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b Problem:
I have an Inbox (especially true of POP accounts) where I cannot open a particular message, or Mail unexpectedly quits when I try to open a certain message (or perhaps any message). Alternatively, another mailbox such as Sent Messages, or an On My Mac mailbox will display similar problems.
b Recommendation:
A frequent solution, and always a good first step, in these situations is to use Rebuild Mailbox. The command to Rebuild Mailbox is found in the Pull-Down under Mailbox in the menu bar of your Mail window and is the last command. Where there has been a lot of Delete activity it would also be good to Erase Deleted Messages before the use of Rebuild Mailbox. It should be noted that when the message preview pane is minimized, Rebuild Mailbox can be utilized without opening any message, for those cases where no message will open.
Furthermore, it is beneficial to use Rebuild Mailbox on any mailbox that has had large numbers of messages deleted or transfered to other mailboxes, or also when very large messages have been deleted or transfered. The delete or transfer activities may leave the table of contents imperfect in limited cases, which can cause corruption in the mailbox. Also, Rebuild Mailbox, which rebuilds the table of contents, should make searches more efficient after sessions of deleting or transferring messages.
b Related Problems:
My Mail program is sluggish or displays "writing to disc" excessively. For these issues, Rebuild Mailbox alone may not be sufficient. Another procedure can be used to reduce the size of a mailbox that has ballooned to a size well beyond what is needed to store the messages in the mailbox. See the FAQ entitled "Mailbox Reduction and Cleanup Procedure" on how to test for this condition and possibly mitigate.
It should be noted that the "Mailbox Reduction and Cleanup Procedure"
can clear up some mailbox problems if Mail cannot open a particular mailbox at all. This results because the actions take place in the Finder, rather than in Mail.
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