Mail Problem

Richard Serkes · Post by **Richard Serkes** » Fri Jul 17, 2015 12:07 pm

Jay Cline wrote:It appears that CenturyLink sets limits on the number of contacts you can send to, though it appears you came nowhere near that limit.
http://internethelp.centurylink.com/int ... imits.html
Email Size Limit: 20MB
'Send to' Limitations: 100 contacts
Webmail send limit: 100 per hour
SMTP send limit: 500 per hour
IP based email send limit: 50 per 5 minutes

You're right. The 79 was under their 100 limit and as I mentioned I've been doing this for well over a year without a problem.

Stephen Hart · Post by **Stephen Hart** » Fri Jul 17, 2015 3:58 pm

The 79 was under their 100 limit and as I mentioned I've been doing this for well over a year without a problem.

Any possibility a multiple send clogged up the intertubes?

Richard Serkes · Post by **Richard Serkes** » Fri Jul 17, 2015 4:59 pm

Stephen Hart wrote:
The 79 was under their 100 limit and as I mentioned I've been doing this for well over a year without a problem.
Any possibility a multiple send clogged up the intertubes?

You mean did I hit the SEND button more than once? No.

Jay Cline · Post by **Jay Cline** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:15 am

I think you can rule out a problem with your operating system.

Richard Serkes · Post by **Richard Serkes** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:49 am

Jay Cline wrote:I think you can rule out a problem with your operating system.

Yah, that was far fetched but I was grasping at straws. Mail is part of the OS and it's possible that one or more Mail ancillary files are corrupted but that doesn't explain why the other mail client (Airmail) was doing the same thing. Unless, of course, Airmail uses some of the same code as Mail and it's that code that's corrupted. Not likely.

And again, since I was able to send email that had just one recipient while the multi-recipient message wouldn't go through it doesn't make much sense that I have corrupted Mail files. When you put on your Thinking Cap (as my elementary school teachers liked to say) you keep coming back to the ISP which for me is Centurylink.

I'll send out the next mass email on Wednesday (7/22) and then we'll know what's what. I'll report back then.

Jay Cline · Post by **Jay Cline** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:06 pm

If it doesn't work take your laptop to town to one of the many free wifi spots and see what happens if you send again.

Richard Serkes · Post by **Richard Serkes** » Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:44 pm

Jay Cline wrote:If it doesn't work take your laptop to town to one of the many free wifi spots and see what happens if you send again.

That's a long drive for me. It's easier just to cut and paste into the iCloud webmail program.

Richard Serkes · Post by **Richard Serkes** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 7:51 am

Here's my update for 7/22 (Wednesday morning).

Yesterday afternoon I sent my wife a link via email. Later that afternoon I asked her if she'd received it and she said NO. So I sent it again and she didn't receive it the second time. Now the problem is rearing its ugly head not only for mass recipients but for singles. Yet last night I sent emails to single individuals and they received them because these folks replied. The problem is intermittent.

This morning I tried sending out the weekly announcement that goes to 79 people in the Bcc: field. The blue bar in Mail went all the way across and the message wound up in my SENT folder but the copy I sent to myself never arrived. This is the problem I originally posted about. It seems as if an email has been sent but it never gets to the recipient(s). But I had my work around so I copied the email message and went to the iCloud website to use the webmail program there. I pasted the message, put my own name in the To: field and the other 79 names in the Bcc: field and sent the message. But it didn't work. Just like the Mac Mail program it showed in iCloud webmail that the message has been sent but it doesn't go through.

Now I don't know what to do.

It just so happens that this morning I have to be in PA so I'll take my laptop there and try sending from some other ISP. The library would be a good place. This is what Jay Cline suggested. I'll let you know what happens.

Richard Serkes · Post by **Richard Serkes** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 2:44 pm

I have a fix, but I don't know why it works or why the problem sprang up when it did after over a year of no problems whatsoever.

I was at Wilder Toyota getting an oil change this morning so I took my laptop there and tried sending the mass email with my name in the To: field and all the others in the Bcc: field for privacy. Let me stop for a moment and say that it's a Group in Mail and I have Mail/Preferences set up not to show specific email addresses (see below). So I really shouldn't have to put the Group in the Bcc: field but I've always done so just to play it safe with other people's email security. I tried sending the email and the blue bar went to the end, I was told the email had been sent and it appeared in the SENT folder. But I didn't get my copy (I'm in the To: field, remember?). I called someone in the Group and she said the email hadn't come to her even after she told her email client to go fetch her mail. I tried a second time with the same result. Last week I was able to go to the iCloud website and use the webmail app but this morning even that failed. Twice. The email showed being sent and was in my SENT folder but it didn't get delivered to me or my friend in the Group.

Frustrated, my wife and I ran some PA errands and then decided to have lunch at Gordy's. What the heck, they have free WiFi so I fired up the laptop and the same thing happened as happened at Wilder Toyota. I tried sending twice with Mail and twice with the webmail app. No joy. Now I'm convinced that I have some corrupted system file(s) dealing with email on my laptop and as soon as I get home I'll reload the Mac OS. I have no idea why I tried the following, maybe it was desperation and my belief in the shotgun approach to problem solving but before diving in to my pizza I sent the email one more time via Mail but with a change. Instead of putting the Group in Bcc: I put it in Cc: AND IT WENT THROUGH! I got my copy and after calling my friend she said she got hers. Why Bcc: is causing a problem and Cc: isn't is beyond my pay grade but if it works it works.

When I got home I started experimenting by putting my various email addresses in a test Group and trying to send emails to myself in the To: field and to the test group with the Group in either Bcc: or Cc: to see what would happen. Every time the Bcc: failed and every time the Cc: worked.

I've been working with mainframes and PCs since the late 60s and I've never come across something like this. It's weird that the Bcc: would be a problem and it's weirder that it hadn't been a problem for a long time but became one. Like I said, I don't know what's going on and I probably never will know but I won't be using Bcc: anymore.

Stephen Hart · Post by **Stephen Hart** » Wed Jul 22, 2015 3:11 pm

FWIW, here's an older post showing a method to get the group into the right field.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5497842?tstart=0

In Yosemite Mail, the contacts button is a little blue plus in a circle in the upper right corner.

Did you add any addresses between your last successful Bcc send and this time?

I did a little casual searching and couldn't find anything exactly like this problem.

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