Entourage will not download my mail

[Dub]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)
Processor: Power PC
Email Client: pop

Diane:
My Mac is a G4 running OS X 10.3.9, and my Entourage is Office 2004 (Student/Teacher edition), updated to 11.4. I have used it with extremely few problems for three years or so and prefer it over Apple's Mail. A few days ago it suddenly began freezing (not my Mac, just Entouragte) when I try to receive mail. It does not give me any error message, but on the progress bar line "logging on..." flashes on, followed by "Getting list of messages," but then the progress "barber pole" freezes (along with Entourage) and the beach ball turns incessantly. I have to do a force quit each time.

I have no problem composing or sending mail. My wife's twin machine and Entourage continue to function mormally, as does my MacBook Pro with OS X 4.11. My Internet connection through Verizon Fios is sound. No one else uses my Mac, so I know none of my sending/receiving account settings have been changed. However, I have already deleted and re-entered all of my settings to no avail. I have also rebuilt my Entourage data base, which made no difference. Should I re-install Entourage? Will I lose my 100s of mail docs in my various folders if I do? I will greatly appreciate your help.
Thanks,
Dub

 

[Ed Kimball]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)
Processor: Power PC
Email Client: pop

Diane:
My Mac is a G4 running OS X 10.3.9, and my Entourage is Office 2004
(Student/Teacher edition), updated to 11.4. I have used it with extremely few
problems for three years or so and prefer it over Apple's Mail. A few days ago
it suddenly began freezing (not my Mac, just Entouragte) when I try to receive
mail. It does not give me any error message, but on the progress bar line
"logging on..." flashes on, followed by "Getting list of messages," but then
the progress "barber pole" freezes (along with Entourage) and the beach ball
turns incessantly. I have to do a force quit each time.

I have no problem composing or sending mail. My wife's twin machine and
Entourage continue to function mormally, as does my MacBook Pro with OS X
4.11. My Internet connection through Verizon Fios is sound. No one else uses
my Mac, so I know none of my sending/receiving account settings have been
changed. However, I have already deleted and re-entered all of my settings to
no avail. I have also rebuilt my Entourage data base, which made no
difference. Should I re-install Entourage? Will I lose my 100s of mail docs in
my various folders if I do? I will greatly appreciate your help.
Thanks,
Dub

This is typically due to a problem e-mail message on the server. If you have
web access to your mail, you should be able to find it and delete it via the
web.

 

[Dub]

This is typically due to a problem e-mail message on the server. If you have
web access to your mail, you should be able to find it and delete it via the
web.

Ed:
Thanks for the prompt reply. I have access to my mail on the web, both through a gmail account and through Verizon. I have gone to my e-mail account on Verizon just now, and I can't see anyway to determine how to determine if a message is or is not a problem, so as to delete it. Can you give me a little more direction here? Thanks again.
Dub

 

[Ed Kimball]

Ed:
Thanks for the prompt reply. I have access to my mail on the web, both through
a gmail account and through Verizon. I have gone to my e-mail account on
Verizon just now, and I can't see anyway to determine how to determine if a
message is or is not a problem, so as to delete it. Can you give me a little
more direction here? Thanks again.
Dub

I would look for any of the following conditions:
Large attachments
Potential spam (e.g., a sender you don't recognize)
Message in font that does not correspond to the Roman alphabet (e.g,
Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic, etc.)

Some of the MVPs may have more useful ideas.

 

[Diane Ross]

I would look for any of the following conditions:
Large attachments
Potential spam (e.g., a sender you don't recognize)
Message in font that does not correspond to the Roman alphabet (e.g,
Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic, etc.)

It will be one of the older messages that has the above criteria. Sometimes
in Entourage with the Progress window open, you can toggle the triangle to
see message subjects and see which one is causing the problem.

 

[Dub]

Thanks for chiming in, Diane. I tried downloading my mail just now with the Progress window open,but it gives me nothing, except an incessantly spinning beach ball, requiring another force quit. It allowed me to see no message list (thus no subjects) at all. I still apparently need somehow to find out how to see the list of messages that are on the Verizon server, but nothing on Verizon's e-mail Website gives me a clue as to how I may do this. Any further help will be MOST appreciated. This problem is really costing me a great amount of time and frustration.
Dub

 

[Diane Ross]

Thanks for chiming in, Diane. I tried downloading my mail just now with the
Progress window open,but it gives me nothing, except an incessantly spinning
beach ball, requiring another force quit. It allowed me to see no message list
(thus no subjects) at all. I still apparently need somehow to find out how to
see the list of messages that are on the Verizon server, but nothing on
Verizon's e-mail Website gives me a clue as to how I may do this. Any further
help will be MOST appreciated. This problem is really costing me a great
amount of time and frustration.

Can you view your web mail with your browser? I can't believe Verizon does
not offer webmail. This is the easiest option.

A couple of others option that you could try in Entourage....

Open Account
Under the Options tab, select "allow online access" (you will see a new
icon in the Folder List for the online account).

Click on the icon and your messages on the server should show up in
Entourage. View the messages and select the delete the ones you might find
suspicious. The next time you run your schedule, it should delete those
messages.

Option 2)
Open Account window
Select account and open
At the top of the window uncheck "include the account in Send & Receive all
schedule"

Next create a new account and this time enter your account as an IMAP
account. Folllow directions here: http://tinyurl.com/59x6ek

More help here:

IMAP Account <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/accounts/imap.html>

This will show you all mail on server without having to download.

 

[Dub]

Diane:
Thanks for your additional suggestions. A Verizon tech was able to get my e-mail to download on its Website. I had 900+ messages on the server, but I still have a tremendous amount of unused server space. I deleted every message that was posted on August 5, the date Entourage started locking up and refusing to receive my mail. It made no difference whatsoever. I didn't see how a single message on the server could be the problem, for I have no problem receiving mail to that address through Entourage on my MacBook Pro. I would think that the same problem message would have had the same effect on receiving mail on my laptop, had that been the cause of my grief.
I'm back to square one, not knowing what to try next. Can you suggest anything further? Could it be some glitch in some preference just on my G4's Entourage, since I have no problem with Entourage on my MacBook Pro? I will be most grateful for your help.
Dub