Any relevant details that would be of help to solving the problem?
Moving to Genius Bar.
Any version of OS X!
Any type of mail connection!
Happens at any point during the day, regardless of whether the mail server has a problem or whether it's working a full tilt. I used to think it was just after the machine had woken up from sleep, but apparently not.
Happens to everyone I know (personally) who is running OS X and using Mail as their e-mail program, regardless of the type of mac they are running it on (iBook, iMac, PowerBook G4, eMac, Power Mac G4, Power Mac G5). I don't know how many clean installations of OS X I've have on my machine at home (close to triple figures) and it always does it.
I would suggest that this is not an installation/machine specific problem, but a problem with an integral part of Mac OS X. I'm not looking for feedback on how I can fix the problem (because I don't believe I can) but rather on how Apple can fix the problem. I want feedback on how many people around the world are also bugged by this problem. When I say 'Get it sorted' I'm not telling the users of AI to scuttle off and find a solution for little old me - I'm showing Apple that I'm not happy with this bug (and hopefully other people will respond with their similar experiences), and telling them in no uncertain terms that if they want us to continue using their software, and to continue recommending it to friends and colleagues - then they should get it sorted.
I thought this was meant to be software for professionals? I don't want to be 90% through a 250 point manual path in Photoshop, or be in the guts of a 128 page InDesign publication, only to see that bloody icon jumping up and down.
I'm sick fed up of singing the praises of the mac platform, only for it to come back and bite me in the arse. My life is constantly punctuated by people saying "you said OS X is great but XXX no longer works". Only last night I found out that after installing Apple's state of the art new operating system, our scanner software doesn't work any more and I now have to format the machine and install Jaguar from scratch. I didn't notice the line in the fancy brochure for Panther that said "Breaks some of your existing software."
And another thing - whilst I'm still on the wrong side of the bed - what's the story with the organise by thread fefature. I thought it was smart? But it turns out that anybody who has titled their e-mail Re: Brochure gets clumped under the one thread? Useless! Absolutely useless!
I've got a business idea for any programmer out there with an ounce of talent and desire to be a billionaire - concentrate on writing software that actually fecking works, rather than wasting your time animating the way that windows minimise into the dock.
Apple managed to turn the mac from a machine that 'just works' into a machine that 'just doesn't work'.
Coincidentally, at the very time I noticed this thread, before I even knew that there was a member named "Messiah", I was importing Handel's mass-terpiece into iTunes in preparation for Christmas.
I would suspect that there is something weird going on with the mail server that you are attaching to. Mail will remember your password until the mail server tell it that it is wrong. I had a similar problem with one mail server that I used, it turned out that they had a system that only allowed checking x times an hour. As it turned out the way they counted those times was more than a little wonkey, and sometimes it would decide I had done it enough times, and tell my my client that I was not authorized. Seeing this Mail.app would forget the password (assuming it was bad) and ask me for it again.
I solved this issue by moving everything over to an IMP server that I was working on. Solve so many other problems as well.
I would suspect that there is something weird going on with the mail server that you are attaching to. Mail will remember your password until the mail server tell it that it is wrong. I had a similar problem with one mail server that I used, it turned out that they had a system that only allowed checking x times an hour. As it turned out the way they counted those times was more than a little wonkey, and sometimes it would decide I had done it enough times, and tell my my client that I was not authorized. Seeing this Mail.app would forget the password (assuming it was bad) and ask me for it again.
I solved this issue by moving everything over to an IMP server that I was working on. Solve so many other problems as well.
Happens to me too, once every few days. I figure that it will only let me connect a certain amount of times per day/week/month. All I have to do is type it in again. I always have mail open and hidden and have it set to check for new mail every five minutes.
Happens to me or my wife daily. Basically the conclusion that I've come to is our e-mail service only allows one of use to connect at a time (I have both our Macs setup to check the same addresses). If it just so happens that our Mail clients go to check at the same time, then the second one gets kicked back. I don't know the exact message the mail server is giving the client, but basically I suspect it is a "not authorized" message. It annoys the me to no end. By default I would like Mail to just tell me it was "unable to check mail" because you see, my wife isn't as computer savvy, so more often than not she sees that error, has no clue what password to put in, and she either enters her login (Panther login that is) or hits cancel. She then gets put into "offline" mode without any type of notice from Mail that she is offline, then I get home from work and she tells me "e-mail must not be working, I haven't got anything since 9:00 AM this morning".
Real PITA (not my wife, just Mail's handling of this situation). I was hoping the Mail update would have been "smarter" than it was in the past. Alas, no such luck
It's just been pointed out to me that the problem is occuring with different mail servers. Indeed we switched mail servers just recently, and the problem effected both servers.
Doesn't explain how our machines running OS 9 and MS Outlook can check for mail as often as they like, and not lose their passwords...
Now that I read about it: this indeed is the most annoying bug/feature in Mail... I wish they put a 'unable to get mail' message instead, as Fuzz_ball suggests.
I cannot believe that these posts are ten years old and this problem still exists. I'm completely new to Mac and to Apple for that matter, but my sense is this issue of bouncing icons, blank passwords and lightning bolts in inboxes is not a server issue but an operating system issue. I have never, ever had an issue like this in any Windows-based email client, using all of the same servers that I've always used. Why, then, should the issue suddenly become a server issue when I switch to Mac? I have stopped putting the passwords in when the system asks. I usually just cancel and wait a time before trying again. Most of the time, it catches up, but sometimes this takes several minutes. Surely it can't be this bad! If anyone has any updates, I'd love to hear them please. But so far, my relationship with the Mac is aspirational - I'd love to be in love with it but am often simply annoyed by basic things like having to wait long periods before the email decides to connect to the server (that is, when it does). Though 10 years ago, I think Messiah had it right!
I cannot believe that these posts are ten years old and this problem still exists. I'm completely new to Mac and to Apple for that matter, but my sense is this issue of bouncing icons, blank passwords and lightning bolts in inboxes is not a server issue but an operating system issue.
I don't think it's an OS problem but a Mail problem. I doubt it happens with Outlook for Mac or Thunderbird. It happens randomly and it is annoying. I don't know why it prompts for the password but then again, iTunes prompts for an update every day on the spot at around 12am even though you tell it not to.
I find the Mail issue is resolved by cancelling the dialog, quitting Mail and then opening it again and enabling any accounts with the lightning marks. It then doesn't ask for the password for a while. It's difficult for Apple to fix these quirks because they have to be able to reproduce what's happening. It's quite a random occurrence for me - I can go weeks without it asking and then out of the blue, I get the popup. It would have to be some issue with it miscommunicating with the server, which prompts it to ask if you have the right password.
Comments
Type of mail connection?
Network problems ala servers going down?
Any relevant details that would be of help to solving the problem?
Moving to Genius Bar.
Originally posted by Brad
OS version?
Type of mail connection?
Network problems ala servers going down?
Any relevant details that would be of help to solving the problem?
Moving to Genius Bar.
Any version of OS X!
Any type of mail connection!
Happens at any point during the day, regardless of whether the mail server has a problem or whether it's working a full tilt. I used to think it was just after the machine had woken up from sleep, but apparently not.
Happens to everyone I know (personally) who is running OS X and using Mail as their e-mail program, regardless of the type of mac they are running it on (iBook, iMac, PowerBook G4, eMac, Power Mac G4, Power Mac G5). I don't know how many clean installations of OS X I've have on my machine at home (close to triple figures) and it always does it.
I would suggest that this is not an installation/machine specific problem, but a problem with an integral part of Mac OS X. I'm not looking for feedback on how I can fix the problem (because I don't believe I can) but rather on how Apple can fix the problem. I want feedback on how many people around the world are also bugged by this problem. When I say 'Get it sorted' I'm not telling the users of AI to scuttle off and find a solution for little old me - I'm showing Apple that I'm not happy with this bug (and hopefully other people will respond with their similar experiences), and telling them in no uncertain terms that if they want us to continue using their software, and to continue recommending it to friends and colleagues - then they should get it sorted.
I thought this was meant to be software for professionals? I don't want to be 90% through a 250 point manual path in Photoshop, or be in the guts of a 128 page InDesign publication, only to see that bloody icon jumping up and down.
I'm sick fed up of singing the praises of the mac platform, only for it to come back and bite me in the arse. My life is constantly punctuated by people saying "you said OS X is great but XXX no longer works". Only last night I found out that after installing Apple's state of the art new operating system, our scanner software doesn't work any more and I now have to format the machine and install Jaguar from scratch. I didn't notice the line in the fancy brochure for Panther that said "Breaks some of your existing software."
And another thing - whilst I'm still on the wrong side of the bed - what's the story with the organise by thread fefature. I thought it was smart? But it turns out that anybody who has titled their e-mail Re: Brochure gets clumped under the one thread? Useless! Absolutely useless!
I've got a business idea for any programmer out there with an ounce of talent and desire to be a billionaire - concentrate on writing software that actually fecking works, rather than wasting your time animating the way that windows minimise into the dock.
Apple managed to turn the mac from a machine that 'just works' into a machine that 'just doesn't work'.
(Messiah steps of the soapbox and tip toes off).
Originally posted by tonton
Isn't your password Hallelujah!?
Coincidentally, at the very time I noticed this thread, before I even knew that there was a member named "Messiah", I was importing Handel's mass-terpiece into iTunes in preparation for Christmas.
Damn! Need to change that password...
I solved this issue by moving everything over to an IMP server that I was working on. Solve so many other problems as well.
This is probably what you are running into.
Originally posted by Karl Kuehn
I would suspect that there is something weird going on with the mail server that you are attaching to. Mail will remember your password until the mail server tell it that it is wrong. I had a similar problem with one mail server that I used, it turned out that they had a system that only allowed checking x times an hour. As it turned out the way they counted those times was more than a little wonkey, and sometimes it would decide I had done it enough times, and tell my my client that I was not authorized. Seeing this Mail.app would forget the password (assuming it was bad) and ask me for it again.
I solved this issue by moving everything over to an IMP server that I was working on. Solve so many other problems as well.
This is probably what you are running into.
Good shout!
Real PITA (not my wife, just Mail's handling of this situation). I was hoping the Mail update would have been "smarter" than it was in the past. Alas, no such luck
Doesn't explain how our machines running OS 9 and MS Outlook can check for mail as often as they like, and not lose their passwords...
I cannot believe that these posts are ten years old and this problem still exists. I'm completely new to Mac and to Apple for that matter, but my sense is this issue of bouncing icons, blank passwords and lightning bolts in inboxes is not a server issue but an operating system issue. I have never, ever had an issue like this in any Windows-based email client, using all of the same servers that I've always used. Why, then, should the issue suddenly become a server issue when I switch to Mac? I have stopped putting the passwords in when the system asks. I usually just cancel and wait a time before trying again. Most of the time, it catches up, but sometimes this takes several minutes. Surely it can't be this bad! If anyone has any updates, I'd love to hear them please. But so far, my relationship with the Mac is aspirational - I'd love to be in love with it but am often simply annoyed by basic things like having to wait long periods before the email decides to connect to the server (that is, when it does). Though 10 years ago, I think Messiah had it right!
I don't think it's an OS problem but a Mail problem. I doubt it happens with Outlook for Mac or Thunderbird. It happens randomly and it is annoying. I don't know why it prompts for the password but then again, iTunes prompts for an update every day on the spot at around 12am even though you tell it not to.
I find the Mail issue is resolved by cancelling the dialog, quitting Mail and then opening it again and enabling any accounts with the lightning marks. It then doesn't ask for the password for a while. It's difficult for Apple to fix these quirks because they have to be able to reproduce what's happening. It's quite a random occurrence for me - I can go weeks without it asking and then out of the blue, I get the popup. It would have to be some issue with it miscommunicating with the server, which prompts it to ask if you have the right password.