Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I have Mail set to fetch manually - i.e. only when I click "Get Mail" but it fetches automatically, I think when it's asleep! It doesn't seem to fetch while I'm using the machine but if I leave it and it goes to sleep, when I wake it there's often new mail already downloaded.
And again this morning, Mac Pro downloads on waking, laptop does not.
I only have ML on my laptop. My Mac Pro 8 Core will not run ML. I also never put my Mac Pro to sleep -- only its display.
Are there any differences in sleep preferences on the Mac Pro vs the MBP, choice-wise?
Ernie
The only differences are the time set before the machine sleeps, the MBP sleeping sooner, especially when on battery.
Maybe I'll just not let the Mac pro sleep any more, like you!
On the Mac Pro disk drives can spin down with certain settings (I don't allow that either), and there can be a lot going on with waking up. Perhaps this is a bug specific to some Mac Pro. I don't know.
I read that drives are possibily better off not spinning down more often than necessary, but can't say with any precision. But I have always only put the display to sleep and keep the computer running and receiving emails.
Ernie
Ernie, I really do appreciate your input on this (just added another "helped me" for your efforts).
As it happens, I have an SSD as the system/applications drive in the Mac Pro with data on a conventional drive but I installed that while using Snow Leopard, later upgraded to Lion and I didn't have this issue then.
MacFan7, I have been experiencing your exact problem since upgrading to Mountain Lion.
I have ALWAYS had the Mail client set to manual and have about half a dozen POP accounts. When I return to my computer after some time and it has, as such, slept, I wake it up to find that the Mail application has seemingly tried to acces email accounts but something else has (properly) timed out and prevented it from accessing the Keychain to get the passwords. This seems to wedge the Mail application.
I assume this is a bug and, to compensate, will quit Mail before I leave the computer.
The Mail in Mountain Lion is either more buggy than it should be or has a number of subtle and very annoying UE changes - I think it's both! Something as fundamental and important as email should not be left to junior or inexperienced engineers; if this is not the case, significant reviews should take place before changing such an important facility....
Should this (and other problems) not get fixed, I will have to evaluate alternative Mail clients.....
aps.
I haven't got any further with it and can report that it still happens although to check I had to deliberately put the Mac to sleep last night as I'd stopped it from sleeping to avoid this issue.
To condense what precedes this post:
1) It only happens on my Mac Pro, not on my MacBook Pro which as far as I can tell has identical settings.
2) I hear the sound of new mail (or no mail) following a fetch before my screen has had time to come on so I cannot leave activity window open to see what is happening.
3) This only happens after a long sleep. I can't be precise with a lenght of time but overnight always does it.
I'm sorry you have this problem but it's comforting to know I'm not alone!
I looked at Thunderbird as an alternative but the import from later versions of OS X does not work and seems to be a known problem. So short of leaving existing mail in Mail but turning all accounts off and starting with future mail in Thunderbird, it's not an option.
This morning I happened to open my laptop with ML, and new message alerts sounded even though the Mail app was not open and active. I determined that this was because the Notification center apparently does not require Mail to be active for it to do its thing.
I am wondering if this might be related to your issue, but will have to wait until much later today to pursue. Nothing stood out in the settings available in System Preferences/Notifications.
Ernie
Yes, I too get mail notifications when Mail is not running. But surely if it was an issue with Notifications causing Mail to fetch by itself, lots of other would have noticed it. At present it seems to be just two of us and for me it's only on one of my machines. (I was hoping Armando would say what machine he's experiencing it on though I can't see why it would be relevant even if it is a Mac Pro!)
There are many "moving parts" to this puzzle, I suspect. The settings for Notifications determine how many messages are presented by Notifications. This could be related to your having gotten some, but not all new messages on occasion. But why your experience differs between the two Macs is not immediately apparent.
Ernie
I am using a MacBook Pro but, as we all think, this should not matter. Interesting thoughts/observations on the role of the Notification center. Talk about unintended consequences....
<FlameOn - low>
Mountain Lion seems filled with these missteps; I can't believe that Apple removed Notes from iTunes-based wired sync'ing. It was such a useful facility needing just a little tweaking....
</FlameOn>
I think I will set my MBP up today and tonight and leave a sniffer running on its connection to see what happens. I'll try it first with the Mail program running (as, always for me, set on manual), and later, with Mail not running.
Did your sniffer show up anything? I ask because I think I've found out why I thought it was downloading some mail but not others.
I've been out all day and left the machine asleep. I checked (and replied to) mail on my phone so there was nothing important for me to deal with the minute I got home. However, just now, someone sent me a mail (seen on phone) with an attachment which I wanted to open on my Mac Pro so I woke it. Before my screen came on, I got the mail received sound and the 15 mails from earlier today were there instantly. By instantly, I mean far, far faster than if I'd clicked "Get Mail". I would normally be able to see the blue bar progress for a second or two but they were already there. The latest one was not there until I did a manula fetch. Because of the speed and the fact that the latest one did not download, it leads me to suspect that rather than doing as I thought a fetch on waking, it's managing to fetch while it's asleep and just plays the new mail sound on waking.
Hi. It looks like 10.8.2 fixed this problem.
I ran a trace overnight with Apple Mail sitting idle and an external sniffer. Both the Mac under test (that running the Mail program, etc.) and the sniffer Macintosh were connected to a common dual speed hub. That hub was also connected to the home network.
The trace showed no Mail access after I left the machine under test with the Mail program with the "Check for new messages" set to "Manually."
So, one problem down!!
There is, however, other interesting traffic to look at. As a friend once told me, networks are like laws and sausages; you don't want to see what goes into making them! 🙂
aps.
Loved the last bit!
I'm just downloading 10.8.2 now.
Mail - manual fetch
