macOS Mail not working reliably

[gblinckmann]

I've been using mostly Outlook on my M4 Macbook Air since I got it (now on macOS 26.5.2), but I thought I'd kick the tires on the mail app. I like the speed of the app, but I can't get it to consistently work. I had first thought that it was due to having large mailboxes on Gmail and Outlook.com, but I pruned both mailboxes down to 1 year's worth of email, under 1 GB per mailbox. I also tried eliminating Outlook.com completely, so that it is just syncing with Gmail, and with the all mail not advertised to IMAP. I've also limited IMAP to 1000 items in Gmail. Between each of my tests, I've tried restarting the client (there's no rebuild option for Gmail), and even wiping out the Library\Mail directory to reset the database. Nothing has given me a working client. I've been working on email systems since the late 1980's, even before the internet was public. This shouldn't be that hard. Any ideas what's up with this? FWIW, I'm fairly new to modern Macs. I've not been using them since I owned a "fat Mac".

 

[FreakinEurekan]

“Can’t get it to consistently work…” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ what exactly is it doing or not doing?

 

[gblinckmann]

It will hang at loading messages or moving messages. I've even tried letting it run overnight. It just doesn't complete. I'd expect that at some point it would finish and I'd get current emails coming in on the mail client. Right now, I'm just using the Gmail web app, but I'd rather be using the mail client. I know that Gmail is a bit quirky when it comes to IMAP due to not having real folders, but I've also tried setting this up with Outlook.com, and I get similar results. Rebooting and resetting the mail database eventually just gets me back into the same spot. When I get new email, it doesn't show up in the mail client.

 

[gblinckmann]

I had other things start acting up on my Macbook. Given that, I figured it was time to do a reset. (That's how I handled similar problems on Windows, after all.) That fixed the problem. Mail is now working like a champ. Lightening fast. It might have been some of the enterprise management software that was getting in the way.

 

[boppin]

Eh, okay.

I would have suggested to delete the Envelope files inside these cryptic names folders.

And or restore postbox. Pr rebuild.

 

[blufrog]

I'm using Mail on Sequoia without any issues, and my mailbox is over 10 GB. It's using IMAP though to a local server.

 

[dizmonk]

I had other things start acting up on my Macbook. Given that, I figured it was time to do a reset. (That's how I handled similar problems on Windows, after all.) That fixed the problem. Mail is now working like a champ. Lightening fast. It might have been some of the enterprise management software that was getting in the way.

If I understand your problem is the amount of time it's taking to download all your emails? Is that right? From my experience setting up a new Mac and downloading thousands of emails (if not more) takes a few days.

 

[jsondergaard]

I had a similar issue (also with Outlook and Gmail accounts) with the macOS 27 beta 3, deleting the Envelope Index* files in ~/Library/Mail/V10/MailData fixed it (at least temporarily) for me. Never had any issue before that.

 

[Fishrrman]

I don't use gmail, but...
... I recall reading numerous posts over the years, that gmail and Apple's Mail.app just don't work very well together.

I could be wrong.