mac mail uses WAAAAAY too much memory, slows things down and causes a memory error

[berbes]

hello mac gurus. my client has a 2015 macbook that keeps popping up the "out of application memory" window because of the mac mail app. the minute you open it, the activity monitor shows the memory used starts at 1GB, then continually moves up into the 60GB stage (in maybe 3 minutes time) until the memory error window pops up.

what is the workflow steps to repair this? i re-installed the OS, but it still happens,

 

[Tagbert]

sounds like some corrupt data in the email database. The app itself shouldn't try to allocate so much memory. I'd look at a way to rebuild the mail database. sorry I don't have any more details than that. I did so a search for "apple mail rebuild database" and got several suggestions.

 

[Honza1]

I have not had memory issues with Mail.app, but I had other troubles, like error messages. Troubleshooting depends on how much mail messages are there and where they are "located".
If Mail.app is simple client (mail is stored primarily on servers) you can remove the account(s), which will delete the local cache of mails, restart Mac, may be do some other cleaning and then add accounts back. This should redownload the messages and rebuild the database.
If Mail.app has (also) locally stored messages, you need to protect those messages - they can be exported etc. As noted above, there are web pages dedicated to fixing Mail issues which Google knows. Rebuilding mailboxes is non destructive, but does not always work. Backup of existing local mail and removal of all messages - even full reset manually by deleting the whole Mail data folder is also possible (and worked for me). It can be destructive, so be careful and follow the guides.

 

[berbes]

thanks SO much for this advise but, i cannot rebuild the DB, as it will not even begin doing it, then, within 5 minutes, it crashes. it seems the best solution is to delete the account, then, start over.

 

[Fishrrman]

A Fishrrman "dumb question™":
How many old, stored emails does the client have...?

 

[Tagbert]

thanks SO much for this advise but, i cannot rebuild the DB, as it will not even begin doing it, then, within 5 minutes, it crashes. it seems the best solution is to delete the account, then, start over.

This article offers two options, one has you open mail and then click on the mailbox and choose “rebuild”. The other way has you go to where the local files are located and remove an index file. Then when you start the app, it will rebuild the index. That one might be good if you can’t open mail.

How to fix Apple Mail by rebuilding and reindexing the Mailbox

If your Apple Mail doesn't seem to be searchable and/or has become so slow it seems to hang your Mac -- or even displays incorrect email content, then it's time you attacked the problem: it's time to rebuild and reindex your Mailbox.

www.computerworld.com