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[Richard_W73]

Hi,

This problem seems to afflict a few people, but I can't find an answer that completely matches my predicament.

I am running Mail 9.3 on a 2008 Macbook Pro (time for a new one!), OS 10.11.6.

I still use an old ntlworld email address. I have detected that my ntlworld account is continually downloading emails - but I'm not sure where to: my total number of emails doesn't seem to increase When I switch the account off, my available hard drive space stays the same. When I switch it back on, it starts decreasing - I now have only 3GB free. A few weeks ago it was something like 26GB free and I haven't done anything to use up the space that I know of.

I am using ntlworld mail servers with no TLS certificate.

The account type is IMAP.

The trash and junk messages are set to be deleted from the server after a month.

The IMAP Path Prefix is set to INBOX.

The Port is 993 using SSL.

Password authentication is on.

Using the IDLE command is switched on.

The mailboxes on my iPhone and iPad work perfectly.

Can anyone please advise what the problem is?

Thanks in advance for any and all advice offered.

[用心棒]

I am surprised Mail shows the mailbox as the IMAP prefix path should be blank; a restart of Mail will be need if you change the prefix.

In Mail locate a folder listed under the ntlworld.com account, press Ctrl + mouse button, select Get Account Info and under Quota Limits note the in use value. Does this value account for the issue with storage? Sign into webmail and confirm the noted in use is an approximate match to that shown under Quota (under folder view toward bottom left).

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[Richard_W73]

Many thanks for your reply.

The NTL inbox on my Mac has 29,451 emails in it, taking up 4.14GB of space.

On webmail the number for "Properties:Inbox" is 29,450

So they would seem to be the same.

I've noticed that the NTLworld account keeps switching itself back on, even though I keep manually disabling it.

I don't seem able to switch off the IMAP setting in Mail.

"Automatically maintain account settings" is switched on in Mail: should I switch it off?

It kind of feels like there is a duplicate of the mail account somewhere making a second download of everything?

[用心棒]

in Mail press  Option + Cmd + 0 (digit zero) to open the Activity window, does it corroborate the assertion that Mail is continually downloading from your ntlword.com account?

[Richard_W73]

Hi,

The second I activated my ntlworld account, the Activity window in Mail started downloading "1 of 10" emails. When I disconnected it, it stopped.

In around a minute it had swallowed about 50mb

I would love to know where all this extra stuff is going or if, indeed, anything is actually being downloaded as no new emails seem to show up in my inbox.

[用心棒]

Maybe Mail's Connection Doctor can shine a light on the cause. In Mail select Window > Connection Doctor, then Log Connection Activity and Show Detail. Hopefully the logs will show exactly what is happening to consuming the disks space. Should that not work then consider disabling download of attachments to see if that alleviates the issue by:

• select Mail > Preferences…
• select Accounts and then the problem account
• select Down Attachments under Account Information and set it to None
• restart Mail and see if that resolve the issue
  NB the above change should be consider temporary until attachment causing issue is removed

[Richard_W73]

Hi,

I switched on the account and opened up the activity log and it ran like billy-o. Thing is, I haven't a clue what any of the code generated means. What should I be looking for?

I also switched off the automatic download option. 

I then switched off the account fully.

I looked around in ntl webmail for a while and then noticed the mail server had re-connected itself and was again downloading data. When I switched it off, it would re-connect after a few seconds. 

Has my MacBook been hacked?

[Richard_W73]

More news.

With attachments disabled, the ntlworld account now no longer seems to be continually downloading (possibly because I did not quit mail after disabling - once I quit the app and restarted, the downloads stopped).

In Activity Monitor "ReportCrash" keeps appearing and disappearing.

[Richard_W73]

The "ReportCrash" notice keeps popping up even if I quit Mail.

[用心棒]

The ReportCrash is an indicator of a process continuously crashing on start-up. Generation of crash reports may explain the loss of storage space noted earlier.

It is likely the crash report will have useful information in it but interpreting it maybe challenging. Have you considered contact Apple Support to see what help they can  provide with this issue?