Snow Leopard's Mail Problems--Update for 10.6.1 (Mail 4.1): Still Problems with Exchange

Since I posted a note 9/1 on certain Mail (v4.0) problems after Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) came out, Apple has released an update to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6.1) that included an update to Apple Mail to v4.1. I have now used 10.6.1 for over a week and here are the results with regard to the problems I noted with Apple Mail 4.0:

1. Unable to send Cox POP account email -- Changing the outgoing mail server port to custom and entering 25 in the port field worked for my Cox account and the problem has not occurred again. But it has not worked permanently for my Exchange account that developed the same problem after the 10.6.1 update--see next item.

2. Exchange account losing server -- 10.6.1 (or Keychain First Aid) seems to have fixed this particular problem because when I now have trouble sending email from my Exchange account, maybe once or twice a day, the correct outgoing mail server is still selected for the account. So, I tried the outgoing mail server port selection fix for the POP email problem noted above and it worked but only temporarily. The temporary fix is:

(Mail menu>Preferences>Accounts>Select the specific account>Outgoing Mail Server popup menu>Edit SMTP server list>Select the specific server>Advanced button>Click Use custom port button>Type '25' in field>Click the OK button).

When I am again unable to send email via Exchange, I simply open Mail preferences and click the other radio button "Use default ports (25, 465, 587)"--back and forth, back and forth.... This is very annoying but at least it works and only happens only a couple of times a day.

3. Mail (or Keychain) keeps "forgetting" POP email accounts password -- Just before 10.6.1 came out I used Keychain First Aid (available from the drop down menu of the Keychain Access utility). It found and fixed several problems. Then, I updated to 10.6.1. Following those two actions, I have not had any further occurrences of this problem. I can't say which fixed it since the time between the two was so short. Using Keychain First Aid should be the first thing one does when encountering problems with applications "remembering" things stored in the Keychain. But Keychain First Aid does not always work as my spouse has been unable to get rid if this problem for her DotMac account since upgrading from Tiger to Leopard. I've tried Keychain First Aid, changing her DotMac password, deleting and remaking her Keychain and Mail preference files and even making a new user account. Next, I'm going to wipe her drive and install Snow Leopard and applications from scratch without importing any files from her current home directory.

4. Extraneous Draft email in the Drafts folder -- This is an Exchange problem and it is still occurring. It has two apparent causes. First a draft is automatically placed in the Drafts folder when typing an email takes more than a short time--this is normal. However, when the email is finally sent and copied to the Sent folder, Mail 4.1 (and 4.0 before it) frequently does not delete the draft from the Drafts folder--I have to do it manually. Unfortunately, this does not always happen so it will be a tough bug to figure out. Second, sometimes when I delete items in iCal that were placed there by Exchange from Outlook, they end up being copied to the Drafts folder. Again, this also happens intermittently so it will be a tough bug to find.

5. Strange font handling -- This is still a problem. Incoming messages still frequently display in a different font and point size than the font and point size that I have selected for messages in Mail's preferences. I have been using a rather large Verdana 16 to make some messages readable but changing the preferences back to Verdana 12 still results in tiny font that is barely readable in many incoming messages. Changing between Rich Text and Plain Text does not fix the problem.

Most, if not all, of the remaining problems with Mail v4.1 that came with the Mac OS X 10.6.1 update are associated with my Microsoft Exchange account. I'm still happy for the most part with Apple's implementation of Exchange compatibility because I do not have to use Boot Camp or Parallels to get to Outlook in Windows all the time. The Apple Mail bugs are annoying time sinks but not as annoying as using Outlook in Windows. Apple Mail's much better readability in Mac OS X and Spotlight's more rapid, complete and accurate searches makes my work day much easier and more productive. Unfortunately, iCal is not a complete replacement for Outlook Calendar. I still have to use Outlook in Windows occasionally if I need to do certain things like replying with a message to an email meeting invitation or changing some of the data in a meeting set up by someone else. In addition, email meeting invitations from Outlook disappear when accepted or declined in Apple Mail taking with them valuable information for the meeting. Hopefully, these Outlook Calendar capabilities will be included in subsequent Snow Leopard updates.

Some Mail 4.1 good news -- For those of you who prefer Mail's message preview pane on the right of the message list pane rather than below it, Aaron Harnly has released Lettterbox 0.24b4 for Snow Leopard and it seems to work fine. This plugin is particularly useful for the 13" screen of the Macbook and Macbook Air. [Bill Fox]