Okay. That may be a little harsh … but you would think after paying for a system upgrade, that was supposed to be rewritten from the ground up … a major bug like the IMAP/PHP bug would have been fixed. I know this problem is still effecting people. They are still logging complaints at Apple’s Discussion Groups. I was hoping … but no go!

This post is no more than what it is. Another mile marker showing that this bug has driven me and other crazy through Mac OS X 10.5 and now 10.6.

I’ve already documented the entire thing in three other posts:
A process to a kill
Mail.app & IMAP Process Update
Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update (No IMAP Fix)

There is nothing more that I can do. None of the Mac blogs out there have picked up the story. Not TUAW. Not MacWorld. Not MacNN. No one.

So unless something else breaks … oh like Apple’s resolve NOT to fix this problem. Or one of the Mac news sites reports on the problem or fix … I think I’m done here. Well at least with this issue.

Good luck!

Apple just released Mac OS X 10.5.7 update. Being a consultant I always have to do updates on the day they arrive. I do this to try to see what my clients might have to deal with if they choose to do it on their own. Though most of my clients will wait for me to “feel the pain” so they don’t have to.

This update, I did feel the pain! Since I bought my new MacBook Pro, I have been doing updates via Software Update. This time around I chose to download the Combo Updater & give it a whirl. Once downloaded I opened the image and started the process. When the 729 MB update was finished, I restarted the computer. Or at least tried to. On completion the update stayed at the “blue screen” with the progress indicator spinning and spinning. After about 15 minutes, I just forced a shut down, and restarted, After about 2 reboots of its own, the computer started up and booted into the Finder. Once there, I rebooted once more for good measure, to be certain things were working okay.

I looked around for any obvious “newness” but didn’t see anything I could identify as new. So my first stop after that was to launch Safari and go to my BlueHOST cPanel. I started the process manager and finally launched Mail.app.

I was hoping that the infernal and internal IMAP process bug was fixed. Upon going back to Safari and refreshing the process manager, to my horror and profanity, there they were … the 16 IMAP processes that I hoped would not be there. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

So the one thing I was hoping to be fixed was not. I immediatly went to the Apple Forum and posted to the “Topic : Mail is killing the processes on my server with IMAP” thread and posted my findings. I also wrote up the issue AGAIN and sent it to MacFixIt, who also promptly ignored my eMail and did not report the issue. And today I made a comment on the Troubleshooting Roundup: Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update article on TUAW about the issue. With any luck they will look into it further.

I’m not going to deal with any of the other bugs introduced, or not fixed, because so many of the other online mags & blogs have covered these ad nauseam. I have my axe to grind and this IMAP issue is mine. Double Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

At this point I feel like I’m talking to myself. Though there are those on the Apple Forums who are also feeling the pain … because Apple’s not listening. I guess I could switch eMail clients, but I WANT to use Mail.app. I even looked into a few other mail applications … but none have the features I can get with Mail.app and 3rd party plug-ins. So I’ll bare my cross and stick with my mission … to get someone else to lay into Apple to fix the problem.

It may be strong-arming the situation, but it gives you back use of your blog or website.

In my previous post, I said I sent this to MacFixIt. They never published or followed up on the eMail I sent. But I’ve also formally sent this as an issue via Apple Support. With any luck it will be fixed with the 10.5.7 update when it comes out.

If you have not made a formal report to Apple I strongly suggest you go to the Mac OS X Feedback page & file a detailed report of the issue you are having with IMAP processes & Mail.app. Reporting in the Apple support forums may not be enough to get the full attention of Apple.

I discovered this issue while working on a clients website. Each time I tried to connect to their blog I’d get a server side page that said, to many processes try again later. Or something to that effect. I called blueHOST.com but got a 1st level tech who had to put me on hold, ask someone questions then come back with not many answers. To be fair to blueHOST this was an exception to always stellar tech support.

I ended up doing my own research. I called my client, had them quit Mail.app on all 3 computers in that office. I went to their cPanel & killed any remaining processes. I then screen shared with each computer & started each remotely. For each user relaunched they created around 8 + processes each. And these IMAP processes would not die until Mail was quit, or killed manually. There were some IMAP processes that didn’t die and had to be killed manually.

I called BlueHost again today and got an amazing tech. I again explained the issue to him. “How odd” he said, “let’s see what we can find.” So we spent 30 minutes on the phone trying many different things. He on his end and me on mine. I even tried Entourage using IMAP. Entourage only opened 1 connection, and that was it. No multiples.

In searching Apple Support Forum I found this thread “Topic : Mail is killing the processes on my server with IMAP” talking about the very same issue. There were multiple people with different web hosting companies reporting the same behavior. So I’m not alone in this and the problem does indeed exist. The thread showed no “solution” to the issue yet. Bummer!

Now I hope Apple is listening, and fixes the issue very soon.

(I also sent this to MacFixtIt)

Startly Technologies has released an update to its venerable macro utility QuicKeys X. With this upgrade comes new features and OS X 10.5 Leopard compatibility. It’s a free update for QuicKeys X 3.x users.

I’ve use this automation utility since Mac OS 7. It’s sounds cliché, but I don’t know how I’d get along without it. If you are not a programmer or fluent in AppleScript, or using Apple Automator … or even if you are … QuicKeys can help you automate repetitive tasks. Something that would normally require … five … six … twenty or more steps can be turned into a simple one step shortcut. Automate anything from launching programs, mounting servers, selecting menus, and running UNIX commands to typing text or shutting down your Classic environment or your computer all with a single key combination.

If you own an earlier version of QuicKeys the upgrade pricing is:

• Upgrade from v2.x $29.95
• Upgrade from v1.5 $39.95
• Upgrade from v1.0 $49.95

If you’d like to learn more about QuicKeys or take it for a “test drive” visit the Startly website. It’s certainly worth a look.

As you may or may not know, Apple has a new cat waiting to pounce on us all. Leopard (a.k.a. Mac OS X 10.5) arrives at your local Apple store on Friday October 26th at 6:00 PM. Apple stores will be open until Midnight that night.

This new cat will be sporting some new spots …. over 300 of them. These new feature will cost you $129.00 US. Or if you bought a new Mac on or After October 1, 2007 you can get a free upgrade disk for $9.95. The cost of shipping.

System requirements for Mac OS X 10.5 are:
Intel Mac, Power PC G5 or a Power PC G4 with an 867MHz processor or higher, 512MB RAM and a DVD drive for installation.

As I tell all my clients when a new Mac OS is ready to be released … wait. If your computer use is mission critical, then don’t be an early adopter. As always, there will be applications that will “blow up” in a new OS … and an update can be weeks to months away. If you must be bleeding edge, load the new OS on a separate HD & ‘play’ with it. Add in a few of the apps you need. See how that goes. But whatever you do … don’t just blithely do an install on top of you older version of OS X. You are just begging for trouble!

You may have heard this a billion times, but here it goes once again. Back up your computer before doing any major install. If you have a second internal drive or an external hard drive use a utility like Carbon Copy Cloner and clone (make a copy) your current HD to an image file on your second drive. Or if the drive is empty just create a “bootable clone.” This way if disaster strikes while upgrading, you can boot from the clone & get back to work restoring the original drive.

I’m sure I’ll be writing more as time goes on. But I’ve already had two clients ask about the new OS. Apple had made the announcement today, but also did a supporting mailing to their mailing list.

So if you plan to be bleeding edge … back up … and be prepared. Oh… and don’t forget the virtual band-aids. Ouch!