Problems with Outbox

[atavus]

I'm having a frustrating time with my mail outbox. Having tried to send an email with photo attachments (probably shouldn't have bothered, since it's painfully slow here at weekends) the message went to the outbox - as normal. But I then decided to start again, and send without the attachments. The trouble is, no matter what I do, I can't seem to remove the messages from the outbox. I've tried everything I know to just delete them (by now there are two of them, identical) and while they disappear as if deleted when I'm in the message box, they're still there in the outbox when I go back to the main mail page! And even when I'm back online, no attempt seems to be made to send them - which I thought was supposed to happen automatically. Can anyone suggest a solution?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

-Which version of OS X/macOS?
-Is this while using the Mail app?
-How large are the attachments? Many email providers have an attachment limit of 5-10 MB.
-Who is the email provider, and have you logged into webmail via a browser to see if you have the issue with that account?
-If in the Mail app, have you tried selecting the Outbox, then clicking Mailbox > Rebuild from the menu bar?

C

 

[atavus]

I'm using OS 10.9.5. Things have got much worse. I think something has gone completely haywire. I don't think I'm getting any incoming mail at all - for instance, your message should have been noted as an email - instead, I've come directly to this site and found your message. I tried a test - sending an email to myself - and all that's happened is that that too has gone into the outbox, with no indication whatever that any attempt was made to send it. All this has come about because I tried to send a large photo file, which I gave up on after fifteen minutes! I'm using standard iMac mail. I've tried your rebuild option, but nothing happened. I'm going to try restarting the computer, in the hope that that makes a difference. I'll come back to this page later in the hope that you might be further help.

 

[atavus]

Cory - for this relief, much thanks! Shutting down completely and starting up again seems to have cleared the blockage - the mail box is suddenly filled again with new stuff, and even the offending file has now been sent. I don't know what I did wrong - but your suggestion about the size of the file is probably the culprit. Thanks.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Good to hear! Sometimes the easiest solution is the best.

Let us know if the issue returns,

C