emails are slow to download

Hi there, doobles2022.

If you haven't yet, you can see if restarting your iMac may help: Shut down or restart your Mac - Apple Support Restarting can help refresh the software on your iMac and may help resolve unexpected issues.

Another thing you can try to help isolate this issue is to log into your iMac in a temporary new Administrator account, then add your email account and open the Mail app: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac - Apple Support A new user doesn't have custom or changed settings, and can help determine possible next steps by isolating this further. Does the same issue happen in a new admin user as well?

You can also try starting your iMac in safe mode: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support Safe mode only allows certain software to load, which can help isolate this further or possible resolve the issue. Once you’ve tested the issue, restart your Mac normally to exit safe mode. If the issue didn’t happen while in safe mode, test again after a normal restart.

Let us know how those steps go or if you've already tried these steps for the Mail app on your iMac.

Take care!

You haven't told us just how slow the downloads are. Does the computer function satisfactorily otherwise? Is this something that has started recently? Was anything installed or changed prior to this occurring?