[willed]

OK, so between war, disease and famine this isn't the biggest problem facing the world today, but...

is it really beyond the power of modern computing to have a sound play when I get new mail? For some reason, on a Core2Duo MacBookPro with 4GB RAM, I am usually faster to spot that I have new mail than the line of code in Mail that makes it go:

"Ding!"

It doesn't take that long - maybe about 10-15 seconds on average. But this often means that I've already spotted the message has come in in the background Mail window or in the Dock icon, clicked on it and read it before I hear "Ding!"

Does anyone else get this, or is it just me?

[pendragon]

All this time, I thought it was just me.

I too will be interested in seeing the replies. Thanks for the post.

[papworth]

That buggifies me too.

[cgc]

My new mail sound (an .aif) right after the last email is downloaded. Never noticed any delay...

[Douglashh]

I have the delay too, thought it was just me. Hope someone figures out how to make it more timely.

[besson3c]

I think it only makes the sound after all activity has been completed? Mail does require an erratic amount of time to complete its checks for new messages. Monitor the activity monitor window to see if I'm right!

[EndlessMac]

On Mail version 3.6 I'm getting about a 2 second delay from hearing the new mail sound. That's close enough for me. I would consider 10-15 seconds a very long time for an alert.

[reader50]

If you have multiple email boxes to check, Mail checks them all for new mail. Up to 4 at a time on my system. The icon counter goes up in realtime - but the sound is not triggered until the last email box has finished being checked. If one server is slow on the response, than can hold up the sound for awhile.

[Sage]

Usually my iPhone gives me the new mail alert noise about 30 seconds before my desktop Mail.app does.

[besson3c]

That's because I'm pretty sure that the iPhone only checks the folder you are in, whereas Mail erroneously checks each folder in your entire account.

[pra9ab0y]

Originally Posted by Sage 

Usually my iPhone gives me the new mail alert noise about 30 seconds before my desktop Mail.app does.

Same! iPhone dings, so I open mail and do a manual get mail as im too lazy to find my phone!

I am normally faster then the mac! I manage to read, move the message to a folder and press reply if necessary before it sounds. Sometimes I have even read and closed mail, it makes the sound and I re-check only to find nothing! Too quick for my own good...

as of typing. iPhone has vibrated and nothing on the mac mail.app yet even tho the icon is there to indicate new mail.

[Art Vandelay]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

That's because I'm pretty sure that the iPhone only checks the folder you are in, whereas Mail erroneously checks each folder in your entire account.

Nothing erroneous about it when there's server side processing. Not all new mail necessarily goes into the Inbox.

[Andreas.]

Hear the "Ding", "You have mail" or whatever else you like BEFORE the Dock icon has time to change, BEFORE the mail appears in Mail.app...

Prefs > General > "New mail sound": None   (Yep, none)

Prefs > Rules > New >
    "If any of the following conditions are met..."
    "Every Message"
    "Run AppleScript"
    Give the path to your script.

My little script gives a small ping and tells me the sender and the subject - so I know whether I want to interrupt what I'm doing or not.

Andreas

[Big Mac]

Sometimes it seems like I have to wait thirty seconds to hear the ding, but on my main mobileme/.mac/itools account I've always had to manually check for new messages, so it's always been weird there. On my other accounts I notice a shorter delay, but it's still around irksome to me as well.

[Andreas.]

I forgot to add that there are some sample AppleScripts that are easy to 'doctor' in /Library/Scripts/Mail Scripts/.

Andreas

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay 

Nothing erroneous about it when there's server side processing. Not all new mail necessarily goes into the Inbox.

Yes, it is erroneous. That's why sane email clients provide controls to allow you to decide which folders should be checked for new mail. You can blow off my email habits as being weird, but email archival is not as strange as you might think. There is no reason to be going through dozens of folders of archived email from 2005 or 2006 or whatever.

Besides, at one of my old jobs Mail would pass on checking shared mailboxes for new messages anyway, so not only is it poorly designed, but also buggy as hell. Or at least, it was.

[phoenix78]

Apple Mail is the biggest piece of s*** software ever! It is a blight on OSX.

It is always slow, always finds something to occupy 99% CPU at random points in time. It always stalls and has long delays in doing just about anything.

At work i run thunderbird over ssh on my linux box.

I wish there was a decent alternative to apple mail. Thunderbird for osx is no good either...

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by phoenix78 

Apple Mail is the biggest piece of s*** software ever! It is a blight on OSX.

It is always slow, always finds something to occupy 99% CPU at random points in time. It always stalls and has long delays in doing just about anything.

At work i run thunderbird over ssh on my linux box.

I wish there was a decent alternative to apple mail. Thunderbird for osx is no good either...

I agree with you. The people that don't seem to generally have small mailboxes...

Have you looked at Postbox for OS X? It's a Thunderbird derivative...

[cgc]

I have two mail boxes in Mail.app and when I open Mail.app, the Inbox is blank. I have to select a different folder (trash, for example) then go back to the Inbox to see my emails. BTW, the inbox shows email from two accounts...