Old deleted emails have reappeared in my Inbox; all 500 of them!

[silversaabist]

Mail is acting strangely suddenly; out of order and now not deleting and showing old ones as unread in my Inbox. Also can receive but not send emails. Reason given as "certificate invalid" Is this a virus? How can I get it back to normal? Thanks for any suggestions

 

[Morhass]

Hi Silversaabist,
No, not a virus! Mac OS X is still the best anti-virus software on the planet...
Please check your Mac's Date and time! That's the most likely cause for both issues to occur at once. Heaps of stuff on your Mac, including security stuff, looks at the date and time. If it's incorrect, you'll get all sorts of errors...
Apple Menu > System Preferences > Date & Time. Set it manually if required, but then select Set Date & Time Automatically.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

This is from Mail.app's help:

If Mail can’t verify a server’s certificate
If your mail server uses a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate that is signed by an unknown authority (such as a self-signed certificate), Mail displays a message indicating that it can’t verify the identity of the mail server because it can’t verify the server’s certificate. Although you can connect to the mail server, Mail will continue to warn you about the server’s unverified certificate each time you open Mail. To stop the message from appearing, you need to indicate that you trust the mail server’s certificate.

Trust a certificate
If Mail can’t verify a server or a signature, you can review its certificate and then trust and accept it.

• In the Verify Certificate dialog, click Show Certificate.
• Review the certificate and, if you have confidence in the server or signature, click the checkbox to always trust the certificate or to acknowledge the signature is valid. (If you want more information about current trust policies, click the Details disclosure triangle. To learn more about trust policies, read this help topic: Certificate trust policies).
• Click Connect or OK, and enter your account password, if prompted.If the certificate is a root certificate, you must enter the name and password of an administrator of the computer.The certificate is now trusted on the computer you’re using.

If you want to change a certificate’s trust policy later, you can use Keychain Access.

 

[silversaabist]

Hi Silversaabist,
No, not a virus! Mac OS X is still the best anti-virus software on the planet...
Please check your Mac's Date and time! That's the most likely cause for both issues to occur at once. Heaps of stuff on your Mac, including security stuff, looks at the date and time. If it's incorrect, you'll get all sorts of errors...
Apple Menu > System Preferences > Date & Time. Set it manually if required, but then select Set Date & Time Automatically.

 

[silversaabist]

Hi Morhass,
Checked time and date and that's OK. Did not expect it to be virus as have never had one in 8 years of Mac ownership, but had strange spam email a couple of days ago which I opened and did wonder about it. It's definitely to do with the SSL certificate I think but why it it should suddenly query it has me puzzled.
Thanks anyway for your suggestion, I will keep it in mind for future problems.