Mail: nonstop incoming messages at 0 KB/s?

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buckthorn

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After being open for a while (say 30 minutes), Mail's new activity "box" displays Incoming messages... 2919 of 3040, 0 KB/s, with the blue progress bar always shimmering at about 80%.

The number of messages changes -- it goes up with time, with the first always being slightly lower than the second. The activity _window_ (Command-0) shows no activity at all. I don't see any problem in receiving or sending mail, but this "notification" remains like this virtually all day.

I can't figure out what is causing this. It occurs only on my Mac Pro (early 2008); I have a PowerMac G5 and a G4 PowerBook running the same OS version that do not display this behavior. I'm running OS X 10.5.6, and Mail 3.5. I have a single IMAP account. Console logs don't show anything obvious.

Anyone have any ideas about this?
 

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I have tried an archive and re install but this has not solved the issue and I am just using other mail applications which is not very satisfactory.
 
I still use Mail, in part because this problem doesn't seem to interfere (much) with my normal workflow. But if others are experiencing this too, there has got to be an identifiable cause (Are you on a Mac Pro or some other hardware?). I just haven't seen it mentioned any place, and it does drive me a little crazy. I wish some Mail or OS X expert will see this and be able to explain it and/or offer a solution.
 
I am using a Mac Pro, and running 10.5.6., I have Mail 3.5. I had a similar problem a few
weeks ago. I was getting a continuous flow of messages, that kept repeating themselves
faster than I could delete them. I finally went to my server Comcast, and deleted the
messages in my account, and it solved the problem. They were updating their service I
think. But if you have the same server for all your computers, This might not be the
problem, but still might be worth checking.
 
I appreciate the response, but this doesn't sound like the same problem. I'm using IMAP, and I am not getting a continuous flow of repeating messages (see my initial description).

Jackrushing said:
I am using a Mac Pro, and running 10.5.6., I have Mail 3.5. I had a similar problem a few
weeks ago. I was getting a continuous flow of messages, that kept repeating themselves
faster than I could delete them. I finally went to my server Comcast, and deleted the
messages in my account, and it solved the problem. They were updating their service I
think. But if you have the same server for all your computers, This might not be the
problem, but still might be worth checking.
Click to expand...
 
I've seen this on systems ranging from eMacs to iMac G5s to Mac Pros, from Panther to Leopard. It's also one of those problems that I haven't been able to recreate consistently. It just happens sometimes, more often when you more than 1000 messages in your Inbox.

Since it sounds like you have the same account on multiple machines, here's what I'd do:

Make a copy of your Users/yourname/Library/Mail folder, on one of your other machines. Use it to replace the folder in the same location on your Mac Pro. Historically, that's done it for me. (assuming your user accounts are named the same).

And since it's IMAP, and it's on other machines, so you stand to lose nothing. Let us know if that works for you.

Last thing I'd do is throw away the contents of Users/yourname/Library/Mail as well as Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Mail.plist

and rebuild your Mail account from scratch. And don't interrupt it til it's done! Set your Energy Saver prefs to Never Sleep during this period. Just let it run. It also wouldn't hurt to avoid using mail on your other machines during this period, since IMAP accounts can be finicky about being run simultaneously on 2 or more machines.
 
I have tried your second suggestion, and it didn't seem to help. Perhaps I didn't do it quite right -- it was a while ago.

Your second suggestion sounds like it's worth a shot. I was hoping for a simpler, quicker solution, but no one seems to have one. And if the problem if this prevalent, I'm a little surprised that no one has been able to explain it. Well, thanks. If it works (or not) I'll post a followup.

ra3ndy said:
I've seen this on systems ranging from eMacs to iMac G5s to Mac Pros, from Panther to Leopard. It's also one of those problems that I haven't been able to recreate consistently. It just happens sometimes, more often when you more than 1000 messages in your Inbox.

Since it sounds like you have the same account on multiple machines, here's what I'd do:

Make a copy of your Users/yourname/Library/Mail folder, on one of your other machines. Use it to replace the folder in the same location on your Mac Pro. Historically, that's done it for me. (assuming your user accounts are named the same).

And since it's IMAP, and it's on other machines, so you stand to lose nothing. Let us know if that works for you.

Last thing I'd do is throw away the contents of Users/yourname/Library/Mail as well as Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Mail.plist

and rebuild your Mail account from scratch. And don't interrupt it til it's done! Set your Energy Saver prefs to Never Sleep during this period. Just let it run. It also wouldn't hurt to avoid using mail on your other machines during this period, since IMAP accounts can be finicky about being run simultaneously on 2 or more machines.
Click to expand...
 
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