Mac Mail account becomes corrupted on a regular basis

[jgold723]

The POP account on my Mac Mail 1.3.11 (OSX 10.3.9) becomes corrupted on a regular basis. I will click the "get mail" button, there's a pause while it tries to connect to the server and then I'm prompted to enter my password - -which is already in the account.

Entering it does no good -- the program fails to connect. I don't get an error message, but subsequent efforts to collect my mail fail -- it simply tries and then quits.

The only way to fix it is to delete the account and then reenter it. Then it works fine -- for a while.

This problem happens sporadically -- but when it does, it will happen three of four times (not in a row, though) before it just seems to go away.

Any idea what's happening? I've been faithful about installing system and security updates.

Thanks,

John

 

[eric2006]

Try reseting the preferences by deleting the .plist file in /users/<you>/library/prefernces/com.apple.mail.plist.

 

[jgold723]

Thanks -- I'll try that.

But before I do, a couple of questions for clarification:

1) Will this delete my mail accounts?
2) Should I do this now to prevent a future corruption, or;
3) Wait until the account becomes corrupted and then delete the .plist in order to fix it?

Thanks,

John