Mac OS X 10.4: Mail account sync alert can be safely ignored

You can sync your Mail rules and accounts between different Macs using .Mac in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. However, you may get an inaccurate alert that states more changes are going to take place than are required.

This message appears when your Mail accounts aren't listed in the same order across your synchronized Macs. You can either safely ignore the alert or you can reorder your Mail accounts as a workaround.

Ignore It

If you choose to simply ignore the erroneous sync alert and apply the changes, the alert will continue to appear whenever you sync your Mail data, but you can keep ignoring it.

The Workaround

If you want to prevent the alert, arrange your Mail accounts so that they are in the same order on each Mac that you sync through .Mac.

For example, if Mac A has Mail accounts listed in this order...

• Home
• Work
• Kids

... and Mac B has Mail accounts in this order...

• Work
• Home
• Kids

... then the inaccurate alert will appear. To fix this, rearrange the order of the accounts on one of the Macs so that it's the same on both:

1. Open Mail.
2. From the Mail menu, choose Preferences.
3. Click Accounts.
4. On the left side of the window, drag an account's name up or down in the list and drop it in the desired location.
5. Repeat until all accounts are listed in the same order on each computer that you sync through .Mac.

Related Terms: error, synchronize