How to troubleshoot Apple (Mac) Mail

This article discusses how to troubleshoot problems with Apple (Mac) Mail, the default e-mail client application for computers running Mac OS X.

General e-mail troubleshooting steps

Before you review the Apple Mail-specific troubleshooting steps below, you should review the general e-mail troubleshooting steps described in this article.

Apple Mail-specific troubleshooting steps

If the general e-mail troubleshooting steps do not resolve the problem, you may be experiencing an issue specific to Apple Mail. Review the following problem descriptions and resolutions to see if any apply to your situation:

Unable to connect to account

If you are unable to connect to your account at all, check the following items:

• You have specified the correct User Name and Password settings in Apple Mail.
• You have specified the complete A2 Hosting server name in the Incoming Mail Server and Outgoing Mail Server settings in Apple Mail.

Incoming messages not appearing in inbox

Apple Mail may occasionally stop displaying new e-mail messages, even though there are new messages in your account. You can verify this by seeing new messages in webmail or another e-mail client application, but not Apple Mail.

To try to resolve this problem, follow these steps:

1. In Apple Mail, on the Mailbox menu, click Take All Accounts Offline.
2. Wait at least ten seconds.
3. On the Mailbox menu, click Take All Accounts Online. Any new messages should now appear in your inbox.

Mailbox not updating

If Apple Mail seems to be “stuck” and you are unable to send or receive messages, Apple Mail may be having problems synchronizing with the mail server. This problem seems to occur more frequently with IMAP connections.

To try to resolve this problem, follow these steps:

1. Exit Apple Mail.
2. Using the Finder, open the /Users/username/Library/Mail/V2/IMAP-account_name folder, where username represents your Mac computer username, and account_name represents the name of the e-mail account.
3. Delete the hidden folder .OfflineCache.
   This step does not actually delete any messages, only the offline cache.
4. Restart Apple Mail, which rebuilds the cache and creates a new .OfflineCache folder.

Other common issues

Here are some other common Apple Mail issues and information about how to troubleshoot them:

• Messages are not copied to the Sent folder when using IMAP: For information about how to resolve this problem, please see this article.
• Apple Mail asks repeatedly for your password: There are many possible causes for this problem. If the problem persists, try resetting the password for your e-mail account, and then specifying the new password in Apple Mail. For more information, please visit https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204187.

More Information

For additional Apple Mail troubleshooting suggestions, please visit Apple's official site at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204075.