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User profile for user: LS9_1
LS9_1 Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

Mail downloading but won't show

First, apologies because I am incredibly technology inept and everything I'm reading sounds like a foreign language.


I'm working with Mac OS X v 10.7.5 and I started having trouble with my mail yesterday afternoon. I had recently added a new gmail address to my mail under System Preferences and the problems began shortly after.

I can only get new mail to load if I close Mail and reopen it. While open, it shows that new mail is downloading but it doesn't appear in the window. I've tried selecting the specific mailbox but it won't populate the messages.


I tried Window -> Connection Doctor and everything is showing green.

I found this advice online:

If your mailbox is constantly spinning and mail is not coming or going, it means IMAP is not syncing. In this case, try these steps:

  1. Close mail.app.
  2. Go to /Users/your_profile/Library/Mail/IMAP-account_concerned/.
  3. Delete hidden folder .OfflineCache.
  4. Start mail.app again.

I realize this is pretty basic have no idea how to this.

Any advice?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Oct 7, 2014 7:43 AM

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10 replies
User profile for user: brianbcracing
brianbcracing
User level: Level 1
4 points

Apr 30, 2017 7:06 AM in response to LS9_1

Open up terminal and copy and paste below

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Click on Force Quit - highlight Finder and relaunch it.

Than Go ahead and follow the previous directions


  1. Close mail.app.
  2. Go to /Users/your_profile/Library/Mail/IMAP-account_concerned/.
  3. Delete hidden folder .OfflineCache.
  4. Start mail.app again.

A new OfflineCache folder will get created.

Note: This will not delete any messages.


Any questions, please feel free to ask away.

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User profile for user: Eric Root
Eric Root
User level: Level 10
684,525 points

Jul 4, 2017 8:10 AM in response to _S.ara

Go to Applications/Utilities/Terminal and open the application.


Copy and paste the below into Terminal. Then hit return. Quit Terminal.


defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES


 menu/Force Quit. Then select Finder. Hit return twice.


Quit Mail.


Go to your User/Home folder, then select Library/Mail. Select the .OfflineCache folder and delete it.


Reopen Mail.

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

Oct 8, 2014 3:46 AM in response to LS9_1

Having a very similar problem here, which started yesterday (7 Oct) I think. New emails do not show up in the Gmail account Inbox in Apple Mail. I'm beginning to suspect a problem on Google's end with their IMAP implementation, based on the following observations:

  • I have 5 different email accounts set up in Apple Mail (don't ask!): 2 Gmail accounts (IMAP), 1 Google Apps for Business account (IMAP), 1 Exchange account and 1 other IMAP account (non-Google).
  • I have these 5 accounts configured on 2 different Macs - one on Mountain Lion, the other on Snow Leopard. Plus on 2 iPhones, one on iOS7 and one on iOS8.
  • Both Gmail accounts show this problem on both Macs. They were working perfectly up until 7 Oct. Both stopped working around the same time. So it's quite a coincidence if it's a Mail config/corruption issue.
  • The other 3 accounts work fine on both Macs (including the Google Apps IMAP account, which I admit I was expecting to show the same symptoms).
  • All 5 accounts work perfectly on both iPhones.
  • If I manually "Get New Mail" on either Gmail account nothing shows up, even though there are new, unread messages on the server.
  • If I quit and restart Mail, all the outstanding messages arrive in the Inbox, but then nothing further arrives. Restarting Mail every 10 mins to check if I have Mail isn't a viable solution.
  • If I rebuild one of the Gmail Inboxes (Menus: Mailbox -> Rebuild) the missing messages turn up. The Activity window shows status messages about "changing flags" but doesn't appear to download the missing messages at that point. It looks like the messages are getting downloaded (when they arrive on the server), but are invisible in the Inbox until either a rebuild or a restart.

So my best guess is that Google has changed something in its Gmail IMAP implementation recently, and that change is incompatible with the IMAP implementation in Apple Mail. And I'm guessing it doesn't show up in iOS because that's a later IMAP implementation and the slight incompatibility doesn't exist there.


If I get time, I will try this out in Mavericks Mail. Apple completely re-wrote Mail for Mavericks. Not sure if that included a later version of the IMAP protocol stack.


Anyway, no real solution here, but hopefully this might be helpful if others are having a similar problem. Or is it just me??!

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Mail downloading but won't show

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