My mail app isn't working right...please help?

faithfulfrankfaithfulfrank
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Hello all,

My mail app all of a sudden seems to be broken. There is a triangle with an exclamation point indise of it right next to my inbox. Next to that there is a spinning wheel...not a beachball, just the spinning wheel, like it is still trying to get mail.



I have a .mac address, and using the internet and going to .mac, i can do everything. My connection is ok, because my internet is working.



I tried shutting down my computer and restarting, but that did not work. What do I do next? I have a G4 imac running Tiger. I tried repairing permissions, nothing was bad and that did not work.

I do not know what to do next.



thanks, Frank D.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    jabohnjabohn Posts: 582member
    What does it say when you click on the "exclamation point"?
  • Reply 2 of 10
    faithfulfrankfaithfulfrank Posts: 106member
    Oh, I did not know I could do that.



    It says:



    Connection failed



    There may be a problem with the mail server or network. Check the settings for account "(my email)"or try again.

    The server error encountered was: The connection to the server "mail.mac.com" on port 143 timed out.



    then it has to buttons, stay offline or go online



    thanks, frank D.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    faithfulfrankfaithfulfrank Posts: 106member
    Perhaps .mac is down.......



    Frank D.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    faithfulfrankfaithfulfrank Posts: 106member
    Actually, .mac seems to be working, although others say it might be down.

    .mac seems to be working for me.......I just received e-mail to my .mac account two minutes ago,,,,my mail program is stil no t working, but if I go to a new safari window and open .mac, it seems to work.



    I do not know what to think.



    Frank d.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    tilttilt Posts: 396member
    I am pretty new to Macs myself, but in my case this triangle has always meant that the mailbox is offline. What I do is click on "Mailbox" in the top menu and click on "Go Online" and then it starts to work again.



    Let me know if this is indeed your problem.



    Cheers
  • Reply 6 of 10
    faithfulfrankfaithfulfrank Posts: 106member
    no, that has not worked. i am online, i clicked "go online", but it still is not working.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    faithfulfrankfaithfulfrank Posts: 106member
    I called my local mac guru, he walked me through alot of stuff, like taking my com.apple.mail.plist out, going to my imac, library, mail etc,etc,etc and taking out something else and trying to relaunch it. All of a sudden, my mail is messed up bad.



    Thankfully, i can still send/receive e-mail, but I have to go to my browser and log on to .mac to do it. My mail app is not responding to anything. Keeps showing that exclamation point. When tryimng to shut it down, I would have to force quit it a few times, although now it seems to be able to quit by itself.



    Funny that when I change the port number to 587, it seems to change it, but when I try to launch mail after, it still says that port 143 timed out.



    I'm about to throw my tiger disk in and reformat everything, although I do not reallly want to do that.



    Frank D.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    jabohnjabohn Posts: 582member
    This is a shot in the dark...



    1. Make sure that the Mail application is in the main Applications folder.

    2. Download the Mac OS 10.4.8 Combo updater from Apple's site.

    3. Repair permissions

    4. Install the combo updater and reboot



    The combo updater can sometimes cure glitches, hopefully it's cure yours.
  • Reply 9 of 10
    faithfulfrankfaithfulfrank Posts: 106member
    Well, I guess it was just a .mac side issue.......everything is working fine today.

    I wonder why .mac could work fine online. but not work with your mail app?



    Thanks for all your help!



    Frank D.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    tilttilt Posts: 396member
    I am glad your issue resolved itself. It would be nice though, to know why it happened in the first place. Wish someone would know and tell us



    Cheers
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