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Mac Mail nightmare with Exchange Server - Please Help!
Posted on 2006-11-27
Mostly PC's in our office but we have about 4 Mac's. We run SBS 2003 with Exchange Server.
Our Mac Users are using OS X 10.4.7 - Mail version 2.1
I have Exchange enabled with IMAP access.
Apple Mail works but it is often painfully slow - taking forever to show messages, or frequent connection timeouts, or goes offline
I really have no idea what else to do to solve the problem - I have gotten the users to reduce the size of their mailbox, I have entered in the server's IP address instead of full name etc etc.
The users would prefer to use Apple Mail - they are not interested in using entourage or OWA.
Has anyone else experienced these issues and if so, would you have any suggestions for improving the performance of Apple Mail?
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks
Mark
Our Mac Users are using OS X 10.4.7 - Mail version 2.1
I have Exchange enabled with IMAP access.
Apple Mail works but it is often painfully slow - taking forever to show messages, or frequent connection timeouts, or goes offline
I really have no idea what else to do to solve the problem - I have gotten the users to reduce the size of their mailbox, I have entered in the server's IP address instead of full name etc etc.
The users would prefer to use Apple Mail - they are not interested in using entourage or OWA.
Has anyone else experienced these issues and if so, would you have any suggestions for improving the performance of Apple Mail?
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks
Mark
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13 Comments
Active 4 days ago
Do you have all the latest patches installed for your SBS server and Exchange server? There is another recent post here in which the Mac connectivity problems were solved by updating the Exchange server.
Strung,
Everything is fully patched and up to date.
Unfortunately I don't think that appears to be the problem.
Thanks though
Mark
Everything is fully patched and up to date.
Unfortunately I don't think that appears to be the problem.
Thanks though
Mark
Active 4 days ago
There are also some suggestions here:
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20050427062905210&query=mail+slow+with+exchange+server
Among the suggestions there (quoting from MacFixit):
Deleting Mail.app cache and .plist file Deleting the following folder:
* ~/Library/Mail/Caches/Mail
and this file:
* ~/Library/Preferences/com.
may provide faster Mail.app performance in some cases.
Turning off SSL Turning off the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) option in Mail.app's preferences (Click "Server Settings..." for the desired account) appears to resolve performance issues with IMAP servers in some cases. Note, however, that this will disable access to some servers that require this option to be turned on.
MacFixIt reader Chris Janton, for instance, writes:
"When connecting to the IMAP server using SSL on port 993 all sorts of odd behavior - slow, not completely quitting, etc.
"If you turn off secure mail (back to port 143) the bad behavior seems to go away, at least I haven't observed the odd behavior."
http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20050427062905210&query=mail+slow+with+exchange+server
Among the suggestions there (quoting from MacFixit):
Deleting Mail.app cache and .plist file Deleting the following folder:
* ~/Library/Mail/Caches/Mail
and this file:
* ~/Library/Preferences/com.
may provide faster Mail.app performance in some cases.
Turning off SSL Turning off the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) option in Mail.app's preferences (Click "Server Settings..." for the desired account) appears to resolve performance issues with IMAP servers in some cases. Note, however, that this will disable access to some servers that require this option to be turned on.
MacFixIt reader Chris Janton, for instance, writes:
"When connecting to the IMAP server using SSL on port 993 all sorts of odd behavior - slow, not completely quitting, etc.
"If you turn off secure mail (back to port 143) the bad behavior seems to go away, at least I haven't observed the odd behavior."
I went through the same thing. However, I have a PC and a Mac sitting side-by-side. I prefer Mail but end up using Outlook because I am on the PC way more. The reason that Mail is taking so long is probably because Spotlight is indexing the mail store on the Exchange server. Open the Spotlight preferences in your System Preferences panel and uncheck Mail. See if your speed issues don't resolve after a restart.
Of course, Spotlight is one of the reasons that Mail is so usefull for me. So, I leave it on. I know that the Apple literature and even the account setup wizard shows a connection method for Exchange, I've never been able to get it to work. I've only been able to get IMAP to work.
Of course, Spotlight is one of the reasons that Mail is so usefull for me. So, I leave it on. I know that the Apple literature and even the account setup wizard shows a connection method for Exchange, I've never been able to get it to work. I've only been able to get IMAP to work.
Hi Manic,
I'll try the spotlight thing, never thought about that.
The connection to the exchange server IS via Imap. That's the only way to do it, as far as I know.
I'll try the spotlight thing, never thought about that.
The connection to the exchange server IS via Imap. That's the only way to do it, as far as I know.
OWA is no problem. Works fine. The users however would MUCH prefer to use the Native Mail program unfortunately.
Active 4 days ago
From a quick Google search, it appears that Mail.app does not have the facility to connect to the OWA server, although Entourage does. I use Entourage at home to connect to our Exchange server via OWA and it works fine. (I don't like using OWA through a web browser either). If your users have Office 2004 on their Macs, they might try using Entourage for their mail.
Active 4 days ago
If you decide to try Entourage, see: http://www.macwindows.com/entourage.html
and
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/exchange/index.html
and
http://www.entourage.mvps.org/exchange/index.html
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