Mac Mail (13.4) is EXTREMELY SLOW to load...1-2 minutes...help?

[Silverstring]

OS: 10.15.7
Machine: 2018 Mac Mini, 3.2 i7, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD internal storage w/ ~200GB free (don't think it's underpowered hardware)
Connection: Hardwired Ethernet, 240-250Mbps Down/12-14 UP

The explanation is pretty simple. When I try to open mail, even when nothing else is open on my machine, it takes 1-2 minutes for the red badge to display on the Mail icon, and the main message window to open up/display.

I have 2 accounts set up with Mac mail, both IMAP. Neither gets a tremendous amount of email, less than 10 messages a day between the two of them.

I have no idea what's causing the slowdown. Any ideas on why this might be happening and what to do to address it? Thanks!

 

[ThrowerGB]

OS: 10.15.7
Machine: 2018 Mac Mini, 3.2 i7, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD internal storage w/ ~200GB free (don't think it's underpowered hardware)
Connection: Hardwired Ethernet, 240-250Mbps Down/12-14 UP

The explanation is pretty simple. When I try to open mail, even when nothing else is open on my machine, it takes 1-2 minutes for the red badge to display on the Mail icon, and the main message window to open up/display.

I have 2 accounts set up with Mac mail, both IMAP. Neither gets a tremendous amount of email, less than 10 messages a day between the two of them.

I have no idea what's causing the slowdown. Any ideas on why this might be happening and what to do to address it? Thanks!

I've had the same problem since at least the introduction of Catalina. Sometimes SafeBoot fixes it but then it begins slowing again.

 

[Ruggy]

Have you tried rebuilding the mailboxes?
Simply done, go to 'mailbox' in the address bar and at the bottom of the list you'll find rebuid.
It can solve a lot of problems.
I have no idea what the red badge is by the way. i've never seen that that I can remember

 

[Silverstring]

Have you tried rebuilding the mailboxes?
Simply done, go to 'mailbox' in the address bar and at the bottom of the list you'll find rebuid.
It can solve a lot of problems.
I have no idea what the red badge is by the way. i've never seen that that I can remember

Thanks for your response/suggestion! Unfortunately, I have tried rebuilding all the mailboxes. Didn’t make the problem go away.

By the “red badge”, I mean the red circle on the Mail Dock icon that displays the number of unread messages inside of it.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Sounds horrible.

Another thing you could try, as long as you don't have any messages or folders stored under "On My Mac", would be to delete the accounts, delete everything in ~/Library/Mail, re-add the accounts and let all of your email and folders re-populate from the servers. The thinking here is that perhaps something in your Mail database has been corrupted and Catalina's version of Mail is choking on it.

 

[Ruggy]

Thanks for your response/suggestion! Unfortunately, I have tried rebuilding all the mailboxes. Didn’t make the problem go away.

By the “red badge”, I mean the red circle on the Mail Dock icon that displays the number of unread messages inside of it.

Ok got it thanks.
I would recommend you download another email client like Spark and see if you have the same problem.
If it's a problem with mail it will go away. If it isn't then it isn't mail so you've reduced the places to look.

 

[vallfjallet]

I have had similar issues in the past. I removed my accounts from System Preferences > Accounts. Then started mail and added the accounts again.

 

[Silverstring]

Sounds horrible.

Another thing you could try, as long as you don't have any messages or folders stored under "On My Mac", would be to delete the accounts, delete everything in ~/Library/Mail, re-add the accounts and let all of your email and folders re-populate from the servers. The thinking here is that perhaps something in your Mail database has been corrupted and Catalina's version of Mail is choking on it.

I'll try this! Thanks for suggesting.

 

[rforno]

I'll try this! Thanks for suggesting.

This fix seemed to work for me ... or at least it's not as bad as it has been at times. As did deleting the Properties.plist file regularly.

 

[Xiaopangzi]

I've tried all these approaches for Mac Mail 14.0 on my MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, but they still show ghost unread messages from Gmail on all three devices throughout the past year (on earlier versions of Mail and the current Big Sur version). Mail 14.0 will not update the content in any smart mailbox, even after a day of waiting.

I reformatted my SSD, installed Big Sur from a thumb drive, restored content from a new Carbon Copy Cloner backup, etc., but Mail will not update. You have the choice of only whichever smart folder you've clicked on after launching the application, and after that, the content remains the same, regardless of which other smart folders are clicked. I don't mean a lag; I mean it's permanent for the entire day.

I've downloaded and installed Spark, which I've being using on my iPad and iPhone for more than a year to avoid the distraction of those ghost badge counts. Now, with Mail not even displaying different content for different smart folders, I'm going to stick with Spark for my Mac as well.

Unresponsiveness of Apple native applications also led me to discontinue my Apple Music subscription in favour of a Spotify subscription because iTunes and later Apple Music would bring the computer (16 GB RAM and 2 TB SSD) to a standstill for hours, just short of freezing/hanging the system but not quite. Photos did that for a while, but it was just updating its database probably, and then it launches fine afterwards. That is never true of Apple Music, and now, it's no longer true of Apple Mail. Save yourself some agony by switching to Spark. If Apple never bothered to make iTunes and Apple Music usable, it's not likely to make Apple Mail usable either.

 

[gyht]

Ok got it thanks.
I would recommend you download another email client like Spark and see if you have the same problem.
If it's a problem with mail it will go away. If it isn't then it isn't mail so you've reduced the places to look.

Spark is lightning fast. I used it years ago, but it's much faster now. Had forgotten about it until reading this thread. I'm switching to Spark and saying bye bye to Apple Mail which is sluggish, slow and sad on OS Monterey.

 

[ThrowerGB]

Spark is lightning fast. I used it years ago, but it's much faster now. Had forgotten about it until reading this thread. I'm switching to Spark and saying bye bye to Apple Mail which is sluggish, slow and sad on OS Monterey.

Another test option is to create a new user account and set up Mail there. Wait for it to repopulate and then see if the problem persists there.

 

[Ploid]

Sounds horrible.

Another thing you could try, as long as you don't have any messages or folders stored under "On My Mac", would be to delete the accounts, delete everything in ~/Library/Mail, re-add the accounts and let all of your email and folders re-populate from the servers. The thinking here is that perhaps something in your Mail database has been corrupted and Catalina's version of Mail is choking on it.

I have had this same problem since Monterey and now Ventura. Removing accounts and rebuilding the database didn't work. Turns out there was a single empty folder named "Bundles" inside ~/Library/Mail that was able to bring Mail to its knees. Just want to say a big thank you!

 

[Honza1]

I have had this same problem since Monterey and now Ventura. Removing accounts and rebuilding the database didn't work. Turns out there was a single empty folder named "Bundles" inside ~/Library/Mail that was able to bring Mail to its knees. Just want to say a big thank you!

I was going to suggest to check on Bundles and Plugins. I have poor experience with these. some seem to bring Mail.app to crawl. Recent source of my problems is plugin from HoudahSpot, which seems to prevent my smart mailboxes from updating. Check if you do not have anything installed there, someone pointed out that even having bad permissions on Bundles folder can be source os issues.

 

[profetcsc]

I have had this same problem since Monterey and now Ventura. Removing accounts and rebuilding the database didn't work. Turns out there was a single empty folder named "Bundles" inside ~/Library/Mail that was able to bring Mail to its knees. Just want to say a big thank you!

I have had this problem for several years and have been pulling my hair out over it. I could never find the right answer and I was so tired of trying different solutions! Bundles was the culprit!! I deleted it and Mail now launches absolutely instantaneously! Wish I could buy you a beer to thank you!

 

[nannieplants]

Hello. New here.

I have the same problem with Mail. I upgraded to Monterey a few months ago, and Mail barely works. I don't have Bundles inside ~/Library/Mail. Not sure what to do!

I downloaded Spark, but when I went to set up my basic Gmail account, it asked if Spark could delete all my Gmail emails and do all kinds of invasive things. What?!?! Screenshot attached.

I can't stand Apple Mail and need a solution, aside from deleting all my accounts and starting over. I don't like using webmail at all. I have too many accounts.

Thanks!

 

[gyht]

This is normal. When you delete your mails in Spark - it will delete your mails in Gmail. That's all it does. I'm not sure if you can configure it as a Pop3 account. Just drop Spark a note. All email apps are similar and will require permissions for Gmail. The new version of Spark is quite different from the version I downloaded - they just upgraded but I am sticking with the older version because I like the interface more. Take note!

 

[nannieplants]

This is normal. When you delete your mails in Spark - it will delete your mails in Gmail. That's all it does. I'm not sure if you can configure it as a Pop3 account. Just drop Spark a note. All email apps are similar and will require permissions for Gmail. The new version of Spark is quite different from the version I downloaded - they just upgraded but I am sticking with the older version because I like the interface more. Take note!

Cool. Thanks. I'll check the older version.

I guess I misread the whole thing! Maybe I need some sleep. That makes complete sense. Sheesh.

Thanks a lot!

 

[profetcsc]

Hello. New here.

I have the same problem with Mail. I upgraded to Monterey a few months ago, and Mail barely works. I don't have Bundles inside ~/Library/Mail. Not sure what to do!

I downloaded Spark, but when I went to set up my basic Gmail account, it asked if Spark could delete all my Gmail emails and do all kinds of invasive things. What?!?! Screenshot attached.

I can't stand Apple Mail and need a solution, aside from deleting all my accounts and starting over. I don't like using webmail at all. I have too many accounts.

Thanks!

Are you sure you are in the right library? There is the systemwide library and then the user specific library, as you likely already know.

 

[nannieplants]

Are you sure you are in the right library? There is the systemwide library and then the user specific library, as you likely already know.

Yes. It's all taken care of. Thank you.

 

[ThrowerGB]

Are you sure you are in the right library? There is the systemwide library>Mail and then the user specific library, as you likely already know.

Thanks for reminding me. I checked and found I DO have Bundles inside the system library> Mail but not in the User Library.
I use Letter Opener and "Letter Opener.mailbundle" appears in system library>Mail>Bundles. I'll have to see what happens if I remove it.

This is interesting: Within the user Library>Mail there are a variety of directories. The current is designated as V10, and the others as V4, V5, V6, V7, V8, V9. I'm running MacOS Ventura 13.1 and Mail Version 16.0. Most of these directories show as having been modified today. (I've been using Mail today). What are those directories. Are they perhaps directories with mail but formatted for different versions? Perhaps Mail is spending time looking at each of these directories and building some sort of consolidated index of the mail in all of those directories, taking account of different versions used by older versions of Mail.

I'd be interested in any comments on what's going on here.

 

[nannieplants]

Spark is lightning fast. I used it years ago, but it's much faster now. Had forgotten about it until reading this thread. I'm switching to Spark and saying bye bye to Apple Mail which is sluggish, slow and sad on OS Monterey.

this is what i did, and i love it! thank you!