Mail problem in 10.13.6 High Sierra

[Gary S]

I'm still with Charter/Spectrum as my provider. My Mail is all screwed up. I recently upgraded to !0.13.6 and neither my wife nor I can get or recieve our email in the  MAIL app. I can go to charter's page and get it but it's not being transferred to our Mail programs. Colette got a message tonight that reads, "The connection to the server "imap.charter.net" on port 143 timed out". Charter/Spectrum is acting like a bunch of Apes as usual, my communications with them have not been pleasant. The last person told me he didn't have time to figure it out and to call Apple before he hung up on me. Anyways if you have any clues as to how I can right the ship, please let me know. I'll really appreciate any advice.

[Paddy]

Gary, sounds like you've got the wrong settings in there. Shouldn't be port 143, and according to their own published directions online, you're supposed to be using the mobile.charter.net server for everything (not just mobile).

https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/adding-new-account-apple-mail/?redirected=true

If you can't get the new settings to stick, you may want to try deleting the account entirely and then adding it back. You may want to back up the email locally before you do that, just to be 100% sure you don't lose it. (if you have regular backups, it will be there - but make sure you disconnect from the internet if you find yourself having to actually USE that backup; otherwise it could connect and sync with Yahoo online, which will override the local version; you have to drag things INTO the inbox/sent mail folders so that the local version is synced to the server, not the server saying "nothing in MY inbox, therefore there should be nothing in YOUR inbox" on initial connection). Note: the likelihood of you actually losing your email by deleting your ACCOUNT (not the mail) locally is very low, but it's not a good idea to tempt fate.

Another thing you should try, perhaps, if changing the settings doesn't work, is to try creating the Mail account on a test user account OR you could download and try Thunderbird (free) and see if it can get your mail ok. Either one of these exercises, if successful, point to something wrong in the settings in Mail in the current user accounts, which is my suspicion anyway, given the error message Colette received. It points to the wrong mail server and wrong port being used to fetch mail. Port 143 is the default unencrypted port for IMAP mail; Yahoo doesn't allow it.

I'm not surprised to find that Spectrum/Charter are using Yahoo for their mail services; same as Rogers here in Canada. In my experience, it's always been my Rogers accounts that cause problems; Gmail and my domain email just keep ticking along. I've been trying to decide whether or not to just stop using the Rogers account, but the problem is, I've been using it for 12 years and soooo many things are tied to it.

[Gary S]

Thank you very much Paddy. I'm sorry I haven't replied sooner but I haven't been feeling well. I still feel sick so I'm going to read your post and try your solutions as soon as possible. I just want to thank you for your posting. I'll post as soon as I can. 

[Xairbusdriver]

Get well, Gary!!! Immediately!!!

[Gary S]

Hello all.
I finally got my Mail app fixed. It finally took a couple of calls to and from Apple (19800-275-2273). I had deleted my user accounts as Paddy suggested but afterwards I couldn't create them again. Apple and I tried everything and on the second day one of their people suggested reinstalling High Sierra. they also had me run the free version of Malwarebytes. Anyways, with their help I was able to get Mail up and running finally. Thank you Paddy. Now back to the 556 emails to look at and sort. I'm sorry it took so long but my doctors are trying to figure out if I have heart trouble or not. Shortness of breath is uncomfortable. Thanks again to you all. Have a great Thanksgiving!