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User profile for user: Hydro99
Hydro99 Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Mail is getting stuck in my outbox?

Hi


I've got a 13" Macbook Air that's about 12 months old. It's got a 1.7ghz I7 processor and 8GB of RAM. About 2-3 weeks ago I started having intermittent issues sending email where my mail just sits in the outbox and doesn't send. I'm using the Apple Mail client and have an iCloud email account, although I'm still using the @me.com domain for the email.


I've checked the Connection Doctor. I get green lights all the way through and it says "Connection to server and login succeeded", but my emails still aren't sending. I can't be certain of this but it seems more likely to happen when I send something with an attachment. The emails would be under 10mb still.


If I try quitting mail from Mail>Quit Mail the email application won't close. if I try to quit by right clicking on it in the menu bar it won't close either. I have to use "Force Quit" off the apple menu to shut the application down.


As an example, looking at the emails stuck in there at the moment there's three. The first one I tried to send at 9:21am. It's now 10:38am and it still hasn't gone. I've checked my internet connection and I'm getting 4mb/sec download and 1.7mb/second upload. So not crazy fast but more than enough to send three emails.


I've tried removing the account and adding it again. This took ages to download all my emails locally again but didn't fix any of the problems.


Any suggestions?

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.3)

Posted on Jun 9, 2014 7:57 PM

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User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,547 points

Posted on Jun 9, 2014 9:53 PM

Please follow these directions to delete the Mail "sandbox" folders. In OS X 10.9 there are two sandboxes, while in 10.8 there is only one. If you're running a version older than 10.8, this comment isn't applicable.

Back up all data.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Reveal

from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a folder named "com.apple.mail" selected. If it does, move the selected folder—not just its contents—to the Desktop. Leave the Finder window open for now.

Log out and log back in. Launch Mail and test. If the problem is resolved, you may have to recreate some of your Mail settings. You can then delete the folder you moved and close the Finder window.

This action will delete any custom Mail stationery that you have created. If you want to preserve it, ask for instructions.

If you still have the problem, quit Mail again and put the folder back where it was, overwriting the one that may have been created in its place. Repeat with this line:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.MailServiceAgent


Caution: If you change any of the contents of the sandbox, but leave the folder itself in place, Mail may crash or not launch at all. Deleting the whole sandbox will cause it to be rebuilt automatically.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

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User profile for user: Linc Davis
Linc Davis
User level: Level 10
209,547 points

Jun 9, 2014 9:53 PM in response to Hydro99

Please follow these directions to delete the Mail "sandbox" folders. In OS X 10.9 there are two sandboxes, while in 10.8 there is only one. If you're running a version older than 10.8, this comment isn't applicable.

Back up all data.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Reveal

from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a folder named "com.apple.mail" selected. If it does, move the selected folder—not just its contents—to the Desktop. Leave the Finder window open for now.

Log out and log back in. Launch Mail and test. If the problem is resolved, you may have to recreate some of your Mail settings. You can then delete the folder you moved and close the Finder window.

This action will delete any custom Mail stationery that you have created. If you want to preserve it, ask for instructions.

If you still have the problem, quit Mail again and put the folder back where it was, overwriting the one that may have been created in its place. Repeat with this line:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.MailServiceAgent


Caution: If you change any of the contents of the sandbox, but leave the folder itself in place, Mail may crash or not launch at all. Deleting the whole sandbox will cause it to be rebuilt automatically.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

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User profile for user: dianeoforegon
dianeoforegon
User level: Level 5
7,287 points

Jun 9, 2014 9:10 PM in response to Hydro99

The receiving server might be rejecting the size of the attachment. Get a DropBox account and put your attachments online. Send the download link. The receiver does not need to have a DropBox account.


User uploaded file


Another option with DropBox is to use a Shared folder. If you share files a lot with your friend, setup a Shared folder and everything in the folder will be shared. Obviously they also need to setup a free DropBox account (works on Windows). Just keep the folder size under the 2GB free limit.


For the future... OS X Yosemite Mail coming this fall, will offer a way to share files like DropBox.


Mail Drop allows you to attach large files via iCloud.

Attachments can be up to 5GB in size. -new feature in OS X 10.10 Yosemite Mail

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User profile for user: avraamjack
avraamjack
User level: Level 1
9 points

Dec 29, 2014 1:43 PM in response to jorge8a

.

Same issue here as well, on ancient Mac mini with latest version of OSX ( the mountainy one or the horsey one, not sure )......


I just moved the messages from the Outbox to a different folder, opened the messsages and resent them.


Maybe there is a handshake issue in the Outbox code, a queue implementation deficiency?


As soon as one gets stuck in the Outbox, they just back up,


Just empty the Outbox and resend them from another folder.


No point in fiddling about, not interesting and probably soon to be fixed.


Avraam Jack Dectis

.

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User profile for user: traceysea
traceysea
User level: Level 1
0 points

Dec 31, 2014 1:17 PM in response to Linc Davis

Just had this problem, and fix worked for me THANK YOU, but now i have 4396 "mails" in my inbox...i surmise this is a count of "all" mails saved in various folders (as opposed to truly "new" mails). Too, incoming mail pre directed to VIP mailboxes now no longer shows in the common inbox (as it did prior to the fix). This means I have to actively search these VIP folders for new mails. Any resolutions to these snafus? I am slightly above amateur with regards to these matters. Thank you in advance for any assistance or direction you are able to provide!!

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Mail is getting stuck in my outbox?

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