Mavericks Mail not sync'ing IMAP act. (Not GMail)

The issue is affecting both gmail and other kinds of IMAP accounts from what I've observed, so I don't think the distinction matters much.

I've been having probelms with Apple Mail since I started using it three and a half years ago. It has mostly been the same symptom: Mail will not get new mail from IMAP account unless I quit and restart. I have no idea if this is the same bug, or another bug with the same symptom, but out of all of Apple's apps except Maps, I have had more problems with Mail than the rest combined. Apple has enough moeny and engineers to rewite this broken app from scratch if need be, it is just rediculous that for three+ years I have been having issues with this one app (on half dozen different computers running everything from OS X 10.6 to 10.9). Mail clients are not rocket science, many free versions exist - and they work. I have missed many important and time sensitive messages at work beause of this issue. iOS Mail works fine, OS X mail is broken.

Thanks for posting your step-by-step procedure, jcvarapple. I went through your process, but I had to modify it because I have more than one IMAP account and one POP account in Mail. After going through it I'm wondering if the key step is simply moving that Mail folder out of the Library, and then moving it back in. So, essentially, I'm wondering if this shortened version of your process would work for people:

1. Close Mail

2. Open Finder

3. Open Library (Click Go, Click Go To Folders, Enter ~/Library, Click Go)

4. Move /Library/Mail to desktop

5. Reopen Mail (you'll have to go through the process of setting up your account)

6. Close Mail

7. Open Finder

8. Move Mail from the desktop back to ~/Library (the Finder will tell you you're replacing a newer folder with an older one; I said OK)

9. Open Mail

Now, I admit, it is too early to tell if this has permanently solved the problem for me. And I certainly can't guarantee that it would work for everyone. But it seems like a pretty low-risk thing to try.

Anyway, thanks again for sharing your solution!

Bump

I'm wondering if i need to delete each account on each device then re add and populate all the email as sugggested...

i hate doing this as i have so many settings and tagsapplied on the OSX devices that it worries me they might not reassociate again

My suggestion: For $1.99, use Airmail, at least until the day that Apple gets its act together. You won't need to do anything with your ios devces.

I wasted at least two days trying a range of different fixes, and anoher two days trying out all the email alternatives and settled on Airmail.

After using Airmail for a week or two, there are things I like better than Mail (especially being able to auto-add a one minute delay to my Sends!) and things that I dislike (I like the separation between emails that Mail provides in the threaded view).

But overall, it works great, it syncs beautifully with my ios devices, and it's aesthetically pleasing (I'm shallow).

More than good enough as a substiute until the day Apple gets its act together, and maybe then some.

One tip - I kept a lot of old messages stored locally in my Mail app. Right now, I'm instead creating labels on GMail so if I do switch again, all of my emails will be accessible without having to do another import. It's very easy to do from within Airmail.

I'm not sure if it's permanent but mine seems to just have fixed itself on its own 😐

mine still randomly gives me doubles on my iphone, not sure why. May have to delete that one and re add.

I seem to also have an issue with my IMAP assigned folders for each of the 3 accounts. 'On My Mac' folders have appeared for some of the IMAP folders, which shouldn't happen if they are truly mapped to IMAP, but i need to get my head around why that's happened.

I need to use Mail as its engraned it how i work, folders, rules, tags, third party apps

hab1 has it in 1. I spent WEEKS struggling with Mail after Mavericks, and despite the patch, and Mavericks update, it still doesn't work proberly accross all devices. iOS (iPhone & iPad) are fine, but the Mac is out of sync, gets delayed messages and occasionally lost messages.

I bough Airmail (£1.49 in UK) and is JUST WORKS. And it seems to integrate fine with iCloud etc. I've now turned my 3 email accounts off in Apple Mail and made Airmail the defaault mail programme. I don't think I'll go back even if Apple eventally fix mail.

i use a third party app for Tags in Mail called Indev Mailtags. These tags also sync over iCloud between OSX devices. Now these tags dont sync properly either

I seem to have solved the problem, at least on my machine: I had Flip4Mac installed, and it was in the "incompatible applications" folder, so I just deleted that folder. But, the pane was still showing in system preferences and when I right-clicked and selected "remove from system preferences", I got an error. The Flip4Mac folder was not in the applications folder anymore because, I assume, it had been moved to "incompatible applications", so I had no way to find an uninstall program. I had also emptied the trash. So, I re-downloaded Flip4Mac and installed it JUST so that I'd have the uninstall program. I ran that. Pane was still in system preferences. Restart computer. Pane gone from system preferences, and mail is working properly! ***? I don't know but I'm just happy it worked and thought I'd share in case it helps anyone else.

I have rebuild both my databases from the Command with Mail but its still giving odd and random results.

assume that if i delete my IMAP accounts from MBP and Mini, when i re add these accounts the emails should repopulate themselves from the master which is the server?

Assume i need to delete the account and not the emails within the account? Is that how IMAP works? Delete the account on an OSX device and it simply removes the account and the master, the server, keeps the emails. If i was to delete the emails then i guess that would remove the emails from the OSX device and the server?

this is getting ridiculous. I'm now seeing any changes i do on my Mini dont save. 2 particular ones on top of the direct emails problems:

i change the order of rules in inbox rules. I return in 10 or 15 minutes and its returned to its former order.

i change the Search criteria of a smart mailbox, I return in 10 or 15 minutes and its returned to its former order.

why is this happening? do these type of items sync across Mail on OSX devices as my MBP has had these changes made and stays as it was changed to. Doesnt revert back.?!??!

Why would one behave the other not? they are the same versions.

Too frustrating. I tried Gina's suggestion - removing Flip4Mac, and Mail was suddenly working/syncing like a charm!

Lasted the entire morning that way. And then it was over >:[

Back to no, or sporadic, sync.

In case this is meaningful to anyone, it's a one-way problem. Deleting/Reading an email in Mail gets reflected in ios. But not the other way around.

hab1,

That is exactly what happened (the short term working upon deletion of Flip4Mac) and the same syncing issue.

Here is what I did to hopefully put my two cents in with Apple...to no avail at this point. I emailed Tim Cook and basically said this: I've been a loyal and mostly happy Mac user/fan since the SE, but if you don't fix Mail, it really doesn't matter to me what new software/hardware/cool stuff you come up with. Mail is my main business software, both for communication and for storing information. The fact it is broken and your fix did not fix it causes me untold loss of time/revenue every day. That's all that matters to me. So fix it!

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