Mail constantly downloading messages

I should add that, unlike most users, my mail does NOT remain on the IMAP server once it is downloaded. How the files could be downloaded over and over is a mystery to me, unless there is some latency in the server deletion.

Update to my previous post. changing the port values and setting the SSL option did not fix my problem. I called verizon to see if they had installed any updates/changes to their server and they said no. So, the only other thing had changed since the this problem started was the action of receiving new emails. I keep all my emails on the server, so I went to Verizon,s webmail server and saw that there were 5300+ emails on it. Started thinking that maybe Apple might have an issue/limit on the number of emails it can process. I deleted around 2000 old emails and my phone stopped constantly downloading emails every time I open the Mail App on my phone. Happy iPhone user again.

Glad you managed to resolve your situation. Unfortunately, that solution won't work for me, since I don't store my messages on the server. I have since discovered that the folder that keeps building up with copies of messages (/Users/LMHML/Library/Mail/V3/IMAP-LMHML@lm.deskmail.washington.edu) is completely independent of /Users/LMHML/Library/Mail/V3/Mailboxes, where the messages that actually appear in Mail are stored. I deleted the IMAP directory and changed my setup so that copies of my messages are left on the server (because everyone kept telling me deleting them was the problem). Nothing was damaged, but the deleted directory immediately reappeared and started storing multiple copies of newly downloaded messages again. So it seems the only obvious solutions are to stop using Mail or run a little script deleting the IMAP directory every day. ;*) Interestingly, the IMAP directory contains the same mailbox structure as is defined on the server.

A computer managed by an email account provider that acts as a digital post office and allows the transfer of email messages from sender to recipient. Outgoing mail servers (often called SMTP servers) handle messages being sent. Incoming mail servers handle messages being received. For IMAP accounts (such as iCloud or Gmail), copies of messages are stored on incoming mail servers until they are deleted.

The reappearing and copying of message in the directory IMAP-LMHML... is normal behaviour. Even if you keep the messages on the server, Mail makes a directory where it keeps a local copy of all mails. This copy stays synchronised with the server; if you add a new / delete an old mail in a folder on the server it gets added / deleted in the local directory. If you wonder what the advantage is of keeping the emails in the server, it is that you can see them from any device. (Other mail clients do the same.) Downloading multiple copies of those emails to the local IMAP-LMHML directory is, however, not normal. Do you see all those multiple copies appearing in the local directory, or is it that you see in the activity window that Mail is constantly downloading emails? If it is the latter, I suspect you have one (or more) corrupted emails in the server. At least that is what happened to me. It is not easy, though, to figure out which one(s)!

I have looked in the IMAP-LMHML directory using UNIX commands. That's how I found the problem. The directory grows all the time. I also viewed several messages using vi. I found as many as 14 duplicates in there. The local directories to which I move the messages are unaffected.

I ended up deleting the account and setting it up again. This seems to have fixed the problem.

my mail is constantly downloading - that said, I haven’t had an actual email come through for over a month. When I go to deleted the reloaded mail, it asks me…delete 1,276 messages for the single one. Frustrating to say the least. My is’t a mail exchange account.

as I look at it at the moment, its currently downloading 167 of 24,430 seriously!

Stuart,

Thanks, the envelope deleting did the tick - it's stopped the continual downloads.

I too have this exact problem at the moment and have had it numerous times it in the past. I have rung Apple Care about it many times and they always act as if they've never heard of the issue before and they try to push the blame back on me in someway, like it's something I've done to stuff up Mail. There is no "Care" from Apple. Look how long this problem has existed and they haven't been able to fix it!! Or maybe haven't tried? Despite all the updates we are advised to download. It's unbelievable. And extremely frustrating. If anyone has come across a solution for this problem as of 13 Sept 2016, I would be really grateful to hear how you've done it. Cheers.

I have only noticed this in the last 24hrs. In that time my home internet has been down and I have had to resort to hot spotting from my iPhone 5s. I wonder if it has to do with more syncing messages between the iPhone and the MacBook as this would seem like a logical answer give the higher numbers?

It would be good to know what people think as I am concerned I am chewing up my phone data.

I saw this for limiting the amount of mail in your imap folders via Google mail settings. Haven't tried it yet but it seems helpful. http://www.rawinfopages.com/mac/content/stop-gmail-downloading-thousands-emails- mac-mail

This worked for me - thanks.

Hi, Happy to report I solved this problem in my case. I had this problem since performing a clean macOS Sierra 10.12 install. Today I went through the Mailbox Behaviors for each account and set Erase junk messages & Erase deleted messages to After one month, for each of my email accounts. The downloading status now goes away after downloading new emails from each account.

I also found these instructions for rebuilding the Apple Mail database, it has helped solve problems in the past http://c-command.com/spamsieve/help/how-can-i-rebuild-apple

Hi Recto Bold,

I have had this problem for a few weeks now. After disabling Avast Security (Free) my mail works normally again. The strange thing with my problem was that I have both "Live" and "hotmail" accounts (both provided by microsoft) but only the hotmail account had the problem.

Thanks for your advice.