kmosx2: Mail crash when clicking folders
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DESCRIPTION OF PROBLEM: Mail (for OX 10.2.2) started to crash upon clicking on certain folders. Eventually Mail would not start at all.
SOLUTION: The XML preferences file associated with some mailboxes was corrupted. Manually fix the XML (this is not that hard!). Delete any trash folders, if they are affected), as this is a bit faster than fixing the XML, and Mail will recreate them.
- Using Finder, go to mailboxes folder, typically /HD/Users/username/Library/Mail/Mailboxes. Locate affected mbox folder. Drag the suspected mailbox files out of this folder onto the desktop. Make a backup copy of this file by clicking on it, and selecting edit > copy, then edit > paste.
- Ctrl-click on the mbox folder. From the po-up menu, choose "show package contents".
- A new Finder window should pop up, listing the contents of this mbox. When I double-clicked on "Info.plist", the Property List Editor tried to open it but choked on the corrupted data. Instead, single-click on "Info.plist" to select it, then do Finder > Services > TextEdit > OpenFile.
- Info.plist should open in a TextTedit window. Mine was higgledly-piggledy and looked like this:
5. Leave this window open. Now open an unaffected mbox folder, open its Info.plist in TextEdit as per above, and observe healthy-looking XML, which looks something like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>SortOrder</key>
<string>received-date</string>
<key>SortedDescending</key>
<string>NO</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Copy this good XML, then paste into the bad Info.plist, and save the now-patched Info.plist file.
6. Close these windows (plist files, mbox files). Now drag the (copied, patched) mbox with the updated info.plist back into your Mailbox folder and start Mail.
7. Repeat this process on other affected Mail folders / mbox files.
8. Delete all mboxs for deleted messages. Mail will recreate them as needed. If you have multiple accounts configured on mail, there may be a trash/deleted message folder or folders in each account folder and in the Mailboxes folder. You may have a corrupt message in there that is taking Mail down.Do you want to provide feedback on this User Contributed Tip or contribute your own? If you have achieved Level 2 status, visit the User Tips Library Contributions forum for more information.