Mac Mail IMAP Account Errors

[paktopia]

I've been having a strange problem with Mac Mail showing me errors for my IMAP account. It doesn't do the same with the POP3 account on the same server.

I've tried both SSL on and off, I've tried mail.domain.com and just domain.com, and I've tried changing the way I format the user name (@, +, etc.) but nothing makes the error go away.

The strange thing is, mail is still sent and received fine.

The error I get when I'm not using SSL is:

There may be a problem with the mail server or network. Check the settings for account "account name" or try again.

The server error encountered was: The attempt to read data from the server "mail.domain.com" failed.

And with SSL:

An SSL error has occurred and a secure connection to the server cannot be made.

My settings are all, as far as I can tell, standard, and they work elsewhere. If I use Thunderbird at work or on another machine here, there are no errors.

There's also the fact that these errors don't appear right away, it takes time for them to appear, but they always do, making it hard to troubleshoot by changing settings.

I am still receiving mail but the error is really irritating and I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. Thanks!

[Helen K.]

Unfortunately new versions of Mac Mail require much resources, especially your program requires too much connections. We would advise you or to use Thunderbird either to set up POP3, not IMAP.

[paktopia]

Unfortunately neither of those are good options for me. Mail doesn't seem to have a problem with other IMAP connections, so I may just have to look for a server that can handle the connections instead, if that's the cause of the error.

[Arkadij S]

Hi,

We would really like to assist you with this issue, but the information, you`ve provided us with is hardly enough to make any conclusions about the problem, you are experiencing. We would really appreciate your going to https://www.whbsupport.com/ and submitting a ticket to our technical support department. Please provide us with your domain name, account name and the IP address of the server, you are currently hosted on. Any additional information is highly appreciated. We look forward to hearing from you.

[paktopia]

^ I've tried that, we couldn't find anything conclusive enough to help. I've switched back to POP on the problem config. for now, it's not ideal, but it'll last until I find a better solution.

[Arkadij S]

Could you please provide us with the ticket ID?
We may check what was done in order to assist you and run another investigation.

[paktopia]

Could you please provide us with the ticket ID?
We may check what was done in order to assist you and run another investigation.

The ticket ID was HLO-656426. The resolution was that I stopped using IMAP for the 2 accounts I have with my website here. At that time I was getting the same error with both. Switching one to POP helped, but now the last IMAP enabled account has started producing the error again.

It may be that Mail and Thunderbird are making too many connections for the server, but without switching to another third email program, there really isn't a way to change that. In Thunderbird I believe there is a setting to number of connections, but there isn't in Mail.

[Sergey S.]

This is truly caused by the number of connections MacMAil is establishing, and unfortunately there is no way to control this parameter in MacMail.
Unfortunately the solution is to use POP3 or switch to a different mail client that will let you control the number of connections (Mozilla does).

[phpmike]

I have always had this problem with webhostingbuzz and mac mail. I have two other shared hosting accounts with other web hosts that use cpanel and mail has no issue with any of my email accounts from those servers, so it is not an issue with mac mail, it is an issue with your server configurations.

[Maxim M.]

That's because we have the restriction of IMAP connections number (not more than 3-4). And as far as I know there's no appropriate option in Mac Mail to configure this.

Any shared host has certain mail activity boundaries to guarantee server's stable operation. Others set the limit of email accounts etc.

[phpmike]

Well I don't know where the 3-4 connections are coming from, I have one computer that tries to connect via IMAP and one iphone that tries to connect via IMAP and both fail. I need my mail so I am probably switching hosts, but you guys should look into this.

[Arkadij S]

Dear phpmike,

We will have a look at it gladly.

However, such an issue requires to investigation so we would like you to submit a ticket to our technical support department. You can do it at https://whbsupport.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

[splitbumper]

I'm experiencing a similar issue with Mac Mail. Has there been any change to the server configuration to allow for more connections?

When I first setup my account with WHB I don't remember having this problem. My question is how many IMAP connections do you allow and how many is Mac Mail asking for?

While I haven't checked, sometimes there are manual commands people can use on a Mac to configure things the GUI doesn't let you. Knowing the number of connections could help if this command is located, which I will look for.

[Lena S.]

splitbumper, our technical support department will be glad to help you with your issue. Please submit a ticket to them at https://whbsupport.com and provide us with your main domain and the email account you are experiencing problems with in your ticket.