If you use Apple’s Mac Mail you may find that you need to change the frequency at which Mac Mail checks for new messages. To do this follow the steps below:

1. From Apple’s Mac Mail click on the MAIL menu and choose PREFERENCES.
2. From the Email Options select the GENERAL tab (if it isn’t already selected).
3. In the “Check for new mail” section change the setting from “Advanced” to a specific time interval (we recommend “Every 5 minutes” or “Every 15 minutes” depending on how frequently you need to automatically check for new messages).
4. Click on [SAVE] to apply your new settings.

If you are using IMAP to synchronize Mac Mail with your email account you may also want to disable the IDLE command in Mac Mail. You can find instructions on how to disable this function at How to disable IDLE in Mac Mail.

Regardless of what settings you select for your “Check for new mail” setting you can do a manual check for new messages at any time. You can either click on [Get All New Mail] button in Mac Mail or use the Command+Shift+N keyboard shortcut.

Please note that checking your email more than 60 times in a 5 minute time frame will get your connection automatically blocked by our Intrusion Detection System. If you are impatient awaiting for an email and click “Check for new mail” too many times you may end up blocked for a period of 1 hour.

Posted in: Email