What could cause Mac Mail to suddenly render my iMac useless? Out of nowhere yesterday I was unable to use my computer after taking any action in Mac Mail. Everything is fine unless use Mail.
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Mac Mail is killing my computer
- Thread starter Sal Collaziano
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Have you done an OS update....?
What Mac OS version are you using.
What's computer spec?
What Mac OS version are you using.
What's computer spec?
I am on the latest update of the latest OS. It’s a 2017 27” iMac with 32gb of ram and a 3tb fusion drive with 2tb free space.
I get the spinning beachball of death. Everything stops. I do have virus and malware protection. When email is shut down everything is perfectly normal. I can even leave email running - just not use it - and everything will run fine.
I've seen a corrupt email hang the system in the past. I would think mail database problems might do the same thing.
Turn off the malware protection and see if it makes any difference. I doubt it will.
Do a non-destructive reinstall of macOS. I'd bet that won't fix it either…but it's easy to try.
You may end up having to nuke your email and re-download everything. Which procedure to follow depends on what kind of mail accounts you have and if you have any folders that reside "On My Mac".
Turn off the malware protection and see if it makes any difference. I doubt it will.
Do a non-destructive reinstall of macOS. I'd bet that won't fix it either…but it's easy to try.
You may end up having to nuke your email and re-download everything. Which procedure to follow depends on what kind of mail accounts you have and if you have any folders that reside "On My Mac".
Sounds similar to a problem my wife experienced on her MacBook Pro mid-2012 (still going strong) a year or so back. Everything would grind to a halt as a result of a dysfunctional Mail – spinning beach ball, etc, and it meant she couldn't use the laptop for anything else. Even a Force Quit took ages to kick in.
It took me a good while to troubleshoot the cause, and after much googling and sustained pondering upon the best course of action (there were numerous different potential causes and solutions for similar problems), I concluded that certain Apple Mail Library contents were corrupted. I'm afraid I can't remember off the top of my head what the corrupt items were but, following the instructions I'd found and that I felt were most likely to be relevant to my wife's Mail problem, I removed the items from Apple Mail's library on her computer and placed them in the trash (but didn't delete them just in case it wasn't the correct course of action after all). I then launched Apple Mail and it rebuilt the missing library files, eventually successfully launching, after which Mail has worked fine ever since. This was in El Capitan.
I'm afraid I'm not at my home computer right now because the info regarding what I did I retained, in case I need to rely on it again at some future point. Perhaps someone else can provide more specific information about how to try the option I partly describe above. I will be home in a day or two so I can maybe check this thread again and see whether you've resolved your problem. As it turned out, for us it was a really simple thing to resolve, but only if one knew what to do. I'd be happy to share that information with you if you still need it.
It took me a good while to troubleshoot the cause, and after much googling and sustained pondering upon the best course of action (there were numerous different potential causes and solutions for similar problems), I concluded that certain Apple Mail Library contents were corrupted. I'm afraid I can't remember off the top of my head what the corrupt items were but, following the instructions I'd found and that I felt were most likely to be relevant to my wife's Mail problem, I removed the items from Apple Mail's library on her computer and placed them in the trash (but didn't delete them just in case it wasn't the correct course of action after all). I then launched Apple Mail and it rebuilt the missing library files, eventually successfully launching, after which Mail has worked fine ever since. This was in El Capitan.
I'm afraid I'm not at my home computer right now because the info regarding what I did I retained, in case I need to rely on it again at some future point. Perhaps someone else can provide more specific information about how to try the option I partly describe above. I will be home in a day or two so I can maybe check this thread again and see whether you've resolved your problem. As it turned out, for us it was a really simple thing to resolve, but only if one knew what to do. I'd be happy to share that information with you if you still need it.
OP:
Here's something from my "Mac archives" about "rebuilding" Mail.app's data files. It's old, but I believe it's still applicable (even though it was written back in the "Yosemite" days):
=======================
Navigate to a folder in your user directory. In Snow Leopard, this folder is ~/Library/Mail and in Lion and later (at least through Yosemite) it’s ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData.
Inside both of these folders are files that start with “Envelope Index” that store all your mailbox data, among other things.
Quit Mail, then delete all the files in this folder that start with "Envelope Index."
On Yosemite that will be three files (Envelope Index, Envelope Index-shm, and Envelope Index-wal); on older versions of OS X it may be simply one file.
Once deleted, relaunch Mail and the file(s) will be rebuilt, along with your mailboxes.
=========================
Fishrrman again:
I've done this with more modern versions of the OS, and it still works.
Here's something from my "Mac archives" about "rebuilding" Mail.app's data files. It's old, but I believe it's still applicable (even though it was written back in the "Yosemite" days):
=======================
Navigate to a folder in your user directory. In Snow Leopard, this folder is ~/Library/Mail and in Lion and later (at least through Yosemite) it’s ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData.
Inside both of these folders are files that start with “Envelope Index” that store all your mailbox data, among other things.
Quit Mail, then delete all the files in this folder that start with "Envelope Index."
On Yosemite that will be three files (Envelope Index, Envelope Index-shm, and Envelope Index-wal); on older versions of OS X it may be simply one file.
Once deleted, relaunch Mail and the file(s) will be rebuilt, along with your mailboxes.
=========================
Fishrrman again:
I've done this with more modern versions of the OS, and it still works.
Yes, Fishrrman's post describes the sort of troubleshooting process I used.
I think it was two files in El Capitan that I removed before launching Mail for a rebuild. (I remember reading at the time that the number of files to be removed depended on the OS.) Memory can be unreliable, of course.
I'd say it's useful advice from BrianBaughn and particularly Fishrrman.
I think it was two files in El Capitan that I removed before launching Mail for a rebuild. (I remember reading at the time that the number of files to be removed depended on the OS.) Memory can be unreliable, of course.
I'd say it's useful advice from BrianBaughn and particularly Fishrrman.
Thank you, everyone. I gave the suggestions a shot - it was the V9 folder on my computer. Emails were rebuilt but the same thing is happening. I really wish I could just buy a new 27" iMac but my luck - they're not available anymore. I could buy a Studio - but I won't receive it for 3 months...
I was just thinking about that. Is there an M1 iMac 27"? Did they ever make one? I need that, 64gb ram and a 2TB drive...Plenty of iMac's in the refurb store....
I'll need whatever is available to me first so I imagine that'll be the new Studio setup. Crazy that nothing I need is available until then. I thought maybe the Mini could work but the specs are way too low.
OP wrote:
"I gave the suggestions a shot - it was the V9 folder on my computer. Emails were rebuilt but the same thing is happening."
I'm thinking that you have amongst your emails at least one or more that are trying to download external content (which is failing) and thus are consuming a huge amount of system resources trying to do so. Other emails might have huge attachments, etc.
I realize that "culling" old emails can be a pain.
But sometimes... that's what one has to do.
"I gave the suggestions a shot - it was the V9 folder on my computer. Emails were rebuilt but the same thing is happening."
I'm thinking that you have amongst your emails at least one or more that are trying to download external content (which is failing) and thus are consuming a huge amount of system resources trying to do so. Other emails might have huge attachments, etc.
I realize that "culling" old emails can be a pain.
But sometimes... that's what one has to do.
You can try a mailbox rebuild. It has fixed a few problems that I had in the past. Make sure you have a backup first though.
Ever thought about your macOS Mail situation before all these essentially non-essential virus and malware protections were installed? Or did you install all that from day 1 of owning the iMac?
Don't throw the iMac out, it's not the iMac that's the problem or macOS* It's something else that's hammering your processes. If your Malware and Virus softwares has any e-mail scanning protection in place - then disable that for an hour/day and work as usual.
*I better be careful saying all this as I don't know for sure. I am a commenter in a land far away. Malware and virus protection is essential. macOS comes with its own. Virus protection? Sure, if you must. Perhaps change your internet behaviour instead of installing a virus scanning and removal software that I bet hasn't found a single virus.
I'm using software from Objective-See to keep me safe, although using BlockBlock is more of a hassle than not with all them requests to act on something. Some of the other tools are great. I haven't used an anti-virus software since the last time I discovered Sophos is a piece of crap software that a Mac user doesn't need. Sorry. this last paragraph was a rant of sorts. Won't happen again.
I hope you get your iMac and the Mail program in macOS working again.
You've rebuilt the mailboxes if I understand? Definitely the place to start.
It might also be worthwhile just going into 'Window'>connection doctor. It might give you something if for some reason the SMTP isn't working for instance.
The sort of problem you have sounds like it's trying to do something interminably.
Another thing you can try is to go on the server and delete as much as you can there.
I don't know what email service you are using but if you only use icloud then you would go into icloud and look there.
One of the problems you might be having is that there's a large file it's trying to download which is stuck. Or if could be something like corrupt video file something like that.
Also if you are downloading Gmail into macmail the problem might be there as I've heard of problems where for some reason it tries to keep downloading every single email on your Gmail account every time and that could snag things up.
You could also try booting in safe mode and see if it works then?
support.apple.com
Another trick is to delete the plist files for Macmail. If the plist(preference) file is corrupt then it can cause all sorts of problems and often connected to slowing everything or hanging.
Some people have suggested this one might be the problem:
sandboxd: Mail deny file-read-data /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
But I haven't tried it. There are probably several plist files you could delete so I suggest you research this and be sure of whatyou are doing. The trick is to delete the plist file then reboot the machine and it will create a new, uncorrupt one. It's usually pretty safe but I suggest you inform yourself.
Finally, if all else fails download another email client. Thunderbird for example is free and performs well.
It doesn't take long to set up and although it's perhaps a bit old fashioned, everything is there.
Then you can forget about macmail if it's the only thing not working. It may well sort itself out later in any case. That sort of thing does happen too.
Good luck
It might also be worthwhile just going into 'Window'>connection doctor. It might give you something if for some reason the SMTP isn't working for instance.
The sort of problem you have sounds like it's trying to do something interminably.
Another thing you can try is to go on the server and delete as much as you can there.
I don't know what email service you are using but if you only use icloud then you would go into icloud and look there.
One of the problems you might be having is that there's a large file it's trying to download which is stuck. Or if could be something like corrupt video file something like that.
Also if you are downloading Gmail into macmail the problem might be there as I've heard of problems where for some reason it tries to keep downloading every single email on your Gmail account every time and that could snag things up.
You could also try booting in safe mode and see if it works then?
Start up your Mac in safe mode – Apple Support (UK)
To help determine whether an issue is caused by software that loads as your Mac starts up, you can start up your Mac in safe mode.
Another trick is to delete the plist files for Macmail. If the plist(preference) file is corrupt then it can cause all sorts of problems and often connected to slowing everything or hanging.
Some people have suggested this one might be the problem:
sandboxd: Mail deny file-read-data /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
But I haven't tried it. There are probably several plist files you could delete so I suggest you research this and be sure of whatyou are doing. The trick is to delete the plist file then reboot the machine and it will create a new, uncorrupt one. It's usually pretty safe but I suggest you inform yourself.
Finally, if all else fails download another email client. Thunderbird for example is free and performs well.
It doesn't take long to set up and although it's perhaps a bit old fashioned, everything is there.
Then you can forget about macmail if it's the only thing not working. It may well sort itself out later in any case. That sort of thing does happen too.
Good luck
Thank you, everyone. I have done most suggestions being made but the one thing I can't forget is - this is not a Mac OS issue or a hardware issue. It's a Mail issue... I can open Mail and all will be fine until I try to forward a message.... Also, when I type the first two letters of my name in the SEND box, "sa", that usually brings up my email address. That is no longer working. That seems to start the process to whatever is wrong...
I am using two relatively new email addresses - an iCloud and an Office 365. Both about a year old. Not a WHOLE lot on the server for each one... I do, however, have a lot of old stuff from other email addresses... I'm going to have to take some time to delete everything with email and start over with ONLY the two email address data and see what happens...
I am using two relatively new email addresses - an iCloud and an Office 365. Both about a year old. Not a WHOLE lot on the server for each one... I do, however, have a lot of old stuff from other email addresses... I'm going to have to take some time to delete everything with email and start over with ONLY the two email address data and see what happens...
This issue is a bit deeper and more confusing than I had thought. I connected to my wifi network and sent myself a couple files from my iPhone via AirDrop. That froze my computer in the same fashion as Mac Mail when I try to do something. Later, I sent a message using the "Messages" app on my iMac, and again, the same thing. Beach ball, losing internet intermittently, and everything pretty much freezing up. I really wonder what this could be...
Have you run diagnostics on your iMac?
Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support
Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.
Create a new User Account for testing purposes and in that new account login to iCloud and your email accounts and see if the problem still exists.