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Stuncle Eve · May 18, 2008, 12:06 PM

When a couple of expected emails never showed up in my Mac Mail inbox, I checked the account on webmail, & found the missing emails apparently still sitting on the server, alongside emails which had been downloaded by Mail. All my preferences & settings checked out, & I can't figure out why these messages (bills, subscriptions, as well as some personal) aren't making it to my Mail inbox.

Has anyone encountered this kind of thing before, & figured out a way to fix it?

besson3c · May 18, 2008, 12:33 PM

POP with messages being left on the server, or IMAP?

turtle777 · May 18, 2008, 01:13 PM

Never seen that happen with IMAP.

Haven't used POP in many many years, so I wouldn't know.

-t

besson3c · May 18, 2008, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Never seen that happen with IMAP.

Haven't used POP in many many years, so I wouldn't know.

-t

It is possible for an IMAP client to go out of sync with what is on the server, and it is possible for a client to botch receiving IDLE notification. OS X Mail does this all the time.

Original poster: if you are using IMAP and doing a manual mailbox sync doesn't help, I'd try this out on another client. If you are using POP, I would stop if this becomes a regular issue with your client of choice. There are many compelling reasons to switch away from POP anyway.

ph0ust · May 20, 2008, 05:50 PM

this happened to me for years using my imap accounts. i posted many times over the course of a few years. there were only a few other people that ever seemed to have this issue and we found no resolution.

i moved my accounts to gmail (using my own domain) and now i don't have the issue at all. don't know what to tell you other than it sucks big time if it is the same problem i had.

Stuncle Eve · Jun 4, 2008, 02:46 PM

Bumping - still no solution...

besson3c · Jun 4, 2008, 03:38 PM

I gave you a suggestion: try it out in a different client. Without more tests and information for us to work with, how do you expect us to help? I also asked whether we are dealing with POP or IMAP here, which is an important question.

Stuncle Eve · Jun 12, 2008, 01:49 PM

Apologies for the late reply - this thing called work...

Anyway, this is a POP account (make that accounts - it has started doing it to another account as well).

What are your recommendations for another mail client? I checked out Eudora & Thunderbird on VersionTracker, and they both sound pretty sketchy - not much positive feedback from users.

Thanks.

Chuckit · Jun 12, 2008, 01:54 PM

Just to check (sorry, not sure why I didn't get around to replying to this before), have you checked if they're going to a spam box or some other filtering mechanism? And is it all mail in a particular account, or just certain messages (I'm assuming)?

besson3c · Jun 12, 2008, 01:59 PM

My first recommendation would be to use IMAP rather than POP, but I can recommend Thunderbird as a solid IMAP client...

Stuncle Eve · Jun 12, 2008, 03:31 PM

Chuckit: When I check the accounts on webmail, obvious spam is flagged, but the messages that are missing from Mail are just sitting there. Some of them could conceivably be taken for spam (from corporate addresses, attachments, etc.) but even when I tag them as Not Spam, they don't show up in Mail. And yes, it is only certain messages.

besson3c: I'll admit to being in the dark as to the difference between IMAP & POP, and how to swap things from one to the other. Mail Help says:

IMAP accounts are especially useful if you need to read and manage messages from more than one computer.

This option is not really necessary - I have my Macbook for home, work & trips, but if switching to IMAP is going to solve this issue, I'll be happy to.

Thanks.

Chuckit · Jun 12, 2008, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by Stuncle Eve

Chuckit: When I check the accounts on webmail, obvious spam is flagged, but the messages that are missing from Mail are just sitting there. Some of them could conceivably be taken for spam (from corporate addresses, attachments, etc.) but even when I tag them as Not Spam, they don't show up in Mail. And yes, it is only certain messages.

I mean the "Junk" mailbox in Mail. Sometimes people turn that on and then forget that they have it, and it seems like messages mysteriously aren't arriving when actually they're just getting filed in the Junk box.

Originally Posted by Stuncle Eve

I'll admit to being in the dark as to the difference between IMAP & POP, and how to swap things from one to the other.

Basically, the difference is that IMAP is much more closely integrated with the mail server. POP just downloads all the messages and then you have them on your computer. With IMAP, you're working directly with the server. If a message is on the server, it's listed on your computer. If you delete a message on your computer, it's deleted on the server. The Help docs say it's useful if you use a lot of computers because this means all your computers are always synchronized with each other, but that isn't all it's good for.

As for switching from one type to another, that's something that your email host will have to help with. Check their help documentation for how to set up IMAP Mail. It's usually not any harder than POP.

Stuncle Eve · Jun 12, 2008, 10:36 PM

Well, I checked the Junk folder & it was completely empty. I'm running SpamSieve, which sends all spam to the Spam folder, which I check every couple of days & then delete.

I'll check with my ISPs about switching to IMAP & see what happens.

Thanks for the advice.

Stuncle Eve · Jun 16, 2008, 11:08 AM

So, I now have an IMAP account set up on Thunderbird, & everything seems to work fine. I'll run it for a couple of weeks & see what happens.

Thx to all.