, I use Mail here in the UK. Where are you located? It seems odd that I am not having any issues at all.

I use 4 GMX accounts on IMAP, 1 on a UK hosted server, and my Pop mail from BT Yahoo and BT connect.

Now if you are in UK then your settings should be identical save for passwords and server details.

You may want to list them here so we can take a look.

Michael

Michael,

After a couple of days of no issues the problem of new mails not appearing has returned. The only way to get new mail is to terminate Mail and then reload the app. Looking awfully like a bug in Lion Mail to me. I know that it is possible to load Safari 5.0.5 on Lion (I've done that and it does not have the memory leak and poor performace of Safari 5.1). Do you know if you can run the version of Mail that shipped with Snow Leopard on Lion?

Follow up on my previous post: recommended changes did not work. Sometimes IMAP emails come directly into the INBOX; other times they do not and I have to quit Mail and restart to load. Can see messages on phone and web mail. Issue only started upon installing Lion...so problem is related to Lion. Can't figure out why sometimes messages come thru and other times I have to quit Mail and restart to see them. Frustrating!

I had the problem too since Lion. But no it seems "solved". It seems mail 5 is using some special ports, I had blocked with HandsOff (similar LittleSnitch). Since I have allowed mail to connect at all port, it runs (since 6hours today). Before that only standard mail-ports were allowed (imap,smtp, ssl,...). try turning off HandsOff, LittleSntich or other Firewalls.

br

dadila

Hi Richard,

I would like to know who your IMAP providers are so I can take a look at there site.

Also see Dadila's post...

I had the problem too since Lion. But no it seems "solved". It seems mail 5 is using some special ports, I had blocked with HandsOff (similar LittleSnitch). Since I have allowed mail to connect at all port, it runs (since 6hours today). Before that only standard mail-ports were allowed (imap,smtp, ssl,...). try turning off HandsOff, LittleSntich or other Firewalls.

Do you have any 3rd party applications such as mentioned above. If so turn them off and see what happens. I never use them except what's in my router/modem (Draytek2820Vn) or provided by Apple. I know what's running on my Macs so I don't need reminding.

Michael

Michael,

I am in the UK and my provider is BT Yahoo. I have no third party apps and just have a Sky Netgear Router. Dadila has only had 6 hours of testing, after the changes I made in my earlier post above my mail client worked for around 48 hours before it 'went to sleep' and stopped retrieving email. Since I restarted Mail late yesterday afternoon its still retrieving mail OK. Let's see how long it goes this time. I tried Mail from Snow Leopard but it just crashes on opening. I have a trila of MS Outlook so will maybe try that and see if it gives the same problem.

Hi MHG66,

MileHiGuy66 wrote:

Follow up on my previous post: recommended changes did not work. Sometimes IMAP emails come directly into the INBOX; other times they do not and I have to quit Mail and restart to load. Can see messages on phone and web mail. Issue only started upon installing Lion...so problem is related to Lion. Can't figure out why sometimes messages come thru and other times I have to quit Mail and restart to see them. Frustrating!

As my response to Richards post I would like to know who your IMAP providers are so I can take a look at there site.

Do you have any 3rd party applications such as mentioned above such as HandsOff, LittleSntich etc. If so turn them off and see what happens.

What's odd is that I installed Lion over SL with no issues whatsoever. My mail works and polls for mail to all my IMAP and pop mail boxes every 15 minutes.

It seems your Mail is forgeting something so we need to recheck all the settings again.

In the 1st instance try changing the the port to '993' and tick 'Use SSL'. This is located in the "Advanced" section in Accounts section of Mail Prefs.

Lets see and post back,

Michael

Hi Richard,

I am looking at my BT Yahoo settings and will come back with a few questions shortly...

Michael

OK,

Your settings should be as follows:

Incoming Mail Server: mail.btinternet.com

Outgoing Mail server: mail.btinternet.com

Port: 110 ...UN check 'Use SSL'

USE default ports 25, 465, 587

Authentication: Password

Now you could also try using Port 26 as an experiment. You can always change it back.

I have Outlook and it certainly a good product and until Mail was updated to this version it was all I used. I am only working with Mail until I find out how to show all my 'On my Mac' folder in the side bar. But for time being I am with Mail.

Also "Sleep mode" knocks things out because thats what it is intended to do. If you set the "Display" to sleep and 'Drive" set to "Never Sleep" then you will be OK. I never turn of my drive. Shut down only when I go on holiday

Lets see if settings tally,

Michael

Michael,

OK my settings were different as follows:

Incoming Mail Server imap.mail.yahoo.com

Outgoing Mail Server btinternet.com

Port 993 Use SSL, authentication password

Default Ports 25,465,585 and use SSL

I've now changed to your settings as above and will monitor. One further additional 'bug' I think. On my web client I can see a new mail that arrived after one of the mails that Mail.app can see but it's time of sending is before the one that can be seen. Mail refuses to download it either with my new settings or the old settings. I've loaded Outlook and that has no problem seeing and downloading all the mails.

You see as far as I am aware BT never had IMAP and still doesn't. On the other hand BT connect which I also have does have IMAP but on their free service it's only POP. They want you to pay for the upgrade. I always argued that when I was with them for my phone and BB it should have been free. They didn't.

Since BT co branded with yahoo its still only Pop and I doubt very much if they will make it free.

The log in string should start ....https://login.yahoo.com/config/login etc, etc.

Now here is something that you may care to try. I am doing it from sometime today in Outlook Mac2011.

Go to GMX.com and get yourself a free IMAP mailbox. Create a nice name for yourself. Once you have set one up and followed set up instructions to the letter, send yourself an email from one of your other addresses to make sure all is OK. Then go to the section that allows you to create retrieval of mail from other mail boxes. Set this up to collect these emails. The beauty is that its GMX that does the work and all you have to do use the IMAP protocol in GMX. I am pretty sure you can also send from that mail box as well but just read the info.

Now I have just looked at the BT Yahoo site and can confirm there is NO IMAP service. You can however set it up so that it will FORWARD received emails to another address. I showed you a way to set up GMX as a good alternative.

Lets see how you get on,

Michael