I only want mail!

[TerenceW]

Mac Mail seems to have everything on the computer appearing in it... It has 'mailboxes' and sub-mailboxes that show everything that's happenning on every one of my sites - downloads, orders, course bookings, and more. How can I get it to just the mail and only the mail?

Any advice will be appreciated!

Terence

 

[Slydude]

I am a bit confused. A few more details would be helpful. Have you always used Mail? Did you import the mailboxes from some other program?

 

[TerenceW]

Yes, always used mail and had the same problems but it's getting worse. I have several sites which take orders for products, bookings for courses, and registrations... Each one has an associated emails address. The email works just fins but other mailboxes (that I didn't create) are also in Mail, including, for instance, how many times a booking was made (and I don't need to know that) how many times I've uploaded stuff, how many times downloads were made, cms access - every activity. I tried to delete the mailbox but I get an error message.

I've used mail since I switched to Mac 3 1/2 years ago - had the problem almost all the time since.

 

[cradom]

Screen shot would be helpful. Getting confused also.

 

[Rod]

That sounds amazing, even more amazing is that you have put up with it for so long.
A screen shot please plus; what operating system are you using, what version of Mail and the Model of Mac Computer you are using.

 

[TerenceW]

Well, it hasn't caused any great problems - mostly irritation I'm currently running a 27" iMac with a 3TB Fusion drive and 32gb of ram. Yosemite 10.10.2. I've just come off a chat session with an apple support guy who's never seen it before and it's been escalated to a senior guy for a phone/screen share session.

Screen shot shows...

 

[cradom]

Um, you need to upload the pic somewhere. Either use the Advanced option and the Manage attachments button or someplace like Imgur and paste the link for Forums into your post.

 

[TerenceW]

Trying to do just that - not happening though.

 

[cradom]

Which one?

 

[TerenceW]

I'm hoping this has got it...

 

[cradom]

That got it.
I've never seen that before. Looks like Mail opened a folder, or a website with FTP or something.
Didn't think it was even capable of that. Check your preferences, especially Accounts. See if anything weird in there.

 

[TerenceW]

Yeah - checked all that. Can't see anything. The Apple guy hadn't seen anything like it in 25 years, apparently, hence it's been escalated to a senior advisor. The console is showing 100s of attempts by mail to make sense of a pdf file, too It states: "Failed to decode the IMAP mailbox name T&C2.pdf" - T&C2.pdf is a document on one of my websites. I've been around computers since 1982 when I built my firs one and I've seen nothing like this before.

 

[cradom]

Only thing I can suggest:
Archive/backup all your mail (what you want to keep anyway).
Delete your accounts and start over from scratch.
Probably a little overkill but should work.

 

[TerenceW]

I've just discovered the same issue appears on my MBP as well - looks as if it's a server problem but how on earth Mail is seeing stuff that's not emails is anybody's guess!

 

[dtravis7]

I was just going to say, it almost looks like on the IMAP servers end! I have never seen anything like that and have been helping people set up Email accounts on both OSX, Linux, Windows for the last 20+ years now!

Let us know if you find the issue!

 

[TerenceW]

Turns out it's because I'm using the admin on the account as my email address for the account - I had not idea that was an issue until now... anyway, the company I lease my server from are probably going to upgrade my server (the one I'm on is pretty old) which they say will solve the problem... we'll see.

 

[Slydude]

Thanks for letting us know what was causing the problem.

BTW I know that was frustrating but you now have the distinction of stumping some of the best brains on the forum. Not including myself in that crowd. I was absolutely stumped right from the start.

 

[TerenceW]

Well, it's to be hoped that the new server (if it happens) sorts the problem out. Difficult to do anything with the existing setup, other than reassigning the admin on all the sites, then create new users using the old admin addresses Lotsa possibility for losing stuff, that I can't afford!

 

[Rod]

Terence congratulations on coming up with such an original and unprecedented problem. The screen shot was a great help. Never seen anything like it before. Screen shots are a great way of explaining things, do you have a handle on that now? If not we can show you step by step how for this forum (in screen shots).
Glad you got it sorted, hope the fix is soon.
I have added to your reputation on this forum and will reference your problem just in case it ever happens to someone else.

 

[sailor#1]

Mac Mail seems to have everything on the computer appearing in it... It has 'mailboxes' and sub-mailboxes that show everything that's happenning on every one of my sites - downloads, orders, course bookings, and more. How can I get it to just the mail and only the mail?

Any advice will be appreciated!

Terence

I have read the complete thread up to the time I write this and wonder…

1. Do you have more than one mail account under the accounts listing (go to the apple/system preferences/mail/contacts & Calendars? If your email address is the only one there, it might be that because you have an administrators address many other items may be associated. If that is the case…
2. Get an alternate private email address (i.e., one not associated with anything else)
3. Go to the accounts page again and delete the account you have and add your new email as an account.
4. This should cure the problem. If not…First forward all the emails you need to save to your new email address. Then...
5. Quit mail (force quit if necessary.
6. Go to ~/library/mail and rename the V2 folder to something else such as "V2 OLD"
7. Restart mail
8. You should now have a completely blank slate with only your new email address as your inbox and a new V2 folder in your ~/library/mail folder. Your new account should have all the old emails you have forwarded.

Hope this helps…OJ