Pierre Igot takes aim at the Apple technote about Missing Messages in a post on Betalogue.

This technote describes what to do when a particular error message—“Message has not been downloaded from the server, take this account online to view.”—appears on your screen due to corruption in Mail’s internal SQLite database.

It’s a shocker, Pierre argues:

I find this particular tech note to be particularly interesting, because there are many aspects of it that are very wrong and indicative of a rather user-hostile attitude at Apple these days. In this post I’d like to highlight some of what I think are the worst aspects of this tech note.

And he does. Have a read .

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I never go away from Betalogue without learning something.apple technote, mail.app, apple mail, missing messages, envelope index, apple culture

Apple has updated two of its technotes for Apple Mail.

Mac OS X 10.4, Mail: Messages seem to be missing, or “Message has not been downloaded” alert appears when opening provides tips on how to rebuild POP and IMAP mailboxes or re-import them when you know that some are missing.

Mail: Can’t send messages, “Cannot send message using the server smtp.xxxxx.com” alert appears shows you how to troubleshoot and change SMTP servers.

I always find it hard to see what has changed in these technotes. They contain nothing revolutionary or visibly new. Still, bearing Apple’s imprimatur, they command respect.technotes, apple, apple mail, mail.app, missing messages, SMTP servers