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Level 1

20 points

Disable the Push IMAP (IDLE) email in macOS Sierra

Does anyone know how to disable pushed IMAP email in macOS Sierra? In previous OSes, this option was in

Mail Preferences -> Accounts -> {chosen account} -> Advanced tab

and the option to change this behavior was at the bottom:

[√] Use IDLE command if the server supports it

I can find no representation of this option within macOS Sierra, nor can I find a way to change this option manually in El Capitan via 'defaults' or a specific preference file to attempt to replicate this behavior manually.

The changing "Check for new Messages:" option has no effect on this behavior.

Any assistance is most welcome!

nabeards

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Sep 30, 2016 12:17 PM

22 replies

Nov 22, 2016 3:38 PM in response to freek_zero

I have just realized this is a big problem for me as well - would love to see this fixed or at least an explanation as to why that feature was removed.

Dec 12, 2016 8:40 PM in response to nabeards

Based on Re: Limit Number of IMAP connections to Mail Server ...? I tried to add the key (which was not present in the plist file) in a Sierra installation but it made no difference. Large numbers of smtp connections keep piling up on the server.

Another iMac on the same network also using Mail to connect to multiple accounts on the same mail server does not show this behaviour. It hasn't upgraded to Sierra yet.

ErikJW

Level 1

8 points

Dec 15, 2016 1:47 AM in response to freek_zero

My website crashed today with 500 internal server error, due to IDLE processes from IMAP settings. As Apple have for some obscure reason removed this option to disable IDLE processes I have switched back to POP3 while I look for another email client, that is more stable than Apple Mail. Hopefully I can get my 'business' website up and running again quickly.

Apple Mail seems to crash and hang far too often these days. I upgraded to Sierra last week and it just seems to be more problematic.

Hope this helps others having same problem.