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yani2k8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2008
101
1
UK
Hi, I use the Apple Mail application to manage my email account.

I recently tried changing the 'new mail' sound to something different. I downloaded a sound from the internet.

I went to Preferences > New Mail Sound > Add/Remove and then I added the new sound. When I selected it in the Preferences, it plays fine but when I get a new email, no sound whatsoever.

I tried changing it back to the default sound but this stopped working as well now. I tried some of the other sounds as well but no worky.

Please help.

Thanks.
 

Macsterguy

macrumors 6502a
Jun 5, 2007
707
25
Texas
No incoming mail sounds has been a known issue for many for a long time. I just bought 12 Macs last October for my office and maybe half of them work some of the time... The others nothing...

Just google - No incoming mail sounds apple mail
 

yani2k8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2008
101
1
UK
Is there any sound coming out of the computer at all?

And yes, Googling the question is 90% effective for finding answers.

Yeah, the sound is fine. Everything else plays normally apart from the new mail sound. When I set the sound in the preferences, it 'preview plays' when it's selected but that's about it.

I did google the problem before I came here but couldn't find a solution.
 

IgnatiusTheKing

macrumors 68040
Nov 17, 2007
3,657
2
Texas
Yeah, the sound is fine. Everything else plays normally apart from the new mail sound. When I set the sound in the preferences, it 'preview plays' when it's selected but that's about it.

I did google the problem before I came here but couldn't find a solution.

What file format are you using for your sound? MP3's seem to work most of the time for me, but I've had the best success with wav files.
 

yani2k8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2008
101
1
UK
What file format are you using for your sound? MP3's seem to work most of the time for me, but I've had the best success with wav files.

The custom one I tried using is .mp3. That didn't work so I thought I would switch back to the default one but that was no longer working as well.
 

yani2k8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2008
101
1
UK
Just letting you know I found a solution.

I disabled the 'Use IDLE command if Server Supports It' feature from the Advanced tab in Account References and all sounds are now working.

However, there is a downside to this. By doing this, the 'push mail' feature is disabled so you will only receive emails when Mail.app checks at given intervals (e.g. every 5 minutes).

Source: http://gimmemyalert.blogspot.com/2008/06/apple-incoming-mail-sound-we-want-you.html (RationalPrimate)
 
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