Memory leak for Mail App 16.0 / Ventura 13.5 / New MacBook Air M2 (June 2023)

Have you installed and run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus or VPN apps on your Mac?

Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

Solved with me.

I uninstalled all accounts from the mail program.

Then I saw within the apple mailprogram in the mail folder (on my Mac/restored mails from google a mail was present.

I deleted that mail , restored the accounts and the problem was gone. \0/

Same here, Apple mail takes up ca 50 gb of apple memory. Within seconds the appfreezes. Re Installed mail accounts several times without any suc6 of the problem. What to do?

MacBook Pro m1 16gb Sonoma laters update 14.1.1

Anyone out there in Apple listening to this?

I submitted a bug report to Apple using Feedback Assistant - case FB13402029

I recommend others do the same!

I missed this Jeff, sorry, actually I think this will delete all my mailboxes on my Mac as I created them with a POP account so if I understand this correctly, (now using IMAP). There is no copy on the server (I've checked) although the emails themselves are stored in the University server in the inbox. Presumably I could reinstall them from a backup but I suspect this would take many hours.

Simon

Important note to this message ... while this is true with IMAP email accounts, if you have old emails that have every been downloaded using POP as your setup, you will lose those emails if you delete the Mailboxes in Mail. This can apply to many of us who have had email for years, or even if you inadvertently chose POP (POP3) at any point when setting up in the past. So be careful out there.

After 4 weeks of normal Mac Mail activity, the memory leak started again yesterday, now having to force quit every 20 min unless I keep an eye on Activity Monitor and see Mail starting to increase its memory use. So frustrating. I am thinking of updating to Sonoma but then I'll be unable to use MsgFiler the best app I have ever used for rapid filing of emails. Cmon Apple please sort this!

After an upgrade to Sonoma, Apple Mail keeps using up all memory until it crashes. DiZoE has the solution for this problem. I have followed all steps carefully and Apple Mail starts working again on my new Mac Mini M2. Thank you DiZoE!

Below you can find the link to the original post:

Apple Mail Crashes after Ventura 13.2 - Apple Community

I'm seeing the same thing Ventura 13.6.1 on macbook pro M1 Pro 16" with 16Gb.

For me the ramp up in memory usage by mail happens very quickly and randomly - normally first I know about it is when the system 'out of memory' alert pops up when Mail has a footprint of about 62Gb. By that point its almost impossible to exit mail normally and only option is to force quit. Sometimes long periods between this happening. Sometimes multiple times in quick succession. No clear pattern I can see.

I'm am concerned with impact on SSD lifetime - have been using SSD reporter to monitor. Apparently down to 96% lifetime left.

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2023) w/ 32GB RAM running Sonoma v14.1.1.

Mail Version 16.0 (3774.200.91.1.1) (and earlier) consistently gobbles up all the available memory and I get "Out of Application Memory" warnings. Happens at least once a day, even in SAFE mode. I've send in crash reports many times, so they "should" be working on it.

Forgot to mention that you can watch this happening live if you have Activity Monitor running.

View the "Memory" Tab and select the "Memory" column in descending order.

Mail will surely be at the top of the list.

I have over 50 folders on my MacMail account that I use for my job which is an IMAP account downloading mail stored on a server at my University. The folders have been compiled for years and containing important work emails and which I'll need to use in the future. If I uninstall my accounts and re-install will I have lost all my folders? That would be much worse than force quitting between 5-10 times a day!

When you delete accounts on the Mac, you will not lose your folders (mailboxes) permanently as these folders (mailboxes) are also stored on your provider's servers. Deleting accounts only deletes the files residing on your Mac, not the ones on your provider's servers. When you create a fresh account on your Mac, Mail re-downloads everything on the provider's server again, including your original folder (mailbox) structures.

The only way you will lose your folder (mailbox) structure permanently is if you intentionally select and delete files/folders (individually or in groups) within Mail on your Mac, in which case Mail syncs with the provider's server, erasing items there also. This is an intentional act as you are specifically telling the system that these files/folders are to be deleted everywhere.

Hope this helps!

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, my problem is that for years I used a POP account to download my emails from the University server and started creating all my folders only on my Mac. I moved to an IMAP account when the University moved to a googlemail server so if I understand you correctly those folders will disappear when I uninstall.

Simon