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Makeitadouble's avatar
Makeitadouble
New Contributor
10 years ago

Cox.net account "offline"

This problem keeps happening intermittently and I'm beyond frustrated. When trying to send email on my cox.net account through mac mail (Yosemite), I get a message that says the account is offline (able to receive incoming no problem). Nothing I've tried has worked to correct this problem. I've tried taking all accounts offline, quitting mail, re-opening mail and taking all accounts online, restarting, etc. but the problem persists. I've tried changing the port on the smtp server, no help. I was on the phone with Cox support a few weeks ago for about an hour and a half, only to have all messages that were in my inbox disappear completely with no resolution! At some point, it seems to correct itself, but in the meantime I'm stuck with an outbox full of messages that won't send. Any suggestions?

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  • Health_Edge's avatar
    Health_Edge
    Valued Contributor III
    10 years ago

    First, are you using POP3 or IMAP? Some versions of Mac mail don't work well with Cox because Cox doesn't allow multiple idle connections. See here for a discussion about it on Apple's forum. Notice it spans several years. Apple has known about this problem a LONG time but keeps being coy with it's customers. Some people say disabling the Idle feature helps, but on some versions they actually removed the ability to remove the Idle feature.

    To disable the IDLE feature:

    1. Select Mail | Preferences from the menu.
    2. Choose Accounts.
    3. Select the desired IMAP account.
    4. Go to the Advanced tab.
    5. Uncheck Use IDLE command if the server supports it.
    6. Additionally, you can uncheck Include when automatically checking for new mail.
    Wish I had a better answer, but so far the only work around I have heard is enabling/disabling the account. Either that or use a different (better?) email program like Thunderbird.
  • ChrisL's avatar
    ChrisL
    Former Moderator
    10 years ago
    @Makeitadouble

    If it's just a problem sending mail many have reported success by removing and re-adding the SMTP server (settings).

  • Health_Edge's avatar
    Health_Edge
    Valued Contributor III
    10 years ago

    Wow, I feel silly. Sometimes you forget the simple stuff. Any idea why that works?