[X-Newbies] Re: Corrupt mail application?

[Charles Martin]

> From: Carole Wessel <carwesg at aol.com>
> I am running Mail 1.3.11 on my G5 10.3.9
>
> Dear team, I hope you can help me
>
> In the last few days the mail application seems to be corrupted:
> - Either it looks for ever for mail (grey circle turns and turns)
> eventually stops and then I can't read half of them.
> - Or, the one I have just read disappear from my in-box, and then the
> grey circle turns and turns...
> - If the computer goes to sleep, same thing, and the mails that I've
> read come back with the blue mark for unread, or the deleted ones
> reappear.
> - Then, sometimes I have the beach ball for ever and I have to force
> quit
> To go faster I have to go to my 2 accounts directly through the web
> (Verizon & AOL).
>
> What should I do?

Sounds like a troubled inbox. Before you reinstall the app (which  
might not do any good), here's a couple of tricks to try:

(the following is taken directly from Mail's help file)
> Messages are missing, incomplete, or garbled
> Rebuild your mailbox. Choose Mailbox > Rebuild.
> For POP accounts, the table of contents file (which you don't see)  
> is moved aside and rebuilt, using data in the mbox file and  
> elements of the old table of contents file.
>
> For IMAP accounts, the table of contents file is moved aside, and  
> locally cached messages are also discarded. All the messages are  
> retrieved again from the server to your hard disk and the table of  
> contents file is rebuilt from the newly downloaded messages and  
> from data in the old table of contents file.
>
> Since your mailboxes are stored on your hard disk, make sure you  
> have enough free space on your hard disk.

> This might be a symptom of a larger problem. Run Disk Utility,  
> located in Applications/Utilities (or click the link below) and  
> verify and repair the disk if necessary.

Give that a shot and see if it helps. DO NOT delete the preferences  
file (a common solution for most apps, but in Mail there is vital  
info in there). If it doesn't solve the problem, let us know and  
we'll proceed from there.


_Chas_

If this country had a national motto, it would be "DOH!"