Mac Mail won't remove copy from server

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Level 1

107 points

Mac Mail won't remove copy from server

My mail remains in the ISP's Inbox despite the proper setting in my Mac Mail program to remove copy from server immediately after downloading. Even after I close my mail program, the old mail will not be deleted. I must go to my Inbox via the Net and delete the mail with a global tag/delete.

This problem began 5 to 7 months ago. Before that the auto deletion worked fine, and it worked fine in older versions of OS X. Is this an ISP compatibility? A bug in the current Mac Mail release? A bug in Tiger?

I asked my ISP and his first reply said this is one of many bugs in Mac Mail and I should switch to Thunderbird. I'll look at that but I prefer to use Apple software.

After 4 years I know how seldom Apple debugs Mail and Safari. Does anyone know if an update of Mail is on Apple's schedule?

iMac and others Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on May 31, 2007 1:20 PM

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Answer 1

May 31, 2007 2:16 PM in response to Raybo

Your ISP doesn't know what he is talking about, in so far as "many bugs in Mac Mail"!

Clarify: beneath the choice to remove from the server after retrieving the message, the choice in the menu is Right Away?

If so, then in Mail Preferences/Accounts/Advanced change the selection after one week. Then immediately quit Mail. Relaunch Mail, and change the preference back to Right Away, and test for a time. This change will only impact future messages, I believe, and not any on the server at present.

Of course in Mail 2.x, you can Control-click on any mailbox, choose Get Info from the resulting contextual menu, navigate to the proper account, and remove messages selectively without resorting to web mail.

Ernie

The choice to remove Right Away is working when I tested it just now, although that is not my normal setting.

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Answer 2

Raybo Author

Level 1

107 points

Jun 1, 2007 2:10 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

Clarify: beneath the choice to remove from the
server after retrieving the message, the choice in
the menu is Right Away?

Yup.

If so, then in Mail Preferences/Accounts/Advanced
change the selection after one week. Then
immediately quit Mail. Relaunch Mail, and change the
preference back to Right Away, and test for a time.

Ok, did that. Now we'll see if it cures the problem.

Of course in Mail 2.x, you can Control-click on any
mailbox, choose Get Info from the resulting
contextual menu, navigate to the proper account, and
remove messages selectively without resorting to web
mail.

Very handy! Thanks Ernie.

iMac and others Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 3

Raybo Author

Level 1

107 points

Jun 2, 2007 8:06 PM in response to Raybo

If so, then in Mail Preferences/Accounts/Advanced
change the selection after one week. Then
immediately quit Mail. Relaunch Mail, and change
the preference back to Right Away, and test for a
time.

Ok, did that. Now we'll see if it cures the problem.

Didn't cure anything so I'll keep playing with that. Sure would be easier for Apple to cure this Mac Mail bug than for us to try to.

iMac and others Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 4

Jun 2, 2007 8:13 PM in response to Raybo

Raybo,

The next thing to try, is removing the plist for the preferences, as follows:

Quit Mail, and in the Finder open Home/Library and locate the Mail folder. Control-click over the Mail folder, and choose Duplicate -- then drag the resulting copy to the Desktop for temporary backup. Next, open Home/Library/Preferences and find the com.apple.mail.plist file and drag it to the desktop.

Relaunch Mail, which will open as though new, and when prompted to import anything DECLINE. Instead, re-enter your account info, including the preference for removing from the server, and Mail will re-discover the account folders for your accounts, and you can test this behavior again.

Ask any needed questions, and keep us posted.

Ernie

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Answer 5

Raybo Author

Level 1

107 points

Jun 2, 2007 8:53 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

Raybo,

The next thing to try, is removing the plist for the
preferences, as follows:

Quit Mail, and in the Finder open Home/Library and
locate the Mail folder. Control-click over the Mail
folder, and choose Duplicate -- then drag the
resulting copy to the Desktop for temporary backup.
Next, open Home/Library/Preferences and find the
com.apple.mail.plist file and drag it to the
desktop.

Relaunch Mail, which will open as though new, and
when prompted to import anything DECLINE.
Instead, re-enter your account info, including the
preference for removing from the server, and Mail
will re-discover the account folders for your
accounts, and you can test this behavior again.

Ask any needed questions, and keep us posted.

Ernie

Ok, did all that and it seems to be working. The new Mail install said there were no Mboxes to copy, but when all was completed, nothing was missing. I changed the preferences back to mine, and we'll see what happens now.

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Answer 6

Raybo Author

Level 1

107 points

Jun 3, 2007 8:20 AM in response to Raybo

Ok, did all that and it seems to be working. The new
Mail install said there were no Mboxes to copy, but
when all was completed, nothing was missing. I
changed the preferences back to mine, and we'll see
what happens now.

Removing the plist and re-installing Mac Mail did nothing for the problem. Dowloaded messages remain in the ISP's mailbox, filling up my allotment and requiring manual deletion every day. Is there a way to ask Apple to look into this?

iMac and others Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 7

Jun 3, 2007 10:34 AM in response to Raybo

Raybo,

Who is your ISP, and provider of this mail server? Let me see if I can find any reference to them and this issue, anywhere?

Did your Mail folder and accounts originate in Tiger, or in an earlier version of Mail and OSX? Are you still running 10.4.8, or have you not updated your version information?

Ernie

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Answer 8

Raybo Author

Level 1

107 points

Jun 3, 2007 1:49 PM in response to Ernie Stamper

Ernie,

While the first test of this did not remove messages, the next two tests did. Perhaps it will continue to work.

As noted earlier, this had worked well for several years before breaking.

I'm really grateful not to have to switch mail programs. I have hours, many hours, invested in honing Mac Mail spam filters. My ISP can't filter worth Bush so we have to do it locally.

iMac and others Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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Answer 9

Raybo Author

Level 1

107 points

Jun 3, 2007 1:51 PM in response to Raybo

And before I forget, many thanks for your help! I'd never have gotten there without you.

iMac and others Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 10

Raybo Author

Level 1

107 points

Jun 5, 2007 9:31 AM in response to Raybo

Blast. Here it is day 2 or 3 and it's back to failing to clean out the Inbox. Worked twice and that's all.

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Answer 11

Jun 5, 2007 11:30 AM in response to Raybo

I’ve been following this thread with interest because some things I didn’t expect to work appeared to work, but since it seems that’s not the case anymore, let me say that apparently Mail sometimes does fail to remove messages from the server when Remove copy from server is set to Right away — don’t know why.

I can only guess Mail has problems communicating with certain POP servers, and precisely because the setting is Right away, never tries again. Try changing the setting to After one day or When moved from Inbox (and leave it at that), to see whether it’s just the Right away setting that doesn’t work or that Mail fails to remove messages from that server no matter what the settings.

BTW, have you actually tried using another mail client such as Thunderbird to check whether the same happens there as well?

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Answer 12

Raybo Author

Level 1

107 points

Jun 5, 2007 12:34 PM in response to David Gimeno Gost

Try changing the setting to After one day or When moved
from Inbox (and leave it at that), to see whether it’s just the Right > away setting that doesn’t work or that Mail fails to remove messages > from that server no matter what the settings.

I'll do that.

BTW, have you actually tried using another mail
client such as Thunderbird
to check whether the same happens there as well?

My ISP, who hosts a university and has a higher percentage of Mac users than most, recommended Thunderbird so I presume it does well here at Ntelos.net

Once upon a time, for two decades as the active proprietor of the Freeware Hall of Fame, ( www.freewarehof.org ) my 12-hour-a-day hobby was installing and testing applications and utilities. I guess I'm tired, because it no longer sounds like fun.

iMac and others Mac OS X (10.4.8)

iMac and others Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 13

godfreyc

Level 1

5 points

Jun 6, 2007 7:19 AM in response to David Gimeno Gost

I've been having this problem for a while too - glad to hear it's not just me. I've tried all the suggested fixes and nothing works. Is it too much to hope that Apple is working to fix it? I can't find any way of reporting it to them.

G4 Quicksilver 733MHz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

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Answer 14

Jun 6, 2007 8:22 AM in response to godfreyc

> I can't find any way of reporting it to them.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/
http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/

Don’t expect your report to get anywhere if Apple cannot reproduce the problem or if it’s not Mail’s fault, though.

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Answer 15

godfreyc

Level 1

5 points

Jun 6, 2007 11:56 PM in response to David Gimeno Gost

Thanks for that - I've just submitted feedback. This problem came out of nowhere and clearly affects many others, so hopefully they CAN reproduce it.

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