MazWB

Q: El Capitan Mail flashing problem

I just upgraded to El Capitan and tried to compose a message in Mail. After I clicked Send, the Compose window started flashing. I closed the program and relaunched, but the problem persisted. I finally managed to delete the email from my Outbox in between flashes (wasn't easy). I tried to compose another email, but the same issue occurred. Is this a bug? This makes Mail unusable.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Sep 30, 2015 5:55 PM

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Q: El Capitan Mail flashing problem

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  • by Aspergaon,

    Aspergaon Aspergaon Oct 21, 2015 10:30 PM in response to RAG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 21, 2015 10:30 PM in response to RAG

    What I really do not understand is why and how Apple does'nt answer and give us a solution. We are all guessing, trying, and crossing our fingers to fix a problem caused by the update. My email worked just fine and since the day El Capitan was launched and installed by me,  I still havent been able to send emails from my business accounts. I just installed the update today and still the same problem: emails in outbox stacked, and with not a single warning that something is wrong. When clicking "get new messages" it downloads, updates, etc. but doesnt even "say" anything about the emails not been sent. Apple, help!

  • by Aspergaon,

    Aspergaon Aspergaon Oct 22, 2015 11:38 AM in response to MazWB
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 22, 2015 11:38 AM in response to MazWB

    I just talked today to support. They suggested to reinstall the operating system! a major surgery for me instead of trying to solve the email configuration. One option before that, is to do a back up of all my emails in library and then delete my accounts to set them as new, but I'm still going to try another one: copy my accounts settings from my iphone where they work fine.

  • by dianeoforegon,

    dianeoforegon dianeoforegon Oct 22, 2015 12:07 PM in response to Aspergaon
    Level 5 (5,731 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 22, 2015 12:07 PM in response to Aspergaon

    Option 1)

    Testing in a new User is an easier optin than reinstalling the system.

    You can use the Guest User or create a new User for testing.

     

    Add one email account and test. Do you still see flashing issues?

     

     

    CREATE A NEW USER

     

    Go to System Preferences --> Create a New User in Users & Groups.

    Switch to the New User by logging out/in or use Fast User Switching.

    Do you still see the issue?

     

     

        If yes, then the problem is with your base files.

        If no, then the problem is in your User's folder.

     

    Option 2)

     

    Download the OS X 10.11 El Capitan installer under Purchases. Run the installer over your current install. While this is not quite as good as a clean install, it can update all the El Capitan files.

  • by jerseyj69,

    jerseyj69 jerseyj69 Oct 24, 2015 5:58 AM in response to MazWB
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 24, 2015 5:58 AM in response to MazWB

    Does anyone know if the .1 release fixed the SMTP issue ? I had to restore to my backup with the previous OS, the .0 release just made things unusable. After several days of trying I gave up.

     

    I noticed that the Outlook issues were said to be solved, but I've not seen anything about the SMTP issue being solved ?

     

    Jerry

  • by digitalFlack,

    digitalFlack digitalFlack Oct 25, 2015 5:16 PM in response to jerseyj69
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 25, 2015 5:16 PM in response to jerseyj69

    Painful answer: NOT FIXED in 12.1!

     

    The problem is in the installation script.   For any of the common email systems (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo) the install script writes over any existing customization causing the Outbox to choke and flash (since the generic parameters don't work or we wouldn't have customized them in the first place.) 

     

    Even if you corrected the parameters after the initial 12.0 install, the 12.1 script DOES THE SAME THING and resets the customized parameters to the generic params that cover 80% of people.  

     

    It's hard to believe how simple it would have been for Apple to fix this, but they didn't!  It's simple, leave email configurations parameters (sending and receiving) alone! 

     

    Your vote:  there is a passive aggressive script writer on the Install Script team, or, QA has gone in the toilet in the rush to expediency.

     

     

    ----------

     

    My previously posted solution:

     

    A little painful, but ignoring the flashing, open the Outbox, click and hold the offending email, flashing continues, drag email to another mailbox  e.g. Drafts (you can retrieve it later), flashing continues, when you see the second mailbox highlight hold for a second and after the next flash, release into 2nd mailbox. 

     

    As soon as there is no email in the Outbox it stops flashing.

     

    Might as well fix (re-configure) the parameters in the Advanced Mail settings.   The way Apple updates (even in the el Capitan point release) your mailbox won't be able to ever retrieve the old parameters, they are gone.    Save the parameters, 12.2 can't be that far behind.

     

    Possibility?  Someone could figure out where in a TimeMachine Backup those parameters are stored, probably ~/Library/Mail/V3/    and retrieve them... but its not that hard to reset, once the flashing stops.

  • by digitalFlack,

    digitalFlack digitalFlack Oct 25, 2015 5:24 PM in response to digitalFlack
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Oct 25, 2015 5:24 PM in response to digitalFlack

    One solution at the end of another thread:

     

    Re: El Capitan Mail flashing problem

     

    i.e. The el Capitan install scripts (12.0 and 12.1) overwrite any customized Send Mail Server settings with generic settings (Upgrade or Migration Assistant).   Once the settings are overwritten, there is no way to recover that info.   Just reconfigure the customization and wait to do it again in 12.2, 12.3, etc.

     

    TSAW!

     

    JF

  • by rowlandd,

    rowlandd rowlandd Oct 26, 2015 4:14 PM in response to MazWB
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 26, 2015 4:14 PM in response to MazWB

    Same problem. I found that the new OS had erased the password for the mail account (SBCGlobal -- i.e. Yahoo!). Correcting that, everything was OK.

  • by farrago,

    farrago farrago Oct 29, 2015 1:27 PM in response to rowlandd
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Wireless
    Oct 29, 2015 1:27 PM in response to rowlandd

    My issue is slightly different.  Some emails just don't render.  They show the header and the body is completely blank.  If I quit mail and come back to the same email, it will occasionally fix the problem for a short time.

     

    Any one have that issue?  Fixes?

  • by Carrets,

    Carrets Carrets Nov 1, 2015 10:40 AM in response to MazWB
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 1, 2015 10:40 AM in response to MazWB

    Same problem...different solution, that so far, has parked: I had a g-mail account that was deleted before the El Capitain update, but reappeared afterwards.  Once I deleted this account from the Preferences, the blinking stopped.

  • by malcolm 168,

    malcolm 168 malcolm 168 Nov 5, 2015 6:05 PM in response to RAG
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 5, 2015 6:05 PM in response to RAG

    RAG, I had the same flashing email,and did what you said, and it work. Thanks for your help

  • by gaydun,

    gaydun gaydun Nov 11, 2015 8:45 AM in response to MazWB
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 11, 2015 8:45 AM in response to MazWB

    What a nightmare...both my Gmail accounts refuse to send emails and they just blink on and off on my desktop...going nuts here.  Tried to reinstall one account but that did not work. What to do????

  • by alex.petrea,

    alex.petrea alex.petrea Nov 14, 2015 4:03 AM in response to MazWB
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 14, 2015 4:03 AM in response to MazWB

    I tried the answer to this question and many others options and nothing seems to work.

     

    What I did instead was go to ~/Library and delete "Mail" and "Mail Downloads" folders. Then go to ~/Library/Container and delete "com.apple.mail".

     

    NOTE: Copy those folders somewhere else and backup your emails before deleting the required folders.

     

    It works for Hotmail/Outlook accounts.

     

    Thanks

  • by David Latapie,

    David Latapie David Latapie Nov 15, 2015 1:18 PM in response to alex.petrea
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 15, 2015 1:18 PM in response to alex.petrea

    I did the exact same thing as you alex.petrea. I deleted my accounts then rename ~/Library/Mail and ~/Library/Container/com.apple.mail (there was no Mail Downloads). So I had no more gmail accounts (I still had the iCloud account).

     

    I recreated my gmail account on mail.app and same thing, flashing then smtp is disconnected (I do receive mails, though). I could send mail from Thunderbbird, so SMTP is definitely not the issue (I even tried with an email I don't have 2FA enabled on).

     

    I also noticed that SMTP port is 0 by default, instead of the regular 465.

     

    Summary: I can receive mail from Gmail but I cannot send, whatever the account, 2FA or not. I can receive and send on Thunderbird, so the issue comes from Apple Mail. Some days ago, I could send anything.

     

    All of this holds true for iCloud (I did not install iCloud on Thunderbird, but I am pretty certain it would work)

     

    I'm experiencing a similar issue with my icloud account.

     

    I was hesitating between using Mail or Thunderbird (I prefer the UI of Mail), now I have no choice. Thunderbird

  • by JPSSnyder,

    JPSSnyder JPSSnyder Jan 14, 2016 5:30 PM in response to Aspergaon
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 14, 2016 5:30 PM in response to Aspergaon

    I hope that  was just one reps hasty advice.  You do not burn down a house to kill a bug.

  • by JPSSnyder,

    JPSSnyder JPSSnyder Jan 14, 2016 5:51 PM in response to JPSSnyder
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 14, 2016 5:51 PM in response to JPSSnyder

    I hope that the suggestion to reinstall the OS was just one reps hasty and bad advice.  You do not burn down a house to kill a bug. The flashing email is a serious bug that I am surprised Apple would tolerate for 3 months. I solved it by deleting all mail accounts (5) except iCloud and then reinstalling using the other option. Even though that worked a serious bug like this one should be fixed in a week, not months.

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