HT204093: Use Mail on your Mac

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douglas123

Q: I cannot access Mail at all.  The app seems to open but I no viewer (inbox etc) comes up so I cannot see any mail whatsoever.  The provider is OK as I am receiving and sending mail on my iPad and iPhone.  Any suggestions.  El Capitan is up to date as is M

I am running an iMac mid 2007, with El Capitan up to date 10.11.2 and Mail I believe 9.2. 2.4 GHz and 4 GB memory.

My problem began yesterday when I wanted to send a Christmas letter to 32 people, activating a draft and trying to send it.  Didn't happen and then things started to get strange.

This AM. after updating to EC 10.11.2 I tried to load Mail.  The program seems to open (i.e. bar across the top – File, Window etc) but no viewer appears.  No mail appears, now or otherwise.  Have tried everything I know.  Restart the iMac.  Close and open Mail.  Nothing.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Rob

Posted on Dec 10, 2015 11:17 AM

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Q: I cannot access Mail at all.  The app seems to open but I no viewer (inbox etc) comes up so I cannot see any mail whatsoever. ... more

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  • by Linc Davis,Apple recommended

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Dec 11, 2015 10:13 AM in response to douglas123
    Level 10 (207,926 points)
    Applications
    Dec 11, 2015 10:13 AM in response to douglas123

    Please quit Mail. Force quit if necessary.

    Back up all data before proceeding.

    If you're running OS X 10.11 ("El Capitan") or later, triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

    ~/Library/Mail/V3/MailData

    If you're running an older version OS X, use this line:

    ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData

    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

              Go Go to Folder

    from the menu bar. Paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V, then press return.

    A folder window will open. Inside it there should be files with names as follows:

              Envelope Index

              ExternalUpdates.storedata

    Move those files to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Other files in the folder may have longer names that begin as above. Move those files, if any, to the Trash.

    Relaunch Mail. It should prompt you to re-import your messages. You may get a warning that the index is damaged and that Mail has to quit. Click OK. Typically, the process takes a few minutes, but it may take hours if you have gigantic mailboxes. In that case, you may be able to speed things up by temporarily adding your home folder to the Privacy list in the Spotlight preference pane. Remove it when Mail has finished importing.

    If the import operation stalls or fails with an error message, quit Mail, delete the two new index files (keeping the original ones that you moved to the Desktop), and try again. According to many reports, the second attempt may succeed after the first one has failed.

    Test. If Mail now works as expected, you can delete the files you moved to the Desktop. Otherwise, post your results.

  • by douglas123,

    douglas123 douglas123 Dec 11, 2015 10:14 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 11, 2015 10:14 AM in response to Linc Davis

    THank you for your help.  It worked first time.

     

    ROb

  • by niqin,

    niqin niqin Dec 16, 2015 3:07 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 16, 2015 3:07 PM in response to Linc Davis

    I tried this twice, but got a Mail quit unexpectedly after a Menu -> Message Viewer:

     

    Process:              Mail [433]

    Path:                  /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail

    Identifier:            com.apple.mail

    Version:              9.2 (3112)

    Build Info:            Mail-3112000000000000~1

    Code Type:            X86-64 (Native)

    Parent Process:        ??? [1]

    Responsible:          Mail [433]

    User ID:              501

    Date/Time:            2015-12-17 09:34:19.292 +1100

    OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.11.2 (15C50)

    Report Version:        11

    Anonymous UUID:        88D13A86-FC57-27B1-5F88-932693733371

    Time Awake Since Boot: 360 seconds

    System Integrity Protection: enabled

    Crashed Thread:        0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

    Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)

    Exception Codes:      KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000000

    Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

    VM Regions Near 0:

    -->

        __TEXT                0000000108305000-00000001086c0000 [ 3820K] r-x/rwx SM=COW  /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail

    Application Specific Information:

    Performing @selector(showViewerWindow:) from sender NSMenuItem 0x7f94dad2bbf0

     

     

    Please is this the same problem?

     

    Nick Quinn

  • by delfinorio,

    delfinorio delfinorio Dec 23, 2015 11:26 AM in response to douglas123
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 23, 2015 11:26 AM in response to douglas123

    Hello

    I've the same problem. I do exactly what you said and the problem persist. I don't see any windows on Mail app.

     

    Pese help..

     

    TKS

  • by delfinorio,

    delfinorio delfinorio Dec 23, 2015 11:29 AM in response to delfinorio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 23, 2015 11:29 AM in response to delfinorio

    I do this another time (6 times), and it help me now I see all the windows...

     

     

    UFFF

    Tas

  • by Mukazo,Solvedanswer

    Mukazo Mukazo Dec 24, 2015 2:40 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Dec 24, 2015 2:40 AM in response to Linc Davis

    Hi Linc,

     

    Had the same problem today after using a postcard from the stationery...

    I followed your hints and after redoing it for the fifth time it works again.

    Thanks a lot !

     

    Marc

  • by cree8er,

    cree8er cree8er Apr 29, 2016 11:21 PM in response to douglas123
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 29, 2016 11:21 PM in response to douglas123

    Didn't work for me even after 5 attempts, anyone for an alternative solution?

  • by Cinerina,

    Cinerina Cinerina Aug 21, 2016 12:35 PM in response to cree8er
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 21, 2016 12:35 PM in response to cree8er

    Mine hangs 3 messages short of importing all the messages - have followed the suggestion 2x so far and will go to six times before I give up.  My iMac is running 10.11.6 El Capitan and is 5 days old.  I would love if Apple could release a patch to resolve this considering the issue is a year old.

    It seems to get hung up creating Envelope Index-T0x7fa296139d90.tmp.EcSnNX-wal and it never actually makes a new External Updates file.

  • by Eric Root,

    Eric Root Eric Root Aug 21, 2016 12:37 PM in response to Cinerina
    Level 9 (70,061 points)
    iTunes
    Aug 21, 2016 12:37 PM in response to Cinerina

    You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is marked solved, less people are likely to look at it. A new post would be much more visible. You can link to this one.

     

    You are entitled to 90 day telephone support from Apple. Try contacting them.

     

    Apple Support Contact


     

    Apple Support by e-mail or chat

     

    Apple Support contact - Telephone