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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Mac Osx - Mail Problems

malibu mac - Mar 24, 2005 - 6:42 pm

Hi,

I have been experiencing major problems with my apple mail (1.2.5 v553). I can send and receive mail but what I can't seem to do is delete anything, (which includes the outbox, sentbox, drafts, and the trash) The messages are really starting to pile up!

Here's what happens:

I'll begin deleting messages. All seems to be working fine. Then it gets hung up. The little icon on the right continues to spin longer, as if it is still processing. Then an error message pops up and says: "Compaction Error. There was a failure while writing to the disk. The disk maybe full. The mailbox will be restored to its state before compaction." Then the mail program quits. I start it again only to see that the messages I just deleted have all been restored.

I currently have 102 messages in my inbox.
0 - my outbox
0 - drafts
2 - sent box
37 - trash

As I had mentioned, I tried deleting the other boxes as well, but the same thing happens.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm not quite certain how to check on my disk space. I went to the system profiler and here's the breakdown:

iMAC:
System - OSX 10.2.8
Speed - 800 mHZ
L2 Cache - 256 K
Power Mac G4 (ver = 2.1)
Memory SDRAM -256 MB

I have an 80 gig hard drive. I use my computer for graphic design work but I can't believe that I used up so much space already that it's causing this kind of problem. But then again, I could be wrong.

I admit that I need to do a better job maintaining my computer, as I haven't done any major house cleaning in a while. (Please be gentle with the criticism - I'm fairly sensitive!)

I recently made backups of a number of files that I had and got them off my desk top, but I'm still experiencing this problem.

Any suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

jackie

anamexis - Mar 24, 2005 - 7:42 pm

Jackie, first of all, don't worry about criticism, we are here to help!

Let's check your available disk space first. To do this, click on your hard drive icon on the desktop, then go to File > Get Info, or press Command+I. Available space is listed next to "Available:" .

Micah

malibu mac - Mar 25, 2005 - 2:46 pm

Hi Micah,

Thanks for making me feel welcomed on this forum. For someone who isn't a computer geek, my past experience with online help forums such as this, hasn't always been pleasurable. I guess having my ego bruised a few times due to my lack of computer expertise has left me a little paranoid!

I just checked my HD space. It says I have 61.51 GB available. So far I used up a total 13 GB. That's still an enormous amount left, correct?

Thanks again..

Jackie

anamexis - Mar 25, 2005 - 3:08 pm

Jackie, that is indeed an enormous amount of disk space that certainly shouldn't be causing any problems. I think the problem may be damaged permissions, which means the program isn't able to delete the files when it should be.

Here's what you should do: open up Disk Utility, found in Applications/Utilities.

Click on your start up volume on the list on the left side - the one that has the name of your hard drive on it. Then, under the "First Aid" tab, click on "Repair Disk Permissions." After this has finished, quit Mail and relaunch it, and try deleting the mail.

If this doesn't work, get back to me!

Micah

malibu mac - Mar 25, 2005 - 7:42 pm

Hi Micah,

I did exactly what you told me, and I actually was beginning to believe it did the trick. But when I got up to about the 10th message, the same thing happened all over again.

Any ideas? By the way, please be patient with me if I can't respond to all your replies as quickly as I have been. I'll be out of town for the holiday and I don't know if I'll have an opportunity to get to a computer..

Once again, I really appreciate your help.
Jackie

anamexis - Mar 25, 2005 - 10:13 pm

Jackie, don't worry about any delays.

When you get the chance, here's what you should try:
In Mail, go to Preferences in the Mail menu. Then click on Accounts, then on the Special Mailboxes tab.

Under Trash, make sure that "Move deleted messages to a separate folder" is checked, and set "Erase deleted messages when:" to anything except "Never."

Then empty the trash mailbox by going to the Mailbox Menu and selecting Empty deleted messages>In all accounts.

Hope this works!
Micah

malibu mac - Mar 28, 2005 - 2:54 pm

Hello again,

I just followed the steps you outlined. Under the Special Mailboxes tab and then under Trash, the settings you suggested already matched what was there. So that was okay.

I went up to the menu on top named “Mailbox Menu.” I didn’t see “Empty deleted messages in all accounts", but I did see "Erase deleted messages". I clicked on that and then got a pop up message asking if I was sure I wanted to erase all the deleted messages. I clicked ok. I didn't notice any changes and the total amount of messages in my inbox remained the same. (It's now up to 150 and counting) I then tried deleting them individually like before. They seemed to be deleting, but then the same thing happened all over again. It gets hung up while processing, then the compaction error, and then it quits all together.

I have a feeling you may be running out of ideas! But don’t make yourself too crazy Micah. I should have warned you ahead of
time - You know the list of troubleshooter questions they put in those operating manuals when you purchase something new? Somehow I always manage to be the person whose problem is never listed in the manual!

Anyway, if you happen to come up with any more options for me, please let me know..

Thanks again for your time,
Jackie

anamexis - Mar 29, 2005 - 11:15 pm

Jackie, not quite out of ideas! Between me and my associates, I'm sure we can work something out. Here's the next thing we should try.
First, quit Mail. Then, go to your home folder. This is the folder with the home icon and your name on it. From here, open the Library folder and then open the Mail folder inside that. In the Mail folder, drag the "MessageSorting.plist" and "MessageSorting.plist backup" files to the trash, and empty the trash.

Then, open Mail, and give it a try.

malibu mac - Mar 31, 2005 - 2:51 pm

Appreciate your tenacity Micah...

Well, I followed your advice. But for some reason, I had only one of the two files you mentioned - I only had the message sorting plist not the backup. So I took that and dumped it in the trash like you said, emptied the trash, then re-opened mail again. However, it now seems to have created another problem - when I click on mail, it opens and begins processing, but then it shuts down again!

I have about 200 mesages in my inbox so I thought maybe that was the reason, but before I dumped that file, at least I was still able to open it. So, I guess we're back to "if at first you don't succeed, yada, yada, yada..."

Thanks,
Jackie

bobw - Apr 1, 2005 - 5:55 pm

Hi Jackie

Try the following:

Close the Mail.app first and using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Mail. Move the Mail folder to the Desktop.

Launch Mail and the Mail.app will create an entirely new Mail folder and account named folders within at Home > Library > Mail. The account mailboxes will be empty and any user created mailboxes will not be available but this will allow for the Mail.app to function properly.




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Bobw - MacOSX.com Tech Support

malibu mac - Apr 1, 2005 - 6:31 pm

Hi Bobw,

Dragging the mail file to the desktop seems to have done the trick! Thank you so much! And please tell Micah thanks as well, for trying so hard to help me.

Just one further question - can I dump that mail file on my desktop into the trash now and delete it? Just wanted to check with you first before I proceed.

You guys are great. I'm certainly going to pass along your site address to my other mac user friends. Thanks again..

Best regards,
Jackie

bobw - Apr 1, 2005 - 6:38 pm

Jackie

Yes, you can trash that folder.

Glad I could help.


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Bobw - MacOSX.com Tech Support