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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > Fed up with .mac mail : SPEAK UP!

Fed up with .mac mail : SPEAK UP!
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jfischetti
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Apr 15, 2004, 01:21 PM
 
I getting extremely Pi$$ed off at Apple and it's shoddy PAY e-mail offering.

EVERY DAY on a consistent basis mail.app prompts me for my password because it cannot find the mail server. How many times a day is that server in maintenence or just plain down?

This problem occurs both at work and at home for me, so it is not my Mac or my connection in either one of those places.

I have been watching the .mac message boards as well as a few others and can plainly see that it is not just me that is experiencing this problem. There are numerous threads with no moderator response regarding this issue.

We are PAYING for this service, not the free games and the virex crap -- We are mainly paying for the use of the E-mail and the iSync functions. Why, with all the capital Apple has raised from the .mac subscriptions can they not maintain a consistent e-mail product? Hotmail and Yahoo offer FREE e-mail and they are functional all the time.

Please speak up and post your BRIEF "I agree" or "you're crazy" comments:
     
wataru
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Apr 15, 2004, 01:25 PM
 
I only get the problem occasionally, so I'm not quite as pissed as you.
     
Sophus
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Apr 15, 2004, 02:13 PM
 
I agree!
     
MindFad
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Apr 15, 2004, 02:21 PM
 
I love .Mac, rarely have a problem, and find the $99 reasonable. So you are crazy.
     
philzilla
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Apr 15, 2004, 02:42 PM
 
this happens far too often. i can be talking to lil'babykitten on iChat and it happens to both of us at the same time. ANNOYING.

i am blaming Florida for this one. over the line, Florida.


()
"Have sharp knives. Be creative. Cook to music" ~ maxelson
     
pliny
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Apr 15, 2004, 02:47 PM
 
My .mac mail rarely does this so i too can only concur and say that you are insane.

Check your mail.app settings. Trash your prefs.
i look in your general direction
     
Dimitri
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Apr 15, 2004, 02:50 PM
 
This has happened to me several times in 2+ months, not on a daily basis. I'm more concerned with the speed of .mac myself.
     
philzilla
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Apr 15, 2004, 02:59 PM
 
Originally posted by pliny:
My .mac mail rarely does this so i too can only concur and say that you are insane.

Check your mail.app settings. Trash your prefs.
look, sonny. are you aware that .mac runs its mail through more than one server? and maybe this problem is related to some servers, and not others? this is why some people get this problem, and some don't.

use. your. brain.

thank you for playing.
"Have sharp knives. Be creative. Cook to music" ~ maxelson
     
Maflynn
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Apr 15, 2004, 03:07 PM
 
I have not had a problem with .mac - I'm pretty happy.

Mike
~Mike
     
pliny
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Apr 15, 2004, 03:12 PM
 
Originally posted by philzilla:
look, sonny. are you aware that .mac runs its mail through more than one server? and maybe this problem is related to some servers, and not others? this is why some people get this problem, and some don't.

use. your. brain.

thank you for playing.
Stick. It. Up. Your. A.s.s.

P.S. Trash your prefs.
i look in your general direction
     
SMacTech
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Apr 15, 2004, 04:10 PM
 
Originally posted by philzilla:
this happens far too often. i can be talking to lil'babykitten on iChat and it happens to both of us at the same time. ANNOYING.

i am blaming Florida for this one. over the line, Florida.


()
What does .Mac and iChat have in common? iChat talks to AOL's AIM servers. I have iChat running all day, almost every day without a problem. That said, I have recently had more than a few, "what's your password dialog" pop up when checking .Mac. Clicking cancel and checking mail again works.

You're crazy and I agree.
     
jwblase
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Apr 15, 2004, 04:46 PM
 
Well, just because I can chime in here...

I use .Mac as my primary email and I have absolutely no problems whatsoever, both from Mail.app, or the webmail interface.

I agree with trashing your prefs.

I suppose this post would be a "you're crazy" post then.

JB
---------------------------
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-The Doctor
     
wataru
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Apr 15, 2004, 05:20 PM
 
Originally posted by SMacTech:
What does .Mac and iChat have in common? iChat talks to AOL's AIM servers. I have iChat running all day, almost every day without a problem. That said, I have recently had more than a few, "what's your password dialog" pop up when checking .Mac. Clicking cancel and checking mail again works.

You're crazy and I agree.
Mentioning iChat was only to indicate how they both knew that their .mac mails were f*cking up at the same time. He never said iChat was the cause.
     
jasong
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Apr 15, 2004, 06:07 PM
 
I'm going to start an online petition on this.

-- Jason
     
Graymalkin
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Apr 15, 2004, 06:12 PM
 
I'm going to shake my fist in the air about this. It will have about the same effect.
     
lil'babykitten
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Apr 15, 2004, 06:22 PM
 
THIS PROBLEM OCCURS SO OFTEN THAT ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS I HAVE WANTED TO PICK UP MY BELOVED MAC AND THROW IT OUT OF THE WINDOW!

APPLE! LOOK HOW CLOSE TO THE EDGE YOU HAVE BROUGHT ME!

I AM WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS TO CONVEY MY ANGER!



THAT IS ALL.
     
alphasubzero949
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Apr 15, 2004, 07:02 PM
 
That settles it. I'm switching to Windows.
     
::maroma::
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Apr 15, 2004, 07:39 PM
 
THIS NEVER HAPPENS TO ME!!! WTF??? .MAC IS PERFECT!!! I HAVE NO PROBLEMS WITH IT?? I HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT SATISFIED WITH IT SINCE DAY ONE!!! COME ON APPLE!! WTF???!~!!!`

P.S. - online petitions are like pissing in the wind. ya know?
     
Socially Awkward Solo
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Apr 15, 2004, 07:46 PM
 
I HATE the fact that it has ZERO spam filtering.

"Laugh it up, fuzz ball!"
     
SMacTech
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Apr 15, 2004, 08:28 PM
 
Originally posted by wataru:
Mentioning iChat was only to indicate how they both knew that their .mac mails were f*cking up at the same time. He never said iChat was the cause.
ok... i read it wrong. i still like .mac
     
gorickey
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Apr 15, 2004, 08:38 PM
 
Originally posted by lil'babykitten:
THAT IS ALL.
Good, the caps lock thing was a little over the top...
     
Orion27
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Apr 15, 2004, 09:00 PM
 
I have had a .mac account for about a year now. I use Entourage exclusively. I have lived in two different states during that period. I run .mac through high speed dsl network at work and dialup at home, as well as dsl a home. I have never experienced the problems described here either on my AL 15 PB or my dual PM. and through all versions of X through the present 10.3.3
     
besson3c
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Apr 15, 2004, 09:19 PM
 
There is a very little that .Mac offers that you can't find elsewhere. If the service is sucking, switch. You aren't locked into Apple.

Personally, a .Mac account would be a waste of money for me. I'm not being apologetic, just encouraging you to look elsewhere if you are frustrated.
     
philzilla
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Apr 15, 2004, 09:41 PM
 
Originally posted by pliny:
Stick. It. Up. Your. A.s.s.

P.S. Trash your prefs.
do you tell people to "R.E.P.A.I.R. Privileges" too? when that is also nothing to do with the problem?

wow. ultimate. the bringer of goodness, says this, people: "Trash your prefs"

i love how you think. it's great. i'd never- in my years of using OSX- thought of doing such a thing. thanks. no, really.

and now, back to you all, the slick production...

Apple is still ****ing up Mail
"Have sharp knives. Be creative. Cook to music" ~ maxelson
     
gorickey
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Apr 15, 2004, 10:20 PM
 
Originally posted by philzilla:
Apple is still ****ing up Mail
Are you referring to Mail.app the application being not to your liking or the Apple servers sucking that make Mail.app work? I hope it's the latter, as the app itself is REALLY good...
     
jasong
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Apr 15, 2004, 10:56 PM
 
P.S. - online petitions are like pissing in the wind. ya know?
um . . . that was kinda what I was getting at . . .

-- Jason
     
zigzag
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Apr 15, 2004, 11:02 PM
 
It's been happening to me 4-5 times a day for the past week or so. It happened a lot for a couple of months last year, then not at all for a while, now all the time again. Most of the time it retrieves mail automatically with no problem, but the occasional blocks are really irritating.
     
suthercd
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Apr 15, 2004, 11:13 PM
 
Use Keychain Access to review your passwords for you accounts. There are probably duplicates that need to be removed.

HTH
Craig
     
Lew
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Apr 16, 2004, 04:59 AM
 
Originally posted by pliny:
My .mac mail rarely does this so i too can only concur and say that you are insane.

Check your mail.app settings. Trash your prefs.
It's not a Mail.app problem as it also occurs on my Mum's PC with Outlook XP (usually at around the same time that I experience the problem with my account on Mail.app).
     
JKT
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Apr 16, 2004, 05:45 AM
 
Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
I HATE the fact that it has ZERO spam filtering.
You have zero control over the spam filtering, but there is spam filtering.

If you are receiving spam, do everyone a favour and:

1. Reveal the Long Headers in the message (com-shift-H in Panther Mail)
2. Forward it to [email protected]

P.S. I have had this password problem on a few occasions over the past month or so - as everyone says, just cancel the warning and then put the .Mac account back online again. Irritating, but not the end of the world. On the whole I personally have had very few issues with the .Mac e-mail account ever since I started using it...

Backup on the other hand, is a different story altogether
     
trash80
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Apr 16, 2004, 06:19 AM
 
i think i've had 2 spams since i started using .mac (when the service became pay), i don't have password problems either. maybe its your network? are you behind a proxy or something?

the only real problem i've had with .mac is 2-3 e-mails i've sent have never arrived, didn't bounce back, arrive at sender or anything... just dissappeared into a void. bizarre.
     
pliny
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Apr 16, 2004, 07:30 AM
 
Originally posted by philzilla:

wow. ultimate. the bringer of goodness, says this, people: "Trash your prefs"

Yep. Once I did this have had no problems with my .mac account.
i look in your general direction
     
Lew
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Apr 16, 2004, 07:39 AM
 
Sheer coincidence
     
iNeusch
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Apr 16, 2004, 07:47 AM
 
Originally posted by alphasubzero949:
That settles it. I'm switching to Windows.
LOL !
I don't use .mac, but I'm coming too

Seriously, if .mac is not ggod, get your own domain !
I can even host you for cheap if you want
     
ryju
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Apr 16, 2004, 08:05 AM
 
Hasn't happened to me in about 6 months.
     
msuper69
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Apr 16, 2004, 08:23 AM
 
Originally posted by Graymalkin:
I'm going to shake my fist in the air about this. It will have about the same effect.
LOL!
     
Lew
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Apr 16, 2004, 01:15 PM
 
It's down yet again

Email is temporarily unavailable, as we are conducting regular maintenance.
Other .Mac services, including your iDisk, are unaffected.
For updated .Mac status information, please go to http://discuss.info.apple.com
     
[APi]TheMan
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Apr 16, 2004, 01:49 PM
 
You guys either a) Check your mail every six seconds or b) have a messed up server somewhere between .Mac and your ISP. I check my mail several times a day I hardly ever have problems.

I've been using .Mac since it was free three (or four) years ago and I've probably had password problems 5 times... in which case I just type in my 7 character password (which takes, what, 1.5 seconds to type according to my current typing speed) and go merely along.

Spam filtering is really a joke these days anyways (unless you use a brute force method and just block those not in your address book). For example, I don't want to set up a rule that filters messages containing "penis" or "sex" from people not in my address book... because, say the cute girl that I hardly know that sits next to me in my Econ class wants to talk dirty about my penis or whathaveyou... ya know?

Just be glad you're not using Hotmail.

Originally posted by Mimizuku no Lew:
It's down yet again
I've been using it all morning since I got to work at 8... it's now 11...
"In Nomine Patris, Et Fili, Et Spiritus Sancti"

     
Macpilot
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Apr 16, 2004, 02:20 PM
 
I have had the same problem with Mail and it has not been isolated to my .mac email account. It has also occurred with my Roadrunner ISP email service as well. I have had this problem since Mail in 10.1. I used Entourage for a short while and it never occurred with Entourage. But I really like the integration with the other Apple apps and the interface of Mail so I put up with the occasional prompt.

I have done all the suggested fixes such as Keychain repair, trashed prefs, etc, and it still happens.

I am moving soon and will be interested in seeing if the new ISP I will be using will change the behavior of Mail in terms of reliability of checking for new mail and the annoying prompts asking for your password.
MacBook Pro
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Lew
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Apr 16, 2004, 02:51 PM
 
Originally posted by [APi]TheMan:
[B]You guys either a) Check your mail every six seconds or b) have a messed up server somewhere between .Mac and your ISP.
The messed up server is .Mac, hence the message on the .Mac webmail page that I quoted:
Email is temporarily unavailable, as we are conducting regular maintenance.
Other .Mac services, including your iDisk, are unaffected.
For updated .Mac status information, please go to http://discuss.info.apple.com
     
[APi]TheMan
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Apr 16, 2004, 03:07 PM
 
Originally posted by Mimizuku no Lew:
The messed up server is .Mac, hence the message on the .Mac webmail page that I quoted:
Yup yup, I saw that in your post. Unfortunately, like I said, I have not had problems with .Mac in a long time. How often is your mail set to check for new messages? I've been getting messages all morning.
"In Nomine Patris, Et Fili, Et Spiritus Sancti"

     
Lew
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Apr 16, 2004, 03:53 PM
 
I'm on several mailing lists so I have it set to check once a minute
     
oogje
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Apr 16, 2004, 05:16 PM
 
Yes, it's annoying and yes, it's not the end of the world. The good news is Apple is aware of the problem. They posted a note in the support forums on February 23rd. The bad news is the problem has not been resolved.

In the meantime it would great it Apple could change Mail.app so rather than suggest that you try another password (this confuses friends and family) you could set a "try again later and don't bother me unless you can't connect for X minutes" preference or some such.

I have 3 .Mac mail accounts and I get the error popup for some or all of them several to many times a day with Mail.app set to check every five minutes. It's too bad you have to manually intervene to have it check the account(s) again.

ber
     
CatOne
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Apr 16, 2004, 05:23 PM
 
Originally posted by Mimizuku no Lew:
I'm on several mailing lists so I have it set to check once a minute
Good God. Why do you have to check once a minte because you're on several mailing lists?
     
CatOne
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Apr 16, 2004, 05:25 PM
 
Originally posted by jfischetti:
I getting extremely Pi$$ed off at Apple and it's shoddy PAY e-mail offering.

EVERY DAY on a consistent basis mail.app prompts me for my password because it cannot find the mail server. How many times a day is that server in maintenence or just plain down?

This problem occurs both at work and at home for me, so it is not my Mac or my connection in either one of those places.

I have been watching the .mac message boards as well as a few others and can plainly see that it is not just me that is experiencing this problem. There are numerous threads with no moderator response regarding this issue.

We are PAYING for this service, not the free games and the virex crap -- We are mainly paying for the use of the E-mail and the iSync functions. Why, with all the capital Apple has raised from the .mac subscriptions can they not maintain a consistent e-mail product? Hotmail and Yahoo offer FREE e-mail and they are functional all the time.

Please speak up and post your BRIEF "I agree" or "you're crazy" comments:
Apple noted in the support forum that they're upgrading the .Mac mail servers from the April 14th for a few weeks, and that these messages/interruptions could occur. The solution is to log out and log back into mail.

Perhaps you should check the support forums and system status, and if you have an issue, post there where Apple may read it?
     
Lew
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Apr 16, 2004, 05:53 PM
 
Originally posted by CatOne:
Good God. Why do you have to check once a minte because you're on several mailing lists?
Why not? It doesn't cause any problems in itself (seeing as how the .Mac problem is at Apple's end). Sosumi

Plus, it's also a holdover from when I was on dialup and used it to keep my connection alive.
( Last edited by Lew; Apr 16, 2004 at 06:07 PM. )
     
[APi]TheMan
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Apr 16, 2004, 06:44 PM
 


Err... NOW I believe you guys...
"In Nomine Patris, Et Fili, Et Spiritus Sancti"

     
Mr. Blur
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Apr 16, 2004, 06:49 PM
 
I too have had the occasional problem with .mac mail, but it rarely lasts more than 1 bad try...nothing to really yell and scream about. it seems that everytime apple has the slightest hiccup with .mac someone starts one of these .mac sucks....why pay for this...." threads.
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity...
     
Lew
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Apr 16, 2004, 07:11 PM
 
You've been lucky then. I've tried entering my password several times in a row and usually give up and quit Mail.app and re-launch it later on. What's annoying is that it seems to be happening every day (and the fact that I can't get it through to my Mum that it will sort itself out later on and to stop phoning me at work to tell me that it's not working only for me to tell her the same thing that I tell her every other time it's happened)
     
jfischetti  (op)
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Apr 16, 2004, 07:24 PM
 
As the post creator i am curious as to the people who do not have any of the continuing authentication problems.

I wonder if it is isolated to a IMAP connection to the server rather than POP..

I have an IMAP account and i have these problems --
POP might act differently thus not causing the password authentication pop-up to show up every time the server is down -- which, lately is a lot.

For those who doubt me, check out the Apple discussion boards regarding .mac email:
http://discussions.info.apple.com/[email protected]/10


To all -- thanks for the replies....
( Last edited by jfischetti; Apr 16, 2004 at 07:30 PM. )
"....and the capital of Nebraska is Lincoln!"

     
 
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