# Snow Leopard + Mail + Gmail IMAP not working



## ra3ndy (Aug 31, 2009)

SO Here I am with my brand new MBP running snow leopard, setting up my gmail in Mail.app, account settings identical to my iMac (still running 10.5), and it keeps throwing up a timeout error on port 993.  It seems that re-entering the password in the account settings window makes it work for a while, until the next operation starts, then it times out again.  Anyone having these problems?


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## Satcomer (Aug 31, 2009)

Delete all the Keychains for the server and try to access the server again.


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## ra3ndy (Aug 31, 2009)

Thanks for the suggestion, but no dice.  Same symptom, works for exactly 1 network operation, then times out again.


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## gzicherm (Aug 31, 2009)

Having the exact same problem here. 

Also noticed that mail hangs when trying to shut down during one of it's buggy operations.

Doesn't make much sense on the surface does it? 

-G


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## hibbers (Aug 31, 2009)

Mine randomly becomes available but it almost always times out... While it is not working I also cannot log in via the web - I get a message saying my account is temporarily unavailable. This happens on my work computer too (windows).

I'll be following this thread with the hope that someone finds a solution!


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## Satcomer (Aug 31, 2009)

Seems like a lot of people are having this port 993 error. I don;t use Google or Snow Leopard yet so see if the OS X firewall is turned on blocking that port.


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## ra3ndy (Aug 31, 2009)

Thanks, Satcomer.  Unfortunately no, the OS hasn't enabled a port 993 block.  I wish it were that simple.  I am left to wonder what changed in Mail 4.0 on Snow Leopard that makes Gmail so unhappy.


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## hibbers (Sep 1, 2009)

I *think* I fixed mine - at least it's working ok now. I had both IMAP and POP enabled in gmail settings - so I disabled POP and it's been fine for the last 30 minutes. I have no clue why that would work though! I also changed the account in Mail to not download all messages for offline viewing, which I think helped with the timeouts (my account is around 800 MB).

There's a similar thread over at macrumors where someone suggested reinstalling Mail - I tried that and it didn't work but YMMV.

Good luck.


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## ra3ndy (Sep 1, 2009)

Actually, hibbers, i think you may be on to something.  I disabled POP and made sure my settings were aligned with these recommendations.  So far it seems happy.  

I'm more inclined think it was having POP enabled on the account than the Mailbox settings inMail, as I changed them last night to no real avail.  Weird.  I can't wait to read an official explanation of what's going on there.


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## hibbers (Sep 1, 2009)

Mine has been working fine all day now without any problems, so it must have been one of those things (can't be bothered to switch them around to find out which, don't want it to break again!) Weird because I would have thought the offline viewing setting would have been the more obvious reason... ah well! glad we have got it sorted!


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## ra3ndy (Sep 1, 2009)

Spoke too soon.  Down again.  hibbers, you are very lucky.  I'll keep up the good fight for those of us that haven't made it out yet.


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## ra3ndy (Sep 1, 2009)

Interesting observation:  It seems that after my connection times out that I can't even connect to gmail's web interface, which gives me a 503 temporary error for about 5 minutes after the timeout in Mail.  So something about Mail is actually breaking my gmail account for a brief period it would seem...  hmmm....  more digging.


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## ra3ndy (Sep 1, 2009)

So while logged into Gmail's web interface, I opened Mail.app.  Mail.app predictably timed out, and upon returning to Safari, noticed that I'm now getting an "Oops&#8230; the system encountered a problem (#717) - Retrying now&#8230;"  error, then clicking Sign Out changes it to a (#104) error.

Closing the tab, waiting 5 minutes, then logging back in is the fix, until i launch Mail.app again, that is.  grr


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## fryke (Sep 1, 2009)

Hm. I've had my GMail account active over IMAP for weeks in Snow Leopard, always worked fine, never had to change any settings, and I'm pretty sure both POP and IMAP access are active on gmail.com for me, although I haven't tried POP in months. Just want to say: It's not a _general_ problem for everyone...


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## Satcomer (Sep 1, 2009)

Gmail suffers widespread outage

Some of you might would want to try your GMail now to see if this was the cause.


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## ra3ndy (Sep 1, 2009)

Yeah, I just read the same thing over here at mashable  This whole thing could just be one crazy coincidence.... here's hoping.


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## agentphish (Sep 1, 2009)

I am brand new to these forums tonight, but have been posting on macrumors for years, and I'm in search of an answer to this specific issue.

I have been having issues with Mail.app 4.0 and gmail since i installed snow leopard on launch day. It has been the same with an upgrade install and clean install on 2 different machines.
_
I have the same issue stated above...So while logged into Gmail's web interface, I opened Mail.app. Mail.app predictably timed out, and upon returning to Safari, noticed that I'm now getting an "Oops&#8230; the system encountered a problem (#717) - Retrying now&#8230;" error, then clicking Sign Out changes it to a (#104) error.

Closing the tab, waiting 5 minutes, then logging back in is the fix, until i launch Mail.app again, that is. grr ..._

I also can not send messages using my gmail accounts from mail.app 99% of the time. I have to retry numerous times before I get anywhere.

What the heck got broken between 10.5.8 and 10.6 mail?


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## Satcomer (Sep 2, 2009)

Also if you are sure you are using the same SMTP server port and IMAP port that you were using before then check your time Server setting to make sure it worked to get your true local time.

Have you reindexed your email from the upgrade yet? Just quit Mail and navigate to the folder /users/YouruserName/Library/Mail/ and find the files Envelope Index & RSS folder (to fix RSS feeds back to zero). Launch Mail again and let it reindex itself. You will have to setup you RSS feeds again but this is how to reindex your Mail boxes the graphical way.

Now reset the accounts (without loosing locally save email boxes) involves a few more steps:

1. Write down all your email server settings!

2. Quit Mail

3. Navigate to the folder /Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/ and find the file com.apple.mail.plist and move it to your desktop.

3. Relaunch Mail and setup your email server settings MANUALLY!

4. Throw the moved com.apple.mail.plist that you took out to the Trash or move it back if you can remember the email server settings.

Hopefully doing one of these things will help. This is the exact reason why I hate "upgrading" OS X instead of Archive & Install.

Update: In Mail go to the menu item "Window"  and select "Connection Doctor" to really see what the error is you are having.


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## agentphish (Sep 2, 2009)

Everything is fine in connection doctor. That's the funny part.

I've tried everything you wrote down already too. Doesn't work.

I have tried update installs and also have tried 100% clean installs. Still the same either way.

I'm now using Thunderbird, which sucks, but does work 100% fine at this time.

Mail is broken. That is the bottom line. It's something to do w/ SMTP and I don't know what. There's a lengthy discussion at the Apple discussion's board.


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## fryke (Sep 2, 2009)

Well: It's _not_ the bottom line, because it works fine for me..? Unless I really don't understand the problem in the first place...


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## agentphish (Sep 3, 2009)

Let me try to clarify best I can now that i've cooled of a little...

At this point I am completely unable to send email from either of my 2 gmail accounts via mail in 10.6 on my MacBook Pro. Both accounts are setup as IMAP. Both accounts constantly have spinning gear, and appear to be trying to download messages from gmail's servers, but never seem to actually do it before timing out. When they time out I don't get any error unless i click the lightning triangle to the right of the account name where the spinning gear was. Then it tells me IMAP.GMAIL.COM timed out on port 993...

This has never happened prior to 10.6 & Mail 4.0 and I have used these same 2 accounts for about 4 years in Mail, most of that time as IMAP.

I am getting also getting SMTP server rejection or time-out errors when trying to send mail from either account after several minutes of mail seemingly trying to send messages.

Mail's connection doctor tells me everything is A OK...of course.

So if there are ANY suggestions I'll take them. I've even gone so far as to try other DNS servers via my AEBS (db). Without any resolution...which is why I feel that, bottom line, mail is broken somehow.

Since I'm new here, I'd also like to give you guys a little background on myself and let you know that I actually hold the same certs Fryke does except for the Aperture cert. So I have a great understanding of how things work, but of course there are people who have more overall experience because a cert is just a piece of paper that tells potential employers that I'm trainable...sort of like a college education...which I also have


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## fryke (Sep 3, 2009)

I didn't want to touch your pride with my message, I just wanted to state that it can't "simply" be that 10.6 and Gmail IMAP currently don't mix, because it _does_ work for me, and my setup - for only _one_ Gmail account, though - is the same. I've put the certificates in my sig merely as a humorous thing. I think being here since 2000 and working with several systems in that time gives me more credit than those certificates.  ... But even with decades of experience and a sh*tload of certificates, all humans can still overlook a detail or other.

Maybe I've overlooked something on my account setup..? I've got Gmail getting mails over IMAP from imap.gmail.com using port 993 and SSL. SMTP uses smtp.gmail.com over "standard ports" (25, 467, 587) and SSL and "password". Maybe that's it and you shouldn't use port 993 for SMTP? As a login, I've always entered my _full_ Gmail address and my Gmail password.


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## Apollo's Lyre (Dec 28, 2009)

I have the same problem described here.  Connection Doctor registers logins to gmail as successful, but no mail in or out since I installed Snow Leopard.  Currently running 10.6.2.  When Mail is trying to upload/download it chew up a good 40% of the processor and over 300MB of memory too.  Thinking of creating a new mailbox within Mail to test everything.


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