Mail constantly downloading emails

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Level 1

56 points

Mail constantly downloading emails

I've had an ongoing issue roughly coinciding with me upgrading to High Sierra I believe. First I noticed it on my MacBook Pro but that seems to have stopped. Now it's happening frequently on my Mac Pro. Apple Mail is often found downloading large numbers of emails - 5k, 15k etc - the numbers change. It completes the process then seems to be ok for a while then it starts downloading again, I think generally after I re-open Mail. But there isn't an obvious pattern. I have 3 active accounts and don't know which one is downloading but suspect a GMail one.

Any advice anyone?

Thank you

Mac Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13.2), 32GB RAM, G-RAiD Studio 6TB etc.

Posted on Jan 10, 2018 5:33 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

insch Author

Level 1

56 points

Jan 18, 2018 12:59 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

This problem hasn't gone away. I spent some time simplifying my mailbox setups - getting rid of labels in GMail etc. and archiving any mail older than 6 months on to local folders on my Mac. This hasn't worked and I am still frequently getting 'downloading x messages' with 'x' often being several thousand. I tried Luis' fix 'Command-Shift-N' which started 'Checking for Mail' but it didn't stop the downloading of the original thousands of emails. I have attached a grab of the Activity window to show this.

I have no idea how to stop this. It's happening on my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro. It's not such a big issue in my studio when connected to my network but when I'm away from WIFI, synching my laptop to my phone's personal hotspot and data limit then it's a big problem. Any ideas, anyone? I'm a bit lost. This didn't happen before.

Thank you 😕

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Answer 2

AaronA36

Level 1

15 points

Mar 13, 2018 12:10 PM in response to insch

I was experiencing this issue as well across four machines in my office. Over 30GB were unnecessarily being downloaded daily. Neither Apple nor G Suite (email provider) support was able to offer any meaningful solution.

What I eventually discovered was the issue is linked to the setting under mailbox behaviors to store drafts on the server. Changing this to store drafts "on my mac" and restarting Mail resolved the issue for me. I hope this is useful to others suffering from this issue, of which there seems to be many.

I'm not sure if this is an issue with G Suite or with Mail, or maybe a combination of both. Interestingly personal gmail accounts don't seem to be affected. Regardless it was incredibly frustrating to deal with considering email working properly is one of my most basic expectations from my computer/email provider.

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Answer 3

Jan 10, 2018 6:06 AM in response to insch

Are you sure it is actually downloading?

I sometimes see the indication "downloading N messages" at the bottom left, but it is not actually doing anything. Seems to be a visual glitch only. Pressing command-shift-N to check for new messages clears it up.

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Answer 4

insch Author

Level 1

56 points

Jan 10, 2018 6:07 AM in response to getangar

Not that I'm aware of. I recently archived my 2016 mail into folders on my Mac and those archive folders are listed under 'On My Mac' in Mail but I have removed those emails from my active Inboxes and they no longer appear there.

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Answer 5

insch Author

Level 1

56 points

Jan 10, 2018 6:48 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Thanks Luis

I'll keep my eye on that. Next time it happens I'll try your fix. I certainly hope it isn't downloading. It says it is in the Activity window. I was away from wifi with my laptop when that was doing it and it appeared to use up my data limit on my hotspot constantly downloading messages.

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Answer 6

Feb 5, 2018 7:17 AM in response to insch

I have the same thing happening. I also spent a good chunk of time getting rid of older emails and moving them to local folders. I have three active accounts, two of which are gmail accounts and one is iCloud. Mail app downloads messages all day long every day.

I've checked activity monitor and the download is listed there with a progress bar, just like in your screenshot. I've tried selecting Mailbox > Rebuild but it does not appear to do anything.

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Answer 7

insch Author

Level 1

56 points

Feb 5, 2018 7:34 AM in response to HelmetStudio

The issue still happens with me. It happens on my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro but seems to be much more on the MP. I have tried various strategies and none have worked. I spent some time with a senior Apple Service person and they suggested deleting my accounts in Mail and then re-creating them. I haven't done that yet. I have 3 email accounts but the issue seems to be with a GMail account in my case. At least turning that off in pref stops the downloading.

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Answer 8

insch Author

Level 1

56 points

Mar 13, 2018 1:36 PM in response to AaronA36

Thanks. I resolved the issue with the hlep of GMail support. It turned out that I had over 140k emails in 'All Mail' in my mail account even though hardly any of them were still in mail boxes. When I had been archiving my old mail locally on my Mac it had continued to save that mail in 'All Mail' and it seemed to be trying to sync that to my Mail programme but to where I don't know. Doing a massive clear out in GMail seemed to resolve things.

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Answer 9

Apr 27, 2018 9:25 AM in response to insch

I'm having the same problem with 130,000 emails as well..... Did you get the gmail support from posting on their help forum or directly some other way? Im trying to figure out how to do this as well! Its been going on forever and now Im setting up a new iMac and its happening again...

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Answer 10

insch Author

Level 1

56 points

Apr 27, 2018 9:30 AM in response to Dgrasso77

I got help from Google by signing up for a free trial of GSuite. It all came down to the thousands of emails I had in 'All Mail' in GMail that were trying to sync to non-existent mailboxes in Apple Mail. I'd archived them all on my Mac locally and then deleted them in Apple Mail but that didn't transfer to the GMail servers. Once they were all cleared out online all was fine.

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