After updating the Java Virtual Machine that Emailchemy uses, I noticed that Emailchemy was running very, very slow. Emailchemy should be processing many messages each second (messages with 30 full-size pictures attached will take longer, of course). After digging into the problem, I found that the hostname of my MacBook Pro was misconfigured.
Why would this matter? Emailchemy uses the Java Internet libraries to help with the creation and assembly of parts of email messages during conversions. The Internet libraries in newer versions of Java have some additional security checks to help protect against malware and “spoofed” internet names and addresses, and apparently, having a properly configured hostname really matters.
So if you are running Emailchemy on a Mac and you’re finding it to be unbearably slow, try this to make sure your hostname is set:
Using the Terminal app, check that the results of these to command match:
sudo scutil –get LocalHostName
sudo scutil –get HostName
If they don’t match, do this:
sudo scutil –set HostName [YOUR_HOST_NAME]
(replace “[YOUR_HOST_NAME]” with your actual hostname)