Alternatives to Mail.app
 

Mail is desperately seeking replacement. Mail keeps asking for my email account passwords. I've Googled extensively and haven't found a solution that works permanently. Talked to AppleCare and it seems that the engineers -- despite the years of complaints about this issue -- still really need to hear from Mac users about this.

I need something that works. Anybody using an email client they're really happy with?

I'm really happy with Mail. (You asked)

Maybe this has something to do with your email provider. Who is it?

Could be a Keychain issue. Try deleting the keys for your mail server in the KeyChain Utility.
You'll then need to re-supply the passwords, but hopefully, they should stick.

Yep I agree clear out all keychain entries relating to email accounts that are setup. Then reset them when prompted in Apple Mail.

Just for a matter of interest are you using POP. I have a handful of users still using pop and they also have issues with passwords. We have tried everything !
In Lion they did something under the hood with authentication which has led to a few issues.

99% of my users are using IMAP or Exchange Server. So do not deal with POP day in day out.

Thunderbird is a good mail client and worth a look.

Thunderbird has sort of been end-of-lifed.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Tech...96881341965999

Oh missed that, we tend to use thunderbird more on PCs as the IMAP support is better than Outlook. Why MS cannot get that right is nuts....of I know they want everyone to use exchange server.

If you Google the issue, you'll find that Mail's bugginess has nothing to do with clearing the keychain, POP/IMAP, or Lion. This bug has been a "feature" of Mail for years, and everything you're suggesting (and more) has been tried and re-tried by legions of Mail users without resolution of the problem.

For others continuing to make suggestions about how to fix the problem, please forgive me, but I'm only going to respond if I haven't heard your suggestion before and if it works. As I've said, I've Googled extensively and the solution I'm now seeking is another mail client.

I heard about Thunderbird's imminent demise. And Sparrow's. Seems like the email client world is getting much smaller for the Mac.

I respectfully disagree @sojourner. I support 100s of machines using apple mail and the annoying "password pop up" is not a feature it is certainly a bug. Just because someone said it on a Google search does not make it right.

I have some machines that do it (mainly POP users) some that don't at all (~95% of machines), as soon as keychain entires are cleared of mail password entries it generally sorts it out. There is no mention of this feature from Apple !!! The problem got worse with Lion especially with POP.

Unfortunately, some of us don't have access to IMAP except for gmail so we have to live with Mail's foibles. My cable-connected ISP requires a commercial subscription (not inexpensive) for IMAP with limited storage while POP3 is free with the home bundle I do subscribe to. Too bad Steve Dorner let Eudora go -- that was my email client from when it was beta software at the University of Illinois until Qualcomm finally abandonned it. The new version is a mess.

If you have more than 1 device then IMAP is a must. POP is an outdated method IMHO and there are plenty of ways to have IMAP access and retain your old email address etc. and i should add there is some use for POP ie. when you have limited internet connectivity/bandwidth like dial up !
e.g.. using a POP connection to pull mail into IMAP or other methods. Just because people have been doing it a certain way for years it does not mean it is not time to change and either take the Gmail free option or get a paid service....as well email is pretty important to most people nowadays.

Pretty much the first thing i do with new client is move them from POP to IMAP/or EXCH depending on their needs !

@agentx: Ahh, but you know how to do that. I got severely bogged down (and failed) in an attempt to set up a google app with my old domain name for email. They immediately dived into a bunch of stuff I didn't know how to do. I have similarly failed to set up Mail so it will work over a VNC given instructions from my ISP that seem impossible to follow in Mail's preferences.

What I actually do when I'm away is use Yazsoft's ShareTool to share the screen on my home iMac on my MBP and look at my email at home. The cost, of course, is that I have to leave the machine on, but by doing it that way, my downloaded mail all stays on my main machine. I never use Mail (only gMail) on my MBP.

Oh well.....that is when you call a pro/or someone in the know, who could set it all up in 1-2 hours.
1) Setup Gmail for business Free.
2) Change DNS MX (Mail Exchange) settings or ask registrar/DNS provider to do it for you.
3) Setup email client software and a few tweaks.

Anyway I want access to all my mail ( Inbox, Sent, Drafts, filed mail folders etc) fully synced with all my devices and i have had to deal with 100s of people that used POP and lost all their email as it was only stored in one place and database corruption/hard disk crash.

If i lose a device I just get a new one and setup mail and everything is there with an hour or so.

A pro would be the answer, agentx, if there were any I trusted here in a small city in Nova Scotia. Until I got the 2008 MBP and 2011 iMac, I've always repaired my own long list of machines (I mean beyond installing memory). Now at 75, I'm not so dexterous or adventurous.

Fair enough if you ever need it sorting out. I will help you though it.

The "invalid password" message comes up when Mail (or any other mail program) tries to connect to a server, and the server rejects the password. This does not mean the password is invalid. It only means the server rejected it. This can be, and usually is, a temporary glitch at the server caused by a failure of the machine that serves mail not being able to connect to the (often different) machine that validates passwords.

The easiest fix is to ignore the problem. In the dialog asking you to enter the password, just click "Cancel". The correct password is still in your keychain, and will probably work the next time Mail tries to connect to the server.

I was going to look at that dialog to be sure I had its title and message correct, since I just by chance happened to notice one of my POP accounts in that state just before I came here, but the account had cleaned itself up, all by itself, before I could.

Good point gangbusein. Perhaps Sojourner really needs an alternative to his email provider, not a new client.

I do agree that it can be server side but we have seen the auth failures on the server side. It was not load or glitch it was like the password sent was corrupted and server rejected. It does happen with plists and keychain items. Not a lot but it goes on.

This used to happen periodically in "Classic" OS as well -- I'm not sure it's an artifact of Mail. That it's an artifact of POP3 servers is much more likely. My ISP is guilty about once a week.

Was there ever an Apple-made email client for the Classic OSes, like 8 and 9? They bought Claris, but I don't remember Apple ever really doing any development with it.

I think people were still using AOL and Compuserve in the days of OS 9.

I used Eudora (1988 – 2006) until Qualcomm abandoned it, but it occasionally had the problem. When I switched to Mail, I basically set it up to look as much like Eudora as I could.

Claris Emailer.

Apple didn't buy Claris. Claris was formed by Apple as their software division in 1987. It is a wholly owned subsidiary. Then Claris bought FileMaker, and the rest is history.

I used to use Claris Emailer, ClarisWorks and Claris Homepage.

These days for email I use Outlook 2011. I had been using Entourage before that. I tried Mail out briefly in the early days of OS X, and didn't like the way it handled HTML formatted mail, so I stayed with Entourage.

Every so often I think I'll give Mail a try, but at this point it's a paint to try and import everything and get it all set up the way I like it. Subsequently I also don't use Calendar (iCal), or Contacts (AddressBook) very much.

It was the days of Outlook Express for Mac which lots of people used ;-) and Entourage/Outlook 2011 are not exactly the sharpest diamonds in the pack as far as HTML formatted email either. We had to jump through hoops to try and send pre compiled HTML formatted mails as they both use the Word HTML rendering engine which frankly is so bad !

For me, Mail was massively improved with Lion. I think I posted here about my experiences.
If you use the Smart Mail Boxes, that's a very good way of sorting out your Inbox without ... sorting it out.:o

For instance, I have one Smart Mailbox for FaceBook incoming. I can easily select the contents and delete them all when they get too numerous. That's them taken care of locally, and on the IMAP server. Other Smart Folders for known work addresses, various friends, the university, etc, etc.
You can also see new emails in each Smart box with a number beside them.

Flags are also useful for mails that need responding to. They automatically appear in a Flagged Smart Folder. And you can archive mails into folders on the Mac. (Or on the server, too!)

I now have 2 IMAP accounts and all my mail synced between three devices, and it works beautifully.

I have had a lot less issues moving 90% of my users to Apple Mail from Entourage/Outlook 2011 over the last few years. I would say that Mail is probably the best option for email on Mac overall. My only gripe is i would like a unified workflow like Entourage/Outlook with Mail/iCal/Contacts/Reminders etc all in one window/app Mail ! This is the most requested feature from switchers ;-) 4 apps to flick between is not as efficient as 1 ! (I should add that of course the 4 apps would be separate still but bringing a unified view into mail would be a great feature.

I agree that Mail 10.7/10.8 are mature apps that fit the bill for email management with IMAP/POP and Exchange.

That's exactly why I hate Outlook. It's too modal, and you can only be in one place at a time. It reflects the Microsoft mentality of throwing the kitchen sink at a problem--which results in a Frankenmess of a program with weird inconsistencies. I can drag and drop in some places but not all. My scroll wheel works in most lists but not all...and more. I like Apple's "unix-style" of making small, self-contained applications that are polished and work together.

Agree with Chabig. The perfect and hated example of multi functionality in OS X is iTunes. Way too much crap going on.

Different strokes for different folks. Overall I would still want the separate apps like it is now. But many users have voiced to me a unified mail/contacts/calendars/tasks would be useful.

But what's the definition of unified? Do the functions have to exist in a single window, or is it more important for the functions to be integrated so that they work together? Outlook suggests the former. Mac OS follows the latter philosophy.

I am saying the ability to flick between the these apps content in 1 window would be useful. Some users do not have screen real estate and App switching is OK but not as good as a quick icon click in a unified window. I am not trying to say which is better or worse so do not want to get get pulled into a tit for tat or a Mac/Windows discussion. Apple have done various things to "unify" but in a kludged way like "Mail to dos" and a "contacts" button.

I think "unified" in this context is being used where we often refer to "convergence." Things like kitchen appliances with a built-in television. Or using what NovaScotian mentioned, using music software for syncing apps, music, movies, email, contacts, podcasts, and documents to an iPhone/iPad. Generally, products like this don't go over well. Obviously, the Outlook setup on Windows and iTunes are exceptions in that they've been widely adopted with minimal complaint considering the size of the install bases.

Personally, I don't tend to like the idea in my software. But that's predictable since the Apple OS has always been application-focused and it's what I've largely used throughout my life. Considering how rarely I actually open Address Book or iCal, despite using them, I certainly wouldn't want it as part of my email client (note, too, how there was never a positive reaction to RSS in Mail). But if I'd been in Windows since 95 or so I probably would feel differently.

I think it's one thing to give people another way of doing things (think touchscreen phone vs. QWERTY phone), but many people don't respond well to shifts in how they view and manage data they use daily. I would expect many (most?) to be uncomfortable coming from years of Outlook over to the Apple setup with distinct applications for calendar, contacts, email and reminders.

I'm going to write my own in FileMaker. (I've already done the bare bones of it, it needs some GUI work and some scripting for filtering).

I'll have to start using it for real as soon as I'm forced out of the Rosetta-capable world of 10.6.8 and (therefore) Eudora.

Can confirm Apple Mail is doing something not quite good. I run a) Mac OS 10.8 and 4 different accounts at b) 4 different email providers. c) All are IMAP. Apple Mail just dropped everything, and I've went two rounds now just filling in all passwords again and they're lost as quick s they're put in the system. So No – it is not about POP versus IMAP, and No – it is not about a single email provider faulting either.

Yes, mrFisck, my conversation with AppleCare pretty much confirmed that. Mail's been an absolute beast on this issue.

I've recently downloaded Postbox and am trying it out. Impressed with the features available, and hoping it's a viable option.

Postbox seems to be gMail only. I've been using MailPlane for that and like it well enough.

That's not correct. Here's what it says on the Postbox web site, right after touting the support the application has for Gmail-specific features like labels:

Quite nicely done, I agree, but I won't be switching because I have a ton of filters aimed at Junk and a large set of "On My Mac" folders for two POP accounts. Neither your filters nor your local folders are imported which leaves a new user with a lot of work to do writing a script to move all that stuff (Postbox is scriptable, though I didn't study its dictionary). It does do a great job of importing your accounts, however -- it was immediately bang on, fetching mail from them. Price is right, too.

Where are the Mail preference settings?
 

Does Mountain Lion's Mail 6.0 have Preference settings somewhere? I'd like to tweak the application -- in particular, to get it to try a couple more times to get mail from an account before generating the rejected password error message and to try to configure the accounts differently (some I would like to query for new mail less often than others). I've looked for .plist file or something like it but not been able to find anything like a configuration file. Any advice?

Try looking at the actual Preferences options rather than editing plists. From the Mail menu, select Preferences, then look under Accounts.

I have a couple of accounts that I don't need to access too often, so i have set each account pref (advanced tab) to not check for mail automatically by unchecking "include when automatically checking for new mail"

I don't know about Mountain Lion, but I found nothing in Mail preferences in either Lion or Tiger to tweak those kinds of settings.

I also searched the plist files and found nothing there. But, I was a little bit hesitant to experiment too much. If you find something, please share. Usually, the plist file is Library > Preferences > com.apple.mail.plist. From what I see on the internet, it should be the same for Mountain Lion. Your library folder may be hidden. In Finder, pressing shift-command-g and typing "/Library/Preferences" and pressing enter might get you to the preferences folder.

I think he'd want to go to ~/Library/Preferences/ for his own preferences.

All those sort of deep mail settings are either hard coded in app or Apple will never publish the plist keys but in Mountain Lion the Account info is stored in ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Accounts.plist

Sparrow continues to work fine, even though it won't get updates.

Quite right. I neglected to add the tilde. /Library/Preferences doesn't even contain a plist file for Mail.