Apple Mail and Gmail

HELP! Missing mail

I thought I was the only person with this problem. I'm not.

I use mail.app (the Apple Mail program) to check my gmail account. It works just fine 99.9% of the time.

The problem? One email in a thousand (which means a few a week) gets skipped. I can see it in my gmail box, but it never shows up in my Apple mailbox.

See below for details. And thanks.

Gory details

I'm using Mac 10.4.11 on a MacBook Pro.

I'm using Mail version 2.1.3.

I have NO spam filters on my Mac, and NO rules set.

I have the gmail spam filter set, but the email I'm not getting isn't in the spam filter.

I use POP. I tried imap on my illfated Macbook Air, but I hated the way it worked. So POP it is.

And here's the thing:
Megan has exactly the same problem I do. So I know it's not me.

We need your help!

Can this be fixed?

Fetching blurbs now... please stand by

Yes, and here's what you do:

Jon Dale says:

Seth, I don't have a solution for you.

I recently switched to a mac from a pc. I've been using leapard/mail with imap sync to gmail and haven't missed a message. I'd suggest upgrading to leapard and using imap.

Posted March 26, 2008

Jim Carter says:

update to leopard and run as imap, it's the way to go, and it works fine

Posted March 21, 2008

kerrin says:

Dude, You're getting a Dell!

sincerely,
Mac Fan Boy

Posted March 16, 2008

giafly says:

Short answer: email isn't perfect, some go missing, some get delivered several times, live with it or try different mail clients. Long answer: you don't provide enough information to solve the problem, not even the history of one real example, so it's impossible to diagnose. I fit the bill as the email expert you say you want, with 10 years experience in writing email systems, but I think you're just trolling to drive traffic to your blog.

Posted March 16, 2008

teresa says:

also, and i do apologize, how much space do you have for storing the forwarded email BEFORE you delete it? gmail has space to burn and, well, .mac accounts require $$ for additional space, so maybe checking soon and checking often are required. I agree about IMAP from the other person (sorry did not read everything first)... t

Posted March 14, 2008

No, time to buy some stamps.

Joe Alien says:

Reduce your expectations for complete synchronization perfection between Mail and GMail from 100% to 99.9%.

Posted March 21, 2008

Anthony says:

I have been using Google Mobile for email since the forced switch to IMAP and my subsequent inability to get iPhone Mail working the way it after switching back to POP. Google Mobile is a great mobile app, but sucks compared to iPhone Mail. I'm blaming Apple and Google equally.

Posted March 13, 2008

Dan says:

Sorry I can't help, but I can co-miserate. Apple Mail has some notoriously weird little bugs buried in it. I've been using it to access my IMAP mail, and while other Mail apps (like Thunderbird) have no problem, Apple Mail sometimes just doesn't know what to do with an incoming message. Frustrating

Posted March 13, 2008

Mike says:

Seth -

It might be worth checking out www.fixya.com - its a place where you can post your troubleshooting problems and other experts, people contribute to give you a solution. For most problems, you will receive a solution within a relatively short period of time. Might be worth looking into as I'm sure some of their experts are apple certified and could put forth a good solution.

Posted March 13, 2008

Joy says:

Hi Seth,

I have a similar problem but it's not gmail related- I think the problem is with .mac mail accounts (or accounts routed thru to mail.app). As soon as I find out there is a missing email I can't find it anywhere in my junk/deleted and it does not bounce back to the sender so they think I have it.

I think this is an Apple only issue and if you find the fix please post it.

Thanks-

Posted March 13, 2008

Links on this issue

My unanswered plea for help: on Mac Forum
On the Apple forum: The theory here is that my iPhone is somehow interfering, marking some as read for no reason. But I rarely check email on my iphone and there's no apparent correlation in the timing.
John had a similar problem: Which makes three of us