Drewli77

Q: Mail Can't Open & com.apple.internetaccount process hogging 100% CPU

Desperately seeking answers after Mavericks install..

 

My mail crashed and now won't open at all. I've tried most (if not all) the suggestions posted by others.  Haven't tried deleting and reinstalling mail yet, as this will be my last resort since I have a work account in it that is not on IMAP.

 

And another troubling issue is my macbook's fan is going crazy and feels like its overheating.

Looking at "Activity Monitor" I see a process "com.apple.internetaccounts" that is taking 100% CPU and 1.6GB of memory!!

No idea what this process is and can't seem to quit it.

 

PLEASE HELP!!! Thanks in advance

 

 

Using EtreCheck, pls see below report:

 

Hardware Information:

          MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012)

          MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir5,2

          1 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores

          4 GB RAM

 

Video Information:

          Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1024 MB

 

System Software:

          OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 0 days 0:11:45

 

Disk Information:

          APPLE SSD SM256E disk0 : (251 GB)

                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 250.14 GB (59.72 GB free)

                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

 

USB Information:

 

 

 

 

 

 

FireWire Information:

 

Thunderbolt Information:

          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

 

Kernel Extensions:

 

Problem System Launch Daemons:

 

Problem System Launch Agents:

          [loaded] com.paragon.NTFS.trial.plist

          [loaded] com.paragon.NTFS.upd.plist

 

Launch Daemons:

          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

          [loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist

          [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

          [loaded] net.sourceforge.MonolingualHelper.plist

 

Launch Agents:

          [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

          [loaded] com.hp.messagecenter.launcher.plist

 

User Launch Agents:

          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.df0ab5bbe6f698196fcc21e3c1e66dcb758bd911f4d637272d9d8109.plist

          [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

 

User Login Items:

          None

 

3rd Party Preference Panes:

          Flash Player

          Language Aid

          MagicPrefs

          Paragon NTFS for Mac ® OS X

 

Internet Plug-ins:

          AdobePDFViewer.plugin

          AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin

          CMBSecurity.plugin

          Default Browser.plugin

          Flash Player.plugin

          FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

          JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

          nplastpass.plugin

          QuickTime Plugin.plugin

          SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin

          Silverlight.plugin

 

User Internet Plug-ins:

          aliedit.plugin

          Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin

          QQMail.plugin

          QQMail.plugin

          txftn.plugin

          RealPlayer Plugin.plugin

          txftn.plugin

 

Bad Fonts:

          None

 

Top Processes by CPU:

             100%          com.apple.internetaccounts

               4%          WindowServer

               4%          com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

               2%          EtreCheck

               1%          Safari

               1%          Activity Monitor

               0%          fontd

               0%          hidd

               0%          sysmond

               0%          aosnotifyd

 

Top Processes by Memory:

          1.62 GB            com.apple.internetaccounts

          180 MB             com.apple.IconServicesAgent

          143 MB             com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

          111 MB             Safari

          49 MB              Dock

          45 MB              WindowServer

          37 MB              mds_stores

          37 MB              Activity Monitor

          33 MB              Finder

          25 MB              com.apple.WebKit.Networking

 

Virtual Memory Statistics

          35 MB              Free RAM

          1.51 GB            Active RAM

          1.48 GB            Inactive RAM

          587 MB             Wired RAM

          252 MB             Page-ins

          840 KB             Page-outs

MacBook Air

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 2:47 AM

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Q: Mail Can't Open & com.apple.internetaccount process hogging 100% CPU

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  • Helpful answers

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  • by MajikNET,

    MajikNET MajikNET Oct 24, 2013 2:57 AM in response to Drewli77
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 2:57 AM in response to Drewli77

    I managed to fix this on mine by moving the contents of the <user sir>/Library/Mail/V2 directory, but I was lucky enough to have all my email stored on Exchange/Gmail so it didn't matter about removing local copies. Seems there might be an issue with the migration of old accounts to new accounts (this also appeared in the Lion upgrade I think (https://discussions.apple.com/message/15889369#15889369)

  • by Drewli77,

    Drewli77 Drewli77 Oct 24, 2013 3:11 AM in response to MajikNET
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 3:11 AM in response to MajikNET

    Thanks for the reply MajikNET. But yes, unfortunately my work email server doesn't have IMAP (exchange).

     

    Do you know if I were to move V2 (ie. to the desktop), is it as simple as moving it back in case that doesn't fix it?

  • by ihomme,

    ihomme ihomme Oct 24, 2013 3:39 AM in response to Drewli77
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 3:39 AM in response to Drewli77

    I have exactly the same issue as well! Mail will not open and it's NOT responding after a min or 2. Took up 99-100% of CPU.

    Unfortunately I can't delete the local copies as those are needed.

    Deleted apple.com.mail folder but doesn't change a thing.

     

    Any other help would be appreciated!

  • by MajikNET,

    MajikNET MajikNET Oct 24, 2013 3:47 AM in response to Drewli77
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 3:47 AM in response to Drewli77

    I really don't know, I'm afraid. From reading that previous thread, it looks like there's something that causes the mail sync services to get confused with the old and new content, and as a result I suspect moving it out will allow you to get back to work, but moving it back again will likely means you're back at square one

     

    Perhaps there's a way to archive the old emails (outside of the mail app) and then re-import them after the fact?

  • by nothin7,

    nothin7 nothin7 Oct 24, 2013 3:52 AM in response to Drewli77
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 3:52 AM in response to Drewli77

    I noticed that my Accounts.plist file in ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData had grown to a massive 70 MB. Simply deleting this file fixed the issue (the new Accounts.plist is only 10 KB). I had to set up my Gmail accounts again, but it was a snap in Mavericks, and all of my preferences and messages are intact (since I didn't delete any of the other folders).

  • by ihomme,

    ihomme ihomme Oct 24, 2013 4:29 AM in response to nothin7
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 4:29 AM in response to nothin7

    Strange that I don't even have ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData or Accounts.plist on my Mac...

  • by Drewli77,

    Drewli77 Drewli77 Oct 24, 2013 4:38 AM in response to ihomme
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 4:38 AM in response to ihomme

    ihomme - the Library folder is hidden by default. Need to go into terminal to unhide it.

     

    nothin7 - my Accounts.plist file is also 70mb!  So after you deleted that file, all you need to do is re-enter in your accounts? 

     

    And no one can shed any light regarding this ""com.apple.internetaccounts" process?

  • by nothin7,Solvedanswer

    nothin7 nothin7 Oct 24, 2013 5:24 AM in response to Drewli77
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 5:24 AM in response to Drewli77

    @Drewli77 yup that's it. When Mail opened I chose Google/Gmail and let Mail set the account up for me.

     

    Before doing that I had noticed com.apple.internetaccounts hogging the CPU. I went into System Preferences > Internet Accounts, waited 10 minutes for the spinning ball to stop, then deleted the Google account in there. There was only one Google account in there, despite the fact that I have four Google accounts set up in Mac Mail. Anyway this one account seemed to be what was slowing down that preference pane. After deleting Accounts.plist I re-added my accounts in Mail, which added them to the Internet Accounts preference pane, but now that preference pane (and Mail) open just fine without hogging resources.

     

    What annoys me is the fact that hitting Delete on a message sends it to Trash, which in Mavericks corresponds to Gmail's Trash, meaning it gets purged every month (regardless of the setting you choose in Mac Mail). I've been using Option-Delete to Archive it, but I wish I could just use Delete for that, since I always Archive and rarely Trash messages. I would set another folder to be used for Trash, but sadly, all of the options under Mailbox > "Use this mailbox for" are greyed out.

  • by Brad Skidmore,Helpful

    Brad Skidmore Brad Skidmore Oct 24, 2013 5:34 AM in response to Drewli77
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 5:34 AM in response to Drewli77

    Like others, mail had become an unstable slug after installing Mavericks. My Accounts.plist was also huge, almost 60mb, so I decided to have a look at what was in it.

    Under the <key>MailAccounts</key> section there were over 37000 instances of my partners hotmail account! - An account that has not been used for some years.

    I edited the file using text edit, removed every instance of this account (by instance I mean between the <dict> and </dict> markers). When I re-saved the file it was only about 8kb. When I opened up mail, all performance problems were solved and my usual mail account & messages were untouched. The previous memory hogging "com.apple.internetaccounts" process was now only using a tiny amount of memory.

    Mail is now faster than when I had Mountain Lion, and Im using a 2007 iMac.

    I have no idea how the 37000 duplicate copies of a redundant hotmail account managed to propogate themselves in the xml file. Maybe they have been there for years (and may explain some of mails previous quirks?).

  • by Drewli77,

    Drewli77 Drewli77 Oct 24, 2013 5:46 AM in response to Brad Skidmore
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 5:46 AM in response to Brad Skidmore

    Thanks guys for the suggestions. Will try it when I get home and revert back. I just left the apple store and the "genius" were of zero help. They told me only way was to save everything and do a fresh install!

  • by ihomme,

    ihomme ihomme Oct 24, 2013 6:06 AM in response to Drewli77
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 6:06 AM in response to Drewli77

    Tried the deletion of Accounts.plist (mine was 42mb) and it helped!! Mail is able to launch again, but have to setup my accouns from sketch. At least I can get it running now...

     

    The problem is I have other accounts, i.e hotmail & yahoo, in my previous Mail. So how can I link the old emails storage in my MB back into Maverick?

     

    Many thanks to nothin7 who discovered this 'trick'. ;p

  • by Gamo,

    Gamo Gamo Oct 24, 2013 6:42 AM in response to Drewli77
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 6:42 AM in response to Drewli77

    Having the same problem here. Will try deleting and reinstalling accounts. If you want to backup and restore all emails, you can try email backup pro. It has been very helpful in a couple of full system reinstalls I have done in the past...

  • by Drewli77,

    Drewli77 Drewli77 Oct 24, 2013 7:36 AM in response to Brad Skidmore
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 7:36 AM in response to Brad Skidmore

    nothin7 & Brad Skidmore,

     

    You guys Rock!  That seemed to do the trick! 

     

    Step 1.  In Systems Preferences > Internet Accounts, I deleted all the accounts.

     

    Step 2.  And instead of deleting the Accounts.plist, I instead used Text Edit to delete the everything that was between <dict> and </dict> that was repeating. After saving it, the file went down from 70mb to 350kb

     

     

    Thanks So Much!!!!

  • by EdoardoMelchiori,

    EdoardoMelchiori EdoardoMelchiori Oct 24, 2013 9:00 AM in response to Brad Skidmore
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2013 9:00 AM in response to Brad Skidmore

    Thanks to your tip now mail works fine and is faster than ever. Quite funny I had thousands of hotmail instances too. So crazy my laptop was completely stuck just because of this hotmail/mail issue.

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