Apple Mail 9.3 (3124) slow to move, delete or send messages

Question

Apple Mail 9.3 (3124) slow to move, delete or send messages

Hello, I wonder if anyone can help please?

I am using El Capitan 10.11.5 with Apple Mail 9.3 and am experiencing slowness in the mail app when moving, deleting or sending mail. I only have the one email account configured which is an iCloud account.

For example, if I delete ten emails from my inbox there will be a progress bar at the bottom of the leftmost pane saying moving message 1 of 10 and it could take as much as 5 minutes to complete. During this time although the emails have gone from the inbox, if I click into the trash folder the emails are not there and clicking back into the inbox will show the ten emails again. They do eventually delete but it takes a long time.

Sending mail is the same. Once I click send, the email appears in the outbox but stays there for sometimes as long as five minutes. The funny thing is I receive the test email on my other device almost straight away so the email is leaving the mac quickly but seems to be getting hung up in the mail app.

This is what I have tried so far: a clean install on a clean formatted hard disk of El Capitan followed by a time machine restoration of my data, programs and settings. I have tried deleting the mail sandbox folders: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail and ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.MailServiceAgent. I deleted these files one at a time and logged off and back on after each one but didn't see any performance increase. I've tried logging out of iCloud, fully shutting down and restarting, then signing back into iCloud but had no luck.

Can I ask, has anyone else seen this behaviour before and/or have any tips or fixes please?

Just for the record I am using an iMac 27" Mid-2010 i3 16GB.

I am grateful for any help I receive.

Thanking you in advance.

Alex

VIN, iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Jun 16, 2016 11:32 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 16, 2016 11:35 AM in response to WickedestSound

Hi,

With the Mail app open go to the menu bar then click Window > Connection Doctor

Use Mail Connection Doctor

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Answer 2

Jun 16, 2016 12:25 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Hi, the connection doctor shows iCloud IMAP Connection and login to server succeeded, and iCloud SMTP Connection and login to the server succeeded. Should I be clicking on show logs or show detail please?

Many thanks

Alex

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Answer 3

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jun 16, 2016 12:53 PM in response to WickedestSound

Do you have any other mail accounts, and if so, are they the same?

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Answer 4

Jun 16, 2016 12:54 PM in response to WickedestSound

Just to update my situation,

I've just noticed that I'm getting an error message pop up while Apple Mail is trying to move my messages to the trash. The error is 'The connection to the server “p02-imap.mail.me.com” on port 993 timed out.'

I've checked my Internet speed and I am getting 207Mb downstream and 12Mb upstream. Browsing and downloads are very quick.

Alex

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Answer 5

Jun 16, 2016 1:19 PM in response to Linc Davis

Hi, no other mail accounts, just my iCloud account.

Many thanks

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Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Jun 19, 2016 2:37 AM in response to WickedestSound

There several possible causes for this issue:

1. The mail server is malfunctioning.

2. Something in the network, such as your router, a proxy server, or your ISP, is interfering with the connection.

3. Third-party software that you installed is interfering.

4. The settings for the mail account are wrong.

You may be able to narrow down these possibilities by means of the following tests or observations:

A. If another device on the same network can send or receive mail normally through the same server at the same timewith what you're sure are the same settings, that rules out everything except 3.

B. If the problem is intermittent and you're not changing anything, that rules out 3 and 4.

C. If you can always use the account when connected to a different network, but never on this network, that rules out everything except 2.

D. If you can never get or send mail normally from any device on any network, with the correct server settings according to the mail service provider, that rules out everything except 1.

Please post the results of as many of the above tests as you can run.

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Answer 7

Jun 19, 2016 2:44 AM in response to Linc Davis

Hello again,

I have tried to send and receive mail using Outlook 2016 on a Windows laptop from the same LAN and ISP that my Mac is on. I saw the same performance as the Mac. Slow to move the deleted messages. The Windows laptop is using the same p02-imap.mail.me.com mail server for both incoming and outgoing mail. I've seen the same performance on my iPhone as well.

It's now Sunday morning. I haven't made any changes to my setup but this morning (Sunday 10:40am British Summer Time) I deleted four emails and they moved to the trash almost instantly. I'll continue to monitor but as of now my mail app is working normally.

Many thanks for all the assistance.

Alex

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Answer 8

Jun 27, 2016 10:43 AM in response to WickedestSound

Hello again, I have resolved my poor Apple Mail performance by reinstalling OSX El Capitan 'over' itself.

The way I did this is as follows:

1. Make sure you have a working backup of all of your data.

2. Restart your Mac while holding down command + R. Choose the option to reinstall El Capitan. Point the installer to your Macintosh HD drive and sign into iCloud when prompted.

Once the reinstall had finished I was back to my normal desktop and all my data was there. I could just carry on as before. Your mileage may vary so make sure you've got backups.

It's been over a week now and my mail app (indeed the whole Mac) is working well and not taking over 2 hours to move 20 emails to the trash.

I hope this helps and thank you to all the people who helped me.

Alex

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