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However do I download a new copy of Mail to a 27" iMac, late 2013?
Clearly, I need to keep the existing e-mails but I need a clean installation.
Note: running High Sierra 10.13.6 (which I do not wish to change ! )
(Mail crashes every second ie: useless)
Thanks for help.
Your problem appears to occur when Mail attempts to contact the email servers. I have no idea what would cause that.
Try booting into Safe Mode. Then restart normally.
Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support
Safe Mode will clear some system caches. That may fix the problem, but I'm not certain.
Mail is part of the OS, so you'd have to reinstall the OS with...
Command (⌘)-R
Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.
Option-⌘-R
Upgrade to the latest macOS compatible with your Mac.
Shift-Option-⌘-R
Install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available.
BUT...
Disconnect from the Internet & open Mail, does it still crash?
EtreCheck is a simple little app to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac.
http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck
Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report...
Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck.
Thank you for your response.
You say: "Command (⌘)-R
Install the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac."
Before I do this, I want to check 1 thing:
I want to be sure that I stick with 10.13.6 (as opposed to upgrade to Mojave etc.) Is this what you mean?
Nic
A “clean installation” of Mail will do no good. The crashing could be caused by a message or configuration file, but not some sort of corruption of the app, unless your Disk is failing, but then you’d have worse problems.
Start Mail with shift key held down. If it opens and doesn’t crash, select a message from a mailbox. If you think you know which mailbox was open when it started to crash, start there.
if you select a message and it crashes, that message may be the problem. If you can view and delete that message from your email providers web portal, you might get Mail working again.
I have tried holding down the Shift key while Mail starts (not sure how long to hold down). Occasionally Mail starts. Most of the time and certainly after clicking a mail box you get the 'whirly ball' (rainbow disk that spins around) for about 2 minutes (a really long time on a computer) and then Mail crashes.
Basically, no joy !
I am pretty sure that the HD is OK.
Do I recall correctly that configuration files are rebuilt automatically if thrown away ?
What is the name of the Mail configuration file ?
Nic
The shift key only needs to be held down when you open Mail. I can't remember how it worked in High Sierra, but if no message viewer window opens, you have to hold down shift when selecting the Message Viewer from the Window menu. It will prevent Mail from selecting any messages to view. If you have the view window open, selecting a mailbox will also select the previously selected message in the mailbox. That one may be causing the problem.
Does it beach ball when selecting any mailbox, or just one?
There is a preferences list file in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
The index is stored in ~/Library/Mail/V5/Envelop Index. You should also remove the wal and shm files associated with Envelope Index.
Mail opening with internet disconnected, Mail seems to work ie: does not crash.
I also managed to get rid of a huge number ~4,000 e-mails in Junk and then Trash (Not my computer, I quickly add).
I then quit Mail and restarted the computer.
I then reopened Mail.
I have now deleted some 13,000 e-mails but many stay and will not delete.
What happens now ?
Nic
I am not sure who I am replying to or what I did, but it now works (after a fashion).
Thanks to BDAqua and Barney-15E for their help.
I went to webmail and deleted practically all the mail.
On the 'damaged' computer I deleted 1,000's of e-mails and it now works. I still have over 1,500 each in the 2 mail boxes.
(It has not been practical to identify the problem e-mail - so the rationale has been to just to delete 100's.)
We have more that 5 Apple devices on the same Mail accounts and only 1 computer has the problem.
To say that the Mail package is inconsistent is an understatement.
If I select (say) some e-mails from an In box and delete them, I then find them again in the same In box (after switching to another Mail box and back again).
To guard my sanity I have checked and checked this, I have restarted several times (Mail & computer). (Both Safe & Normal mode.)
Thanks again,
Nic
Nic, in most cases it's a malformed eMail that causes it, iOS devices use a different protocol.
To explain, let's say your Mac had mails in the Inbox from...
08/24/2019
08/25/2019
08/26/2019
& no more, but Webmail showed an eMail from...
08/27/2019
Generally removing this last one would allow Mail to work again. :)
Use a Browser to login to your WebMail, I think there's a malformed eMail that you need to delete... see the last one that was downloaded on the Mac then use Webmail to compare.
Did you try starting Mail with the Internet disconnected yet?
Beach ball for all mail boxes.
(except when opening without internet corrected - no beachball.)
Nic
OK, likely it was only a newer one than the problem Mac held, but good to hear it's working now. :)
I am sorry, I have no idea what you mean.
Nic
Mail download
