When .Mac email access is temporarily unavailable
Symptoms
Sometimes you may receive an email alert that .Mac email access may be unavailable at a certain time, or the .Mac Support site may show a System Status announcement such as “1% of members might experience difficulties with .Mac Mail. Normal service will be restored ASAP."
Products Affected
.Mac Mail
Resolution
Due to scheduled maintenance, the server which handles your account's incoming email is sometimes temporarily offline. All other .Mac services are unaffected during this period.
If you attempt to access your mail through an email application, you will be prompted to enter the password for your account, but the mail application will say your password was rejected. This is because the application can't contact the server (since the server is temporarily unavailable). Here's an example of what you might see if you use Mail, included with Mac OS X:
Click Cancel (because you won't be able to authenticate successfully until the mail server is returned to normal service).
If you attempt to access your mail via the web, you will receive an alert message informing you that .Mac mail on the web is temporarily unavailable:
Don't worry--messages that are sent to your .Mac account during this time are being queued for delivery later.
Additional Information
What happens after the maintenance?
At the end of the scheduled maintenance window, your .Mac email access will be fully restored.
If you have the most recent version of Mac OS X installed, simply open the Mail application and your .Mac account will be online and ready to receive new mail. Click the Get Mail button and all queued messages will be delivered to your mailbox.
If you have an earlier version of Mac OS X or a different operating system, your Mail application may still show your .Mac account to be offline. With the Mail application, you can manually bring your account back online by selecting the Mailbox menu, then choosing Online Status and Take "membername@mac.com" online.
See also: .Mac System Status says that members might experience difficulties with .Mac Mail