Mail.app problem: can't send.

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I have been having trouble with Mail.app recently. It is unable to send messages although it can receive them. I have checked all the settings and found nothing wrong; in fact, those same settings are being used successfully by the MS Outlook for Mac program that I am now running instead. I have a Mac Pro (late 2006 vintage) using OS 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard). Since all the settings are correct, I suspect something is wrong with the program itself. Re-installing Snow Leopard is an option, but a very tedious one, so I'd rather find another way. Any ideas?
 

chscag

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Who is your ISP? Generally when you can receive mail but not send, that indicates a problem with mail's internal settings. I know you stated that the settings were correct.

Also, we have to ask... are you running any kind of anti-virus program or a cleanup program such as MacKeeper? Both of these types of programs can interfere with Mail. Reinstalling Snow Leopard may not solve the problem so I suggest if you're going to reinstall anything, only reinstall Mail.
 
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Mail.app troubles

Thanks very much for your reply. I have checked with my ISP and all my settings are correct; they are also the same settings I use for Microsoft Outlook, which I started using because Mail stopped working.

I am running an anti-virus program known as iAntivirus (free edition). I will see what happens if I turn it off. If nothing, I can uninstall and see what that does. As for re-installing Mail, I don't know how to do that. My installation DVD seems to only want to do a complete re-install of everything. When I have used it in the past, I didn't see anywhere to do a single-program reinstall.

Thanks again for your help. I will post again when I have further information.
 
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Quick update: I uninstalled iAntivirus, and re=booted the computer, but no luck. I am hoping you can explain how to install Mail all by itself.

Thanks,

Gemless
 

chscag

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Since you're still using Snow Leopard, it's easier to reinstall it than to remove mail, extract the program from the DVD, and reinstall. Also, you would need special software to extract it. (I should have mentioned that in my first reply.)

Snow Leopard does an in place reinstall. In other words, it does not destroy your data or documents. Boot with the Snow Leopard DVD and let it reinstall which it should do in around 30 minutes or so. Let us know if the mail program is working OK.
 
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Mail troubles

Well, I have uninstalled iAntivirus and used my Snowleopard DVD to re-install Mail all by itself, to no avail. I suppose the next thing to do is a complete re-install using the DVD as a boot disk.

I have been reluctant to do that because the last time I did it I had troubles with Time Machine and had to delete all my backup files in order to get it to work again. Not sure why, but if I have to do it again, c'est la vie.

Thanks to all.
 

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