Mail confusion.

[Cathy_1]

Hi guys,

I got my mac a couple of years ago now and ever since have used the Mail (v.2.1) application to send and receive and track Hotmail emails. I went overseas for four months and in the meantime my family used my mac, changing all the details in the Accounts info to try and use it for their own emails, something I'd politely asked them to not do.

Nevertherless they tried and failed and quit the application for me to find it in a mess four months later. I changed the account details back to my own Hotmail account and since my inbox up to 4 months ago was still there and fairly in tact, I hoped it would retrieve the emails I'd received in the last four months and I'd be back on track. Instead, it seems to keep locking up and can't find any new emails, and the viewer window never comes up automatically and I end up having to force quit the program to even turn my computer off, so obviously it's thinkign about something, but without ever coming up with the goods.

It's becoming frustrating and I just want my Mail application to run smoothly again. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Thanks for the help,

Cathy

[Cathy_1]

No one with any ideas?

Thanks,
Cathy

[eric2006]

I would try it with a fresh mail account. You can test this in a new user account, then transfer that account over if it works.

[Cathy_1]

Thanks for the suggestion, Eric.

I had a go at starting fresh and I even went to the point of removing the plugin to use Hotmail and downloading it again. I'm still having issues, though.

One of the major problems is that Mail cannot quit by itself. I have to Force Quit it every time and this also means that any changes I may have managed to make to my preferences and so forth are forgotten and I come back to square one again every time.

In the same vein, every time I try to delete the problem account, the program freezes up so I end up force quitting again.

I have no idea what it's getting stuck on, though, because when I open the little activity window for Mail it's blank.

Once I'd deleted the plugin for Hotmail, I found that Mail wanted to start afresh and asked me to set up an account which is all good and well, but then as soon as I reinstall the plugin so that I can create the account that I want, it goes straight back to the mess of the stuffed up first account.

Do you think it's an issue with the plugin?

[eric2006]

Is this the plugin you are using?

http://sourceforge.net/projects/httpmail-plugin/

Possible that the plugin is the problem - no new releases in a year.

[Cathy_1]

http://www.automagic-software.com/downloads.php

Actually, it's this one. Before I deleted it and downloaded again I was using an older version, but it's now more current, and I don't know, it's never been an issue beforoe so I don't like thinking that it's the plugin's fault...perhaps I should try the one you listed to see what happens then?

[Cathy_1]

Ok, I'm a dork, they're the same plugin, just two different websites.

New question since I don't think the current situation will ever, ever change.

If I were to get Leopard, would that mean I could start afresh or will it keep enough info from the old Mail to continue to drive me nuts?

[tntjr]

Assume you've done the basics: Repair permissions, delete preferences, rebuild mailboxes?