Multiple Sends from Apple's Mail Application

scowls · 06-25-2002, 03:03 PM

Frequently when I try to send an e-mail from Apple's new Mail application, the note lingers in the send folder. Usually quitting the application and opening it again is enough to get the message out. Telling the app to get new e-mail doesn't seem to do the trick. In addition, it occasionally sends multiple copies of the note (as if it sent it when you first sent the mail and then again when you got back in and the app saw the e-mail still lingering in the send box). This happens both when I have multiple recipients and when I have only one recipient.

Any idea what's happening here? Is there a way to ensure that e-mail only goes out once?

dsk · 06-25-2002, 05:26 PM

Quote:


	the note lingers in the send folder

I assume you mean that it lingers in the "Outbox." How long does it do this? Depending on the size of the message and the speed of your connection to the outgoing server, it may not be unusual for it to do this. Do the messages linger there indefinitely?

Next time this happens,open up the Activity Viewer (from the "Window" menu) and see what's going on.

Jacques · 06-25-2002, 05:56 PM

I've had this kind of flakey behavior happen to me as well, also just general all around trouble sending email - especially if more than one is trying to go out.

I've learned a work-around. When I'm about to repond to any email, I go offline. Do all the responses, then QUIT.

When you load it up again usually the log-in and autosend will happen cleanly!

Odd but it works for me,
Jacques

mervTormel · 06-25-2002, 06:10 PM

practice a little patience here. even after a message is completely sent, the mail client is probably waiting for a confirmation receipt from the smtp server, and it may simply be delayed.

your email's journey is dependent on a lot of things, e.g., if your email is long, it is broken into packets, and scattered to the winds, and re-assembled at the smtp server. some packets may have to go to Jupiter and back.

so, before quitting mail, never to know the results, drive on to something else and see if mail eventually squawks about the reason it has a message in the outbox. patience will allow natural timeouts to occur and then the app may provide an exception report.

Jacques · 06-26-2002, 09:10 AM

mervTormel -

I certainly didn't leave a detailed message and am now no where near my Mac OS X system to log on and find details.

I have reason to quit Mail.app because of send problems. Using a dial-up, I have often sent messages to have Mail.app come back with one of several different kinds of errors. The most common failure results in the system asking for my password again, assuming it must be incorrect. Another one says that the EO(something or another) failed.

What the person experienced above also has happened to me, the message fails to send completely (Mail.app keeps it in the outgoing box 'until the next attempt') - but it turns out it DID send it. This one I've tested over and over again by copying myself on emails.

I'm set up properly, even have recently gone through a complete reinstall of Mac OS X - problems are the same. It could be my ISP - who knows.

What works for me? I have customized my toolbar to easily go offline before I start replying - then I write all my email (these replies sit in the outbox since the whole program is in offline mode) then quit. The next time I open Mail.app to check mail, it also sends all my mail cleanly through.

---

Now I'm curious if there is a real fix for all of this. I'll collect all the error messages on paper over the next few weeks and see if I can post them up, maybe there is something I'm missing..

Jacques

slimpy · 06-26-2002, 03:39 PM

When I first set up Mail, I sent a few test emails to myself (very small with no attachments). The first couple went through without any problems, but one seemed to get stuck in a perpetual send cycle. Not wanting to be hasty and cut the process short, I waited a while. I later found that it had sent out over 80 copies of the same email. Since then, I haven't used Mail to send anything - I just can't risk this happening to any of my friends or clients!

slimpy

scowls · 06-26-2002, 03:48 PM

Hi Jacques,

Thanks for the suggestion about going offline - I'll give that one a try.

For what it's worth, when I do get an error message, it says something about the system not recognizing the address I am sending the mail to, though the address is fine and the note eventually does send, though only once I've quite Mail and restarted it. Like you, this frequently results in the note being sent out two or more times.

Glad to know I'm not the only one struggling with Mail... :-)

Best,
Shawn

PS Is there a way to search multiple mailboxes for content, either within Mail or outside of it?

Jacques · 06-26-2002, 11:55 PM

There are about three or four different kinds of errors that I've seen - that lack of email recognition ranks high! The errors I come across are NOT consistant, that's why it makes me feel like I won't be able to thrust this bug -a-bug through once and for all.

Another trick I use is to go into the Outbox after the fail, double click the problem message and click send again. I've even gone as far as to cut and paste the contents to a new message to get something to send! I really want to stick to Mail.app but this dial-up (I mention dial-up because these problems don't seem to happen to folks that have other kinds of connections) mail failure stuff doesn't cut it or make it easy.

I've experimented with Mozilla's email client and so far it seems to work well! I might end up switching, although it's not nearly as Mac-like as I'd like it to be.

Let's get a full-blown cocoa Mozilla tweaked by Apple themselves and all may fare well..

Jacques

--

PS - I'm not sure that it's possible to search within mail for contents.. perhaps someone here knows a trick to scan the messages OUTSIDE of the Mail.app?

AKcrab · 06-27-2002, 12:36 AM

I've never had any problems with mail.app. The only strange thing is the "unlock keychain" requests after system updates, and the occasional "mailbox locked" message which has never caused any problems.

I used to use the mozilla email, but I find the bounce feature on mail.app too cool to give up.

Sorry you all are having such difficulties.

Jacques · 06-27-2002, 06:44 AM

Do you use dial-up access? Sometimes I've wondered if my ISP could have anything to do with it..

I once used Earthlink and at that time I didn't have problems with Yahoo! POP mail. Later I changed to another ISP (which I've been using for about two years now) and I remember my Yahoo! POP mail access gave me a lot of problems. I ended up having to go back to web-based access because of it.

Could it be possible that my ISP is POP or SMTP sensitive? It doesn't seem to me it could be since a packet is a packet is a packet..

Jacques

---

BTW - Yahoo! has since discontinued their free POP access..

parkov · 06-27-2002, 09:36 AM

For what it's worth, I get problems with Mail a lot more frequently with AOL dial-up than I do with either a T1 or Cable connection.

scowls · 06-27-2002, 10:12 AM

Quote:


	Originally posted by Jacques Do you use dial-up access? Sometimes I've wondered if my ISP could have anything to do with it..

I use an airport card to get access via some sort of a high speed connection that I share with other users - sorry I can't be more specific. :-)
It's possible that the sharing results in hiccups of some sort, though in general my connection is quite fast and solid. I very rarely get shut out while surfing.

Shawn

Roy Vincent · 06-27-2002, 05:13 PM

Quote:


	Originally posted by AKcrab I used to use the mozilla email, but I find the bounce feature on mail.app too cool to give up.

Like you, don't have any trouble with Apple's Mail.

But what am I missing? What's "the bounce feature"?

AKcrab · 06-27-2002, 05:24 PM

Quote:


	Originally posted by Roy Vincent Like you, don't have any trouble with Apple's Mail. But what am I missing? What's "the bounce feature"?

If you customize your toolbar (right click on the toolbar) you can add a button for bounce. Otherwise, it can be found under the "message" menu.
It returns a message to the sender, as if it was not received. If a spammer is cleaning his list based on returned mails, they will think your email is not valid and remove you. I find it actually works. Sometimes the sender is not a valid address, and the bounce will get returned as undeliverable, but nothings perfect.

melg · 06-28-2002, 07:52 PM

Quote:


	Originally posted by scowls Any idea what's happening here? Is there a way to ensure that e-mail only goes out once?

Don't know if this applies to you, but I came across this article on the Apple Discussions board.

scowls · 07-07-2002, 01:46 PM

Here's the message I get most often.

"This message could not be delivered and will remain in your Outbox until it can be delivered. The reason for the failure is: This message couldn’t be delivered because the SMTP host smtp.alumni.princeton.edu did not recognize any of the recipients."

I don't believe the mail generating the error message is ever sent during a session in which I got this message. Quitting and restarting Mail a few times will eventually succesfully send the message (twice seems to be the general rule). I have cleared my e-mail settings in the Systems Preferences section, so this isn't the problem.

Thanks,
Shawn

06-25-2002, 03:03 PM	#1
scowls Prospect Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 38	Multiple Sends from Apple's Mail Application Frequently when I try to send an e-mail from Apple's new Mail application, the note lingers in the send folder. Usually quitting the application and opening it again is enough to get the message out. Telling the app to get new e-mail doesn't seem to do the trick. In addition, it occasionally sends multiple copies of the note (as if it sent it when you first sent the mail and then again when you got back in and the app saw the e-mail still lingering in the send box). This happens both when I have multiple recipients and when I have only one recipient. Any idea what's happening here? Is there a way to ensure that e-mail only goes out once?

06-26-2002, 03:39 PM	#6
slimpy Prospect Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 40	80+ Copies Sent Out! When I first set up Mail, I sent a few test emails to myself (very small with no attachments). The first couple went through without any problems, but one seemed to get stuck in a perpetual send cycle. Not wanting to be hasty and cut the process short, I waited a while. I later found that it had sent out over 80 copies of the same email. Since then, I haven't used Mail to send anything - I just can't risk this happening to any of my friends or clients! slimpy

06-25-2002, 05:56 PM	#3
Jacques All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New York, NY Posts: 972	I've had this kind of flakey behavior happen to me as well, also just general all around trouble sending email - especially if more than one is trying to go out. I've learned a work-around. When I'm about to repond to any email, I go offline. Do all the responses, then QUIT. When you load it up again usually the log-in and autosend will happen cleanly! Odd but it works for me, Jacques

06-25-2002, 06:10 PM	#4
mervTormel League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 5,536	practice a little patience here. even after a message is completely sent, the mail client is probably waiting for a confirmation receipt from the smtp server, and it may simply be delayed. your email's journey is dependent on a lot of things, e.g., if your email is long, it is broken into packets, and scattered to the winds, and re-assembled at the smtp server. some packets may have to go to Jupiter and back. so, before quitting mail, never to know the results, drive on to something else and see if mail eventually squawks about the reason it has a message in the outbox. patience will allow natural timeouts to occur and then the app may provide an exception report.

06-26-2002, 09:10 AM	#5
Jacques All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New York, NY Posts: 972	mervTormel - I certainly didn't leave a detailed message and am now no where near my Mac OS X system to log on and find details. I have reason to quit Mail.app because of send problems. Using a dial-up, I have often sent messages to have Mail.app come back with one of several different kinds of errors. The most common failure results in the system asking for my password again, assuming it must be incorrect. Another one says that the EO(something or another) failed. What the person experienced above also has happened to me, the message fails to send completely (Mail.app keeps it in the outgoing box 'until the next attempt') - but it turns out it DID send it. This one I've tested over and over again by copying myself on emails. I'm set up properly, even have recently gone through a complete reinstall of Mac OS X - problems are the same. It could be my ISP - who knows. What works for me? I have customized my toolbar to easily go offline before I start replying - then I write all my email (these replies sit in the outbox since the whole program is in offline mode) then quit. The next time I open Mail.app to check mail, it also sends all my mail cleanly through. --- Now I'm curious if there is a real fix for all of this. I'll collect all the error messages on paper over the next few weeks and see if I can post them up, maybe there is something I'm missing.. Jacques

06-26-2002, 03:48 PM	#7
scowls Prospect Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 38	Hi Jacques, Thanks for the suggestion about going offline - I'll give that one a try. For what it's worth, when I do get an error message, it says something about the system not recognizing the address I am sending the mail to, though the address is fine and the note eventually does send, though only once I've quite Mail and restarted it. Like you, this frequently results in the note being sent out two or more times. Glad to know I'm not the only one struggling with Mail... :-) Best, Shawn PS Is there a way to search multiple mailboxes for content, either within Mail or outside of it?

06-26-2002, 11:55 PM	#8
Jacques All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New York, NY Posts: 972	There are about three or four different kinds of errors that I've seen - that lack of email recognition ranks high! The errors I come across are NOT consistant, that's why it makes me feel like I won't be able to thrust this bug -a-bug through once and for all. Another trick I use is to go into the Outbox after the fail, double click the problem message and click send again. I've even gone as far as to cut and paste the contents to a new message to get something to send! I really want to stick to Mail.app but this dial-up (I mention dial-up because these problems don't seem to happen to folks that have other kinds of connections) mail failure stuff doesn't cut it or make it easy. I've experimented with Mozilla's email client and so far it seems to work well! I might end up switching, although it's not nearly as Mac-like as I'd like it to be. Let's get a full-blown cocoa Mozilla tweaked by Apple themselves and all may fare well.. Jacques -- PS - I'm not sure that it's possible to search within mail for contents.. perhaps someone here knows a trick to scan the messages OUTSIDE of the Mail.app?

06-27-2002, 12:36 AM	#9
AKcrab MVP Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Wasilla, AK Posts: 1,043	I've never had any problems with mail.app. The only strange thing is the "unlock keychain" requests after system updates, and the occasional "mailbox locked" message which has never caused any problems. I used to use the mozilla email, but I find the bounce feature on mail.app too cool to give up. Sorry you all are having such difficulties.

06-27-2002, 06:44 AM	#10
Jacques All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New York, NY Posts: 972	Do you use dial-up access? Sometimes I've wondered if my ISP could have anything to do with it.. I once used Earthlink and at that time I didn't have problems with Yahoo! POP mail. Later I changed to another ISP (which I've been using for about two years now) and I remember my Yahoo! POP mail access gave me a lot of problems. I ended up having to go back to web-based access because of it. Could it be possible that my ISP is POP or SMTP sensitive? It doesn't seem to me it could be since a packet is a packet is a packet.. Jacques --- BTW - Yahoo! has since discontinued their free POP access..

06-27-2002, 09:36 AM	#11
parkov Prospect Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 11	For what it's worth, I get problems with Mail a lot more frequently with AOL dial-up than I do with either a T1 or Cable connection.

07-07-2002, 01:46 PM	#16
scowls Prospect Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 38	Here's the message I get most often. "This message could not be delivered and will remain in your Outbox until it can be delivered. The reason for the failure is: This message couldn’t be delivered because the SMTP host smtp.alumni.princeton.edu did not recognize any of the recipients." I don't believe the mail generating the error message is ever sent during a session in which I got this message. Quitting and restarting Mail a few times will eventually succesfully send the message (twice seems to be the general rule). I have cleared my e-mail settings in the Systems Preferences section, so this isn't the problem. Thanks, Shawn