I just updated to El Capitan from 10.10.x. Everything seems to be OK, but for some reason I have no mail sound for "no new messages", which used to produce a chirp when there was no new mail. The arrival of new mail does produce the appropriate sound.

I also have "Play sounds for other mail actions" checked in Mail>Preferences>General, but still nothing. This has happened on two of my Macs after the update.

Any thoughts?

If that's your biggest issue with El Cap's Mail you're faaar luckier than I am!!!

For me this problem, no new mail sound, was solved with the update to 10.11.2

I am running 10.11.2; problem exists.

And Artie, so far so good. I did need to delete and reinstall one mail account and re-enter a password for another.

I'm not complaining, just wondering.

Where do you find an option to make a sound when there is no new mail? When does Mail make a no new mail sound? I have never had a sound for no new Mail on any of my Macs.

I did.....

I'm confused by this thread.

If I get a ding to tell me when there is new mail, I must be able to assume that the absence of the ding means there isn't any. No?

How is a 'no new mail' ding helpful?

Saves you from repeated, neurotic checking to make certain that Mail has actually checked?

Exactly right! Proof positive of an action, even if the action produced no new results.



There is no option specifically for a "no new mail" sound; there is one for the arrival of new messages and the user can choose this sound. Directly below this option is a checkbox to allow sounds for "other" mail actions; no ability to choose the sound.

And as others have stated above, until I updated to 10.11.x, I always had a chirp when Mail checked and there were no new messages. That sound is gone.

On an unrelated note, why is this thread now moved to "Networking" and not an OS X "Application" thread as originally posted? The issue seems to be one of a problem with the behavior of an application. The fact that the application is involved with a network seems to be irrelevant. Or is it??

Do you who use Mail in El Capitan have a sound when there is no new mail?

Hmmmm. Outside of the digital world I have a very reliable alert that works for a whole slew of actions…the arrival of paper mail, parcel delivery, Jehovah's Witnesses approaching, et cetera. Whenever any of these occurs, my dog barks. Works every time and no batteries required.

Ira L,

I moved your thread to “Networking” because email topics are housed herein as listed in the forum’s description. It helps FTM members and others when using the Search function.

Best regards,
dianne

I just tried your setting, and...no "no new mail" sound. (I've never used it before, but I probably would have had I know that it could contribute towards saving me from myself. And even if it remained functional, I'd still need an app to archive the sounds while I'm away from my deuced Mac(hina). )

AFAIK, you get a ding under one of two circumstances:
1) when Mail does its timed automatic check (or initial check when you launch mail) and downloads mail. I don't recall if the ding is suppressed or not if your rules mark all messages downloaded as read. (I would expect so)
2) when you explicitly tell mail to "check for new messages". You get the ding regardless of whether or not any new mail is downloaded, when the fetch attempt is completed.

V1, I think you're missing my point. I always get a sound when there is new mail. My concern is only when there is no new mail and there is no sound. And your point #2 is definitely not the case, at least with me. When I explicitly do "check…" and there are none, no sound happens.

Minor update on the issue: still no sound but I changed the get mail setting from "Manual" to "Automatic". The Activity corner of the Mail browser window now displays "No new messages" (but no sound) when there are none. Before all it showed was "Connecting".

What?! Actually read descriptions and instructions??

Thanks for the clarification.