Mail 3.5 on new Mac won't work

B

bgoodric

Registered
Hi!

Background: I fried my old Tiger MacBook's motherboard with a cup of coffee and got a new Leopard MacBook (10.5.6) a couple of weeks ago. Geek Squad switched the hard drives temporarily so I could finish some work quickly on my old hard drive (the old Mail worked fine, even in the new machine), and then swapped them back, and migrated my settings, etc., and set up the old Tiger hard drive as an external back-up for the new Leopard's Time Machine. Don't know if any of this is related to the problem.

The problem: The Mail on this new Leopard's hard drive has never worked. The menu along the top of the screen will show that Mail is active. However, the message viewer doesn't come up automatically (not sure it's supposed to, though, in Leopard). It won't send or receive emails, though I've gone over all the possible fixes with my server, Comcast, and the problem isn't with the Comcast settings. It also won't let me shut it down unless I "force quit" it. (It also doesn't show my old emails, which I'd hoped would be migrated in, though I don't know if my hopes were realistic.)

So far: I've reinstalled it, which made no difference. My Safari works just fine, and I've been using that to use my email at Comcast's website. But it would be convenient to get the Mail up, instead.

Thanks for any advice!

Ooh, one other question: I can't tell if this new MacBook (and its own new hard drive?) were registered when Geek Squad migrated the settings, and can't find how to register or how to check. Any info?
 
I had the identical problem--two quick things to try--hold down shift key while starting Mail--that has solved the problem of opening the application for me(you only have to do this once)--next go to the user>library>preferences and find the com.apple.mail.plist and delete it. It is also a good idea to get rid of all the old messages in your mailbox before you do this. Things should work with the program, then restart your machine. I will tell you that I am still having problems with the program locating the server, though and remain very frustrated. The connection doctor says everything is fine with the server--don't know where to go from here, except reinstall 10.5 and redo the updates to 10.5.6!! Anyone have any other suggestions??
 
Same thing to a tee.
Upgraded from tiger to leopard. Mail no longer working. Connection doctor shows ok. Can't quit Mail, have to force quit. I haven't tried a reinstall. Using Macmini, 2GHz.

Hoping for an answer . . .
 
I finally got mine working, fellow sufferers. I deleted all the previous information in my mail preferences, started over and when I got to the window where you can edit the server, I removed that and typed it in again too (even though it was typed correctly). I don't know if either of you get the message which has you choose whether you want to cancel, try again later, or recheck the server, but if you do, click on the recheck button--the loop was broken and my mail went whoosh--haven't had a problem since!!!
 
That sounds promising. I deleted all my accounts and signatures. Did you have to delete your address book?

I ran connection doctor after I deleted all my accounts and it still showed attempts and sucesses to the deleted accounts. Clearly it's off in la la land doing something, as I still have to do a force quit. What other stuff is in the there lost in the woods?
 
Well follow these steps:

1. Grab a piece of paper and write down your email server settings.
2. Quit Mail
3. Navigate to the folder /YourHardDrive/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/ and delete the files com.apple.mail.plist & com.apple.mail.searchhistory.plist .
4. Launch /Applications/Utilities/Termianl launch the command:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum index;

This while reindex you email boxes (if you have any). don't close Terminal until you get another prompt. Then the reindex is done.

5. Launch Mail and put you settings back in and cross your fingers.

Good Luck.
 
No, I did not have to delete anything other than the plists as outlined by Satcomer. The mailboxes were reindexed by holding down the shift key while starting up the mail program. From that point it was all about resetting the information requested in mail preferences and being sure to ERASE AND RE-ENTER the name of the server, check on TRY AGAIN when it says it cannot connect now and you should be home free. PS--I had some help from a pro! Sounds like Satcomer knows what he is about.
 
Thanks Satcomer!! I don't use Mail as my default mail app - but it suddenly started opening itself up after waking my mac from sleep mode and I would have to use force quit to get it to shut down. I have no idea why Mail was starting up. After using your fix I was able to start it up and shut it down the usual way. I don't know if it will start itself up or not. So far - so good.
 
Thank you very much for the information in this thread. I became a member just to tell you how helpful you all were. I would have grown a long beard before I would have figured this problem out on my own.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top