Mac Mail Downloads Messsages Again After Marked Read.

IMAP is one of the two main electronic mail protocols, and is the acronym for the Internet Message Access Protocol. Information technology is also one of the few truly global protocols; so many other technological protocols stop up fragmented, with different apps and dissimilar clients using different protocols.

Email, indeed, has two dissimilar protocols: IMAP and Popular. They function in different means and both have their own benefits and drawbacks. IMAP has gone through several revisions, with the current being Version iv Revision 1, or IMAP4rev1.

You don't need to know whatever of the dirty details, of form. I include this information more as trivia than as anything useful to well-nigh of you.

IMAP has several advantages due to the fashion it works. With an IMAP protocol, yous're connected to a mailbox equally long every bit you're working on information technology. When yous need to see the contents of an email, you download it – a affair of milliseconds, typically – and tin can piece of work on it. This is in contrast to Pop, where you connect long enough to download all new messages – and annihilation that yous need admission to that isn't in your local annal – and and then disconnect.

Of course, the advantages are not without their disadvantages. IMAP is more complex than Popular, and has more points of failure. Yous also have to remain connected to the mailbox, so you can't really download and run off with your messages. Or rather, yous can, simply you need to maintain a connexion to ship messages, receive notifications of new messages, and otherwise collaborate with the mailbox.

The Problem

The issue I'm discussing today comes from various potential issues, settings, or glitches in mail programs or servers. Essentially, the local index for e-mail becomes cleaved or asunder in some way. When a user then connects to the IMAP mailbox, information technology's as if they have never connected earlier. The user and then has to download all of their old messages before they tin can access their mailboxes.

For some users, this might exist a slightly longer startup time than normal. For others, this could lock their email customer into an all-twenty-four hours affair of downloading and syncing. Obviously, it's not an intended function of the email setup.

Unfortunately, there are a ton of different possible causes, and an equal number of different possible solutions. I'll go over the near common bug; hopefully you tin figure out what'due south wrong using this listing and fix it.

Disclaimer

Email mailboxes, archives, and configurations, particularly involving mail servers, are treacherous. Nosotros've all meet a fourth dimension where a mailbox has been corrupted and we've lost data.

Some of the steps I recommend can have agin effects if they are performed incorrectly. Therefore, it's extremely of import that you back upward everything prior to making changes to configurations, mail servers, or athenaeum. Earlier doing annihilation, back upward everything you lot fifty-fifty think you lot might touch to alter. That way, even if something breaks and is irrecoverable, you have a backup you can restore.

This goes for local clients and mail archives equally well every bit server configurations, client configurations, and everything in between. Back it all up! I'one thousand not responsible if yous lose your messages or your data when attempting a recovery.

Understand IMAP

We're talking today virtually IMAP every bit a protocol, just I know that some people have strange definitions of words like "download." For case, I've seen people merits that their email client was downloading all emails from their business relationship when they sign in, when what they really meant was information technology was but displaying those messages.

With an IMAP configuration, all email messages are stored on the mail server. When you sign on to your email client, your customer has to download an alphabetize of all messages – or sync a local index with a remote alphabetize, more likely – to see what is in your account on the post server. This is not downloading every message. It's like downloading the table of contents for a book. You only download the actual message if you choose to open it.

It may be a unproblematic miscommunication about what is and isn't happening. Basically, if you have a total list of e-mail and you don't want a lot of those messages to exist visible, file them abroad in other mailboxes or delete them.

Change Your Local Settings

Unlike e-mail clients will have a different range of settings you can modify that modify the behavior of your mailbox. I've gone over a few of the more than mutual clients, with some instructions on how to change relevant settings. As always, make sure your configuration is backed up or recorded then you can revert changes afterwards every bit necessary.

For Mac Postal service, you want to go to Mail Preferences, Accounts, Mailbox Behaviors, and so detect the "Store deleted messages on the server" selection. Remove the check mark if there'south a check mark in that location.

What'south happening here is the server is storing your old letters fifty-fifty though you've deleted them locally. This can cause problems if your customer attempts to download them, even though they should be deleted.

Some other possible configuration event with Mac Mail is to verify the email provider is using the same protocol. I've seen some people have issues with, for example, their Gmail inboxes. If your Gmail business relationship is ready to apply POP, merely your Mac Postal service client is attempting to admission information technology using IMAP, the cross-configuration tin can cause bug. Brand sure the configurations are synced.

With Outlook, y'all will once again want to brand sure your electronic mail provider or e-mail server is using the same protocol. A like result can be solved by going to Account Settings, your default account, More Settings, and Advanced. Discover the "leave a copy of messages on the server" and remove the bank check. Annotation that this can make quondam messages inaccessible, so brand sure your message archives are backed up.

Update Your Mail Customer

Generally, the first thing I recommend when encountering an issue like this is making sure your electronic mail client is up to appointment. Patently, if you're just using something like web Gmail, this isn't going to be your outcome. If y'all're using Outlook, Thunderbird, Mac Postal service, Postbox, or another app client to access your email server, yous should check if in that location are whatever updates.

This thread from last twelvemonth is a good example. The users in question were forced to re-sync their mailboxes every time they logged in, due to an authentication issue with Thunderbird. The solution was to change a configuration selection temporarily, and then – once it was released – update their installation of Thunderbird.

Mac Mail is too fairly notorious with problems involving IMAP and downloading former email letters. Usually, updating the app will solve at least some of the problems.

Reinstall Your Mail Client

If updating your mail client isn't working, another alternative yous might endeavor is deleting and reinstalling the post client itself. In some cases, a corrupted file or configuration somewhere on your hard drive is causing errors to cascade into constant re-downloading erstwhile messages.

If yous remove and reinstall your postal service client, your computer is more often than not smart enough to avoid bad sectors of your bulldoze, and will be providing fresh, uncorrupted versions of files to your new installation. This is another reason you desire to have your configuration settings backed upwards; the reinstall is probable to wipe them and you volition demand to set everything upwardly the way you similar information technology once more.

Try a Different E-mail Client

Changing the client you use to admission your server can sometimes exist done, depending on your environment. Personal users and small businesses are often flexible enough to allow you to choose your software, while larger companies might have It policies that mandate specific software. Of course, if yous're having this kind of error in a locked downwardly IT environment, your It team should be working on this, not you lot.

If you're able to choose your email customer, effort switching clients. You don't accept to remove your old customer, but who knows; mayhap you'll like the switch. In any case, this is mostly a test to come across if the issue is with the email server or with your local client and configuration. If the new software – configured properly using IMAP and with the initial downloads and syncs completed – works fine, your event is with your other email client and its local configuration. If the new software also experiences bug, it may be an issue with your mail server itself.

What are your best culling electronic mail clients?

• Postbox is personally my favorite email client for Macs. Information technology's simple, it'southward elegant, and it's very powerful compared to the basic Mac Mail client. It works for PC equally well these days, and so it's worth checking out for anyone who has to manage large amounts of email.
• Thunderbird is the Mozilla offering for email. It, likewise, works for both Macs and PC, and can be a pretty skilful offering. Make certain you get used to looking through the community forums whenever there's an issue, though, every bit the majority of the support comes from other community members.
• Mail Pilot is another alternative with a few additional features yous might find useful. In our troubleshooting case, the major benefit is true IMAP, rather than IMAP that has to pass through a third party server. It eliminates a variable in our testing to make certain everything works.
• Outlook doesn't even need a link; you all know how to observe it. Microsoft's offering may have a long and often negative reputation, merely the modern iterations aren't all that bad. Outlook is very much its ain animate being, however, and it might take a bit of a learning curve, especially if you lot're used to advanced features in other e-mail clients.

In whatsoever instance, yous don't necessarily need to fully adopt some other email customer; simply use one to come across if everything works. If it's all the same broken, you lot may want to look into your email server configuration and scan for errors.

Delete Erstwhile Messages

This is some other "support your archive earlier attempting" trick, and information technology's non even really that much of a trick. Go back through your mailbox, your PST files, your mail service server, or whatever other location is storing all of your messages and delete annihilation more than a yr or two quondam, and especially everything that yous don't need to access on a regular ground.

Obviously, brand certain to follow whatsoever relevant laws related to your manufacture. I know in some companies or jobs, it's illegal to delete annihilation less than ~7 years one-time, or some other archive requirements. In this case, don't delete the letters. Archive them in a separate PST or any means of storing messages is most effective in your setup. Then motion them to an external backup.

The goal here is to minimize the amount of messages that are present. Sometimes an older mailbox annal or mail index will be corrupted and crave re-downloading, which can have a long time when you have an extreme number of messages.

Restore Your Index

Much like other configuration changes, restoring your postal service alphabetize volition vary depending on the email client you're using. Equally I mentioned upwardly above, using IMAP means keeping a local alphabetize of your messages and keeping it synced when you lot sign on. The mail cache or mail index can exist corrupted in some circumstances, and this can lock you into a loop of downloading.

Hither are some instructions on re-syncing or restoring the cache in Outlook. You can find similar instructions for other mail clients. Requite that a shot, backing upwards your local cache first of course.

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Source: https://emailmate.com/blog/2018/12/imap-downloading-old-messages/

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