apple mail keeps going offline!

Thank you for seeing my question, Dale. My mail comes in to Mac Mail from three sources:

1) a university mail server, via the web Outlook Express account for that server

2) msn hotmail

3) a mailbox provided directly by the internet provider

I find that the 'going inactive' issue with a need to exit and restart the Mail program occurs after longer periods of inactivity, for example, over night. I always exit Mail before putting the computer to sleep, but when I go in to check my mail in the morning, for example, all accounts are off line and cannot be put back on line. It is then I need to exit and come in again, which clears the problem immediately.

Thank you so much for looking at this issue.

Fujishu

Thank you. I actually have the latest macbook air (purchased about 2 weeks ago, 10.8.4), but the Mail issue persists. I am thinking, based on a question from Dale, that perhaps the problem is related to the fact that I have several mail accounts and two of these are being popped indirectly, not directly, from the internet service. Not sure, though!

Thank you.

I have a new Macbook Air, purchased about a week ago, with 10.8.4.

I spoke todayd to a MAC shop manager on campus today about WIFI connectivity issues on the new Macbook Air. He told me that some sort of fix is in the works, according to a message he received at work.

I have not had issues for about four days. I am wondering if one or more steps I took helped: I followed instructions found online to renew my DHCP lease. This renewal is done quickly and easily by clicking onto the Network features through System Preferences. One must choose the "Advanced" button, then the TCP/IP tab to access this feature.

I also re-set Firefox 22, as it was displaying with occasional garbled pages. This is Firefox 22 which downloaded without my knowing it. I don't know if that re-setting of the program helped or not with the larger issue of having to use the diagnostics menu to reconnect to the internet. (I am guessing that this problem had nothing to do with dropping WIFI.)

Also, I closed down the internet access of another Macbook running in the same vicinity.

I am using a seven year old router, a Linksys G (something). My internet loading speeds are not great, but at least it seems to connect me.

If anyone can figure this issue out, please let the rest of us know! I have been plagued with this for over three months now and I am ready to remove the mail app and just use the web interface.

Have you rebooted since this problem started?

The most frequent cause of mail inboxes going offline is loss of connection. This in turn can be caused by two common issues.

The first is the Mail provider's Servers being uncooperative, and not responding to the periodic queries to pick up mail. Any single non-response over a period of hours to days will throw that account offline. Yahoo free email Servers are notorious for this. Some say they use this to get you to use Webmail so they can show you ads.

The second is if your Mac loses connection to the Network, which is likely to happen overnight if no process is actively using the Internet. This is far more likely to happen is a School environment where many users are contending for access to a limited number of addresses. The System Administrator will often set the "lease times" to extra short values, in hopes of freeing ports and not having users scream at them for "all ports busy". If it loses connection to YOUR Router, you may need to change settings in your Router so that DHCP lease times are at least a day, or possibly a little longer.

Neither of these issues is necessarily a problem inside your Mac or its software.

Especially if it loses its conection overnight, just re-connect when you want to use it again, or do not leave it sleeping with Mail open.

"Maybe updating to 10.8.4 might clear it up: OS X Mountain Lion Update v10.8.4 (Combo)"

Why is that so often the answer...?

It's like apple break things that you may possibly be able to repair by upgrading to the latest version of their software, which will contain other idiosynchrasies you aren't even aware of yet, which may possibly be cleared up by upgrading to the next version of their software.....!

This mail problem has plagued me for sometime, it wasn't always so, but is now an issue here and obviously elswhere on the planet, it can't be just because I spilt jam on my keyboard, there must be a logical explanation for this...

I have the exact same problem. Choosing "Take all accounts online" doesn't help. "Get all mail" doesn't help. Nothing works except restarting. Very annoying!

no, because I am running 10.10.2 with the same issue.

Having been frustrated for several days now and seemingly tried every supposed fix I could find on the internet I eventually deleted my affected accounts (all three with the same provider) and restated but this time choosing IMAP rather than POP. All is working fine now (I had previously done this but still using POP).