MacBookPro Retina OS10.9.4
Apple Mail v7.3 - POP - Server Port 110

Back story:
Seven days ago Apple Mail stopped receiving mail - could send but not receive.
I did the following:
Took Messages off  and then online
Mail Doctor reports all connections are active
Rebuilt mail boxes
Ran Disk Utility repair - nothing untoward reported
All web mail and Trash is deleted on quitting

Mail send from my primary account to a second account does not arrive.

ISP “Cannot find any current problems w web mail that are preventing mail from arriving in Mail app, such as a synch issue.”

Yesterday I took the problem back to my ISP; spent two hours with a team leader - he worked through every possible reason as to why Apple Mail is no longer receiving mail, checked that their Web Mail is working to a high standard and double checked my settings for web mail and my computer.

I had become resigned to accepting this is a known problem without a solution and that I needed to find an alternative but today I saw that my draft folder was empty - and that is another problem. Also, today the password on one account is not being recognised [ have reset it multiple times] it is the same as the other account which works.

My Question is: can I retrieve the contents of my draft folder?
Others have been to AppleCare with similar problems [ the mainly one being that Mail stops receiving and / or not sending] so don’t think it is worth $30 to go through the same hoops with no solution.]
If anyone can help I will be grateful - no problems with Mail prior to it suddenly not receiving, no software updates installed, no new software, Web Mail box not overloaded, I have 188GB available on my HD.
It’s a mystery wrapped around a pain in the neck - but I would like my drafts back.
Help will be appreciated.
Kate

I have had sudden memory surge and remembered that I have an old MacBook waiting to have the HD wiped - not only is Mail working but most of my drafts are there too.
Just to prove that,some days are diamonds. I will be back to ask how best to manage AppleMail on 10.9.4, but thanks to anyone who has read this far.
Kate

mail will import its own type of mailboxes. so you should be able to move all of mail's data (settings and mailboxes) out, recreate a new empty account, then import all your mailboxes back in.

You do realize that with POP the drafts folder, if it exists at all, is on the machine you composed the message on. Post Office Protocol is strictly store-and-forward, allowing you to receive your mail even if you're offline when it arrives. The server has only a single mailbox, which contains only recent incoming messages. (You configure what "recent" means, but it's not typically more than a few days, and may be much shorter.) POP is designed around the assumption that you will do all your mail reading/writing on a single computer, and all your mail resides on that computer.

You define "recent" by setting of the "Delete incoming messages from the server ..." option in your mail client. (For Mail.app, the setting is at Preferences→Accounts→your POP account→Advanced→Remove copy from server after retrieving a message:.) The default setting is "immediately". With this setting, the first of your computers to read the message will immediately delete it from the server, and none of your other computers will see it. If you really want to access a POP account from more than one computer (ignoring that POP was never designed for that), adjust the "Delete incoming messages from server..." setting on each computer. One of them should be set to "after x days" and all the rest should be set to "never". "x days" should be long enough to give all your other computers a chance to see the message, but not so long that your server's inbox fills up.


In particular, with POP there is no Drafts mailbox on the server. By finding a Drafts folder on your other machine, you have "retrieved" it. There's nothing more to retrieve. If you want the Drafts mailbox to be shared across computers, you must switch from POP to IMAP, and configure your IMAP account to keep Drafts on the server. Similarly with the Sent mailbox (which might be called Sent Messages). POP is strictly for incoming messages. It has no awareness nor memory of any outgoing messages.

Thank you. Since posting I tried this, got everything back into place, restarted the computer - still not receiving mail but, as before, I can send.

I have scoured help sites, found others with the same problem but no solutions.

I have been looking for a new email client. I tried Mailbox for Mac [Beta] but can't get it to accept a password, A request for help got me a pro forma reply, but nothing since then, so have not been able to try it.

Do you have any other recommendations?
Kate

Thank you. I had changed the account setting so that mail stayed on Web mail and allowed me to download it to my MackBook or read online. By the time I had posted here my brain was fried with trying to find a solution, so apologies is I forgot some of my moves

MacBookPro Retina> new Apple Mail account > still will not download mail, but MacBook will, so am using that, or Web Mail.

As mentioned above - can you recommend an email client other than Apple Mail that I can try?

Thanks for your patience.
Kate

I like and use Airmail 2 available on the App Store for $9.99.

Thanks for the recommendation. I downloaded it from the Apple app store but was unable to complete the account details before the screen quit,leaving me with a blank app.

Not a good start but, even worse, on the Airmail site there is no way I can find how to restart the process. Do you know if I can download a second download from the app store and start from scratch without triggering another $12.99 charge?

Once you pay for it in the App Store, it's paid for. You can download it as many times as you want, and run it on as many machines as are authorized with the Apple ID you purchased it with. (Which limits you to running it on 5 machines at a time.)

What Gangbustein said, plus you have to delete the old copy before you will be allowed to re-download.

Thank you all, I did and now have a new copy on my computer. Now all I need to to find out why I can't get it to work - it seems to not like POP mail, so a trip to my ISP might be needed.
Kate

Kate,

Perhaps of interest...

Though a tad on the elderly side, Dr. Grey's paper does a fine job, IMNHO, of capturing the pros & cons of IMAP vs. POP.

Thanks for the link - I have skimmed the article and will go back to it when I can solve my ongoing problem - see below.
Kate

Apple Mail not working - again.
This is an ongoing problem.

Mail sent from my Apple Mail account will again send, but not receive, but all Mail sent to and from an old MacBook using Apple Mail works seamlessly

Two days ago I went to Apple Care - the problem went up the line to a senior tech person who spent an hour doing all that an ISP tech had done, then removing various files and folders, before deleting and then reinstalling a new copy of Apple Mail.

I had back-up but decided to first work with the new but blank set-up to make sure there were no further problems. All went well until today when, with no warning I again I could send but not receive.

I have not yet activated Airmail 2, so no new software or changes since I first posted about this.

I have read on line that others are affected, but not of any fixes.
I can go back to Apple care but wonder if any one here has ideas about what might be triggering this.

If you are still with me, thank you for reading this far.Help or comments will be appreciated.
Kate

I assume that Mail has never popped up any error/problem messages, but have you looked in /Applications/Utilities/Console > Database Searches > Console Messages to see if there's anything pertinent there?

Edit: I doubt that this will lead to anything, but maybe take a look in Applications/System Preferences > Security > Firewall > Advanced and see if Mail somehow managed to get blocked there.

Thank you.
Nothing in the Apps >Sys Prefs >Security > Firewall
but a monstrously long list in:

Console Messages > Now > 2833 of 4000 messages from 6/12/ 2014 12.0.50pm to 6/12/14 2.58.22pm all with Mail in the first column.

Is that too long to post here?
Kate

P.S. No error messages of any kind.

If you're running Little Snitch, have you looked in its pref pane to see if anything is amiss? (I'll try to pin the blame on your letter carrier next. )

No Little Snitch