Mail constantly downloading messages

Same problem:

I use go daddy for the domain name and Gmail Imap to manage my emails and almost every days Mail decide to download around 2000 messages, but I don't have new messages.. I used to take my phone to have an internet access when I am on the road, but with that issue I can't because it takes around 1gig for nothing every time!

Please help apple!

Hi all,

I've had recurrent high CPU usage issues with Mail for Mac for a couple of years now,since upgrading first to Mavericks, then to El Capitan. Having roamed support forums for months, I tried every possible fix suggested with no effect at all, and finally decided to switch to another e-mail client. I tried Airmail for a while, but it was not convenient enough to manage the dozen or so accounts I need for business purposes. And finally, last week, I found the dreamlike solution: Postbox 5! Its costs about 40 €, but it has all the functionalities of Mail for Mac, plus a few valuable extra ones, a nice GUI, and wonderful support. No more CPU/memory/power overload, no more rainbow wheel, no more forced re-start! Apple, your Mail app has become a liability - either fix it or dump it ...

My advice thus: stop wasting time fixing Mail for Mac, go directly for either Airmail or Postbox - whichever is more suitable for your email handling habits. And no, I'm not paid by either of them - I'm just a Mac aficionado tired of being confronted with a serious problem with what is supposed to be a seamless Apple application ;-)

I had the same problem. Mine seemed to be related to my gmail account. I resolved it by logging into my gmail account via my web browser and cleaning up all unwanted messages and folders. Now when I check for email on my MacBook pro I immediately get the feedback message "no new messages" instead of "downloading xxxx new messages"

Good luck

Did I just solve this by "disabling Google calendar sync in Internet Accounts System Preferences. Worked for me including re-enabling calendar sync." ?Courtesy of itsolver.net. For the past hour I haven't had downloading issue, and I did re-enable google calendar.

I suppoedly have 4,850 new messages. Not a chance. Nothing is showing up in my inbox. I have no idea where they are being downloaded. I am running mcOS Sierra version 10.12.6 and MAIL version 10.3 (3273).

Apple does not make this "Downloading Messages" obvious being at the bottom os the left hand column. I suspect more people have this "undocumented feature" because they are just not seeing the message.

I can temporarily get rid of it by going into mail-preferences- server - and unchecking the automatically manage server connections box. Then exiting mail then reopening. I have them been rechecking the box and the number then restarts growing.

Helen Randfield

I just upgraded to High Sierra last Thursday on my iMac desktop and had been going mad with the constant checking for new email and downloading. What I finally noticed today after searching for solutions was that after the upgrade, an IMAP account was added - I don't know how or why. Once I inactivated the IMAP account and reactivated my existing POP account everything went back to normal.

I had the same problem, but my mail was downloading THOUSANDS of emails. Drove me crazy. Here is the quick, simple and easy fix I found. This worked for me:

http://www.rawinfopages.com/mac/content/stop-gmail-downloading-thousands-emails- mac-mail

Yairz,

I have the same problem, exactly as you describe. Sorry I don't have a solution, but you are not alone. My Mail application frequently indicates it is "Downloading Messages" on the bottom left. Currently it is at 7,476 of 12,454 and rising. The numbers change continuously. Often times it stops and starts over again. It has to be some kind of sync issue but I can't figure out what. I also do not know what email account or folder it is downloading to.

I am having the same/similar issue. I am able to temporarily correct if I unclick Mail within my iCloud account (preferences), close mail, then reopen mail, and finally reenable iCloud mail. Then the @mac.com account resyncs briefly before showing and holding on downloading. Quite frustrating. The best I can do for the moment is either use this account on my iPhone or via the iCloud browser and hope that eventually when a patch comes out the mail will sync properly.

Hi:

Check this thread.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7275988?start=0&tstart=0

Some people have found that disabling Avast helps. In my case that did not work. But I managed to keep Mail's CPU under control by reducing the number of folders in my IMAP account. In my case Mail still uses ~200% CPU, but since I have less folders it does it only for ~10-20s when it checks for new emails (before it was ~4-5 minutes), and hence it is not killing the whole Mac. I think that there is still a problem in Mail in El Capitan which I hope gets resolved in the next update. I don't know whether this is your problem, but perhaps this thread helps. Cheers, Mariano.

I am having the problem with mail re-downloading. This only happens with one of about 10 mail accounts I have. It is a GoDaddy imap account. I have several other GoDaddy accounts where this does not happen.

I do not have Avast or any other A/V software installed.

What I have done:

I have deleted and recreated the account three times.

I have backed up my drive, the erased it, did a fresh install of El Capitan and used migration assistant to copy back my data, apps and settings.

I have deleted the V2 Folder.

I notice that the problem seems to coincide with the following message in my console log:

Mail[2927]: [IMAP] Server sent warning response for command CAPABILITY: * NO Error in IMAP command received by server.

John: I'm curious whether that problematic account has many folders and/or many emails. Thanks. Mariano