Since OS X Maverick’s launch last year, there have been complaints from users of the official Mac Mail app with Gmail accounts. Apple has fixed up many of the bugs in various patches, but one of the still recurring bugs prevents the Mail app from loading up new messages.

Instead of releasing another patch today, Apple has outlined a fix on its support website:

So, essentially, Apple is providing a workaround that normally requires quitting and re-opening Mail. Hopefully OS X 10.9.2 does a little better than that.

Symptoms

For some email providers, new email messages in Mail may only appear to arrive when Mail is first opened. No new email arrives until Mail is quit and reopened.

Resolution

Quitting and reopening Mail forces t to re-establish a connection to the email server. You can use these steps to receive new mail messages without quitting Mail:

  • Choose Mailbox > Take All Accounts Offline.
  • Choose Mailbox > Get All New Mail.

As a shortcut, you can also add the Take All Accounts Offline and Get Mail buttons to your Mail toolbar.

  • Choose View > Customize Toolbar.
  • Drag the Take All Accounts Offline button to the Toolbar if it is not there already.
  • Drag the Get Mail button to the Toolbar if it is not there already.
  • Click Done

To receive new mail messages, click the Take Offline button, then click the Check Mail button.