HT205750: About the OS X El Capitan v10.11.4 Update

Learn about About the OS X El Capitan v10.11.4 Update
el_lee

Q: Mail.app crashing on start

Suddenly, in the middle of the afternoon on Friday, my Mail.app started crashing on my laptop every time I boot it (Mac Book Pro, 2010), and today when I turned on a mac mini it started doing the same thing.

 

When I open the app it starts to fetch mail, and before finishing syncing mail with the server it crashes. It doesn't matter if I try to interact with it or not (e.g., try to view an already downloaded message), about 10-45 seconds after opening, it crashes. Have not been able to get it to stay open since Friday even for a minute.

 

I'm running the latest 10.11.4 El Capitan update on both. I updated the mac mini to this version of el cpitan, on April 23. Crashing didn't start until today, April 30, so I don't think it has anything to do with the update.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 30, 2016 4:38 PM

Close

Q: Mail.app crashing on start

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Apr 30, 2016 9:22 PM in response to el_lee
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Apr 30, 2016 9:22 PM in response to el_lee

    Please launch the Console application in any one of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

    Step 1

    For this step, the title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

              SYSTEM LOG QUERIES All Messages

    from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

              View Show Log List

    from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

    In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Enter the name of the crashed application or process. For example, if Safari crashed, you would enter "Safari" (without the quotes.)

    Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Select the messages from the time of the last crash, if any. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

    The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

    Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

    Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

    Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

    Step 2

    In the Console window, please clear the search box, then select

              DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION User Diagnostic Reports

    (not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down. You'll see a list of crash reports. The name of each report starts with the name of the process, and ends with ".crash". Select the most recent report related to the process in question. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot.

    I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway. If the report is only a few lines, make sure you cleared the search box.

    If you don't see any reports listed, but you know there was a crash, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.

    In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)

    Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report—they're very long and rarely helpful.

    When you post the log extract or the crash report, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

    If you have an account on Pastebin, please don't select Private from the Paste Exposure menu on the page, because then no one but you will be able to see it.

  • by el_lee,

    el_lee el_lee May 1, 2016 4:13 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 1, 2016 4:13 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Thank you for your help. The log you requested can be found at the link below. I am having trouble pasting it directly in this box, it won't let me post the resulting message when I do. It says there are invalid characters.

     

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/r355hcajy3dy8n7/Mail_2016-04-30-165915.txt?dl=0

     

    Also, in the all messages thing, this line appears over and over, though not at the same time as the crash. Here it's like an forty mintues after the crash, when Mail.app wasn't even running anymore.

     

    4/30/16 5:41:52.000 PM kernel[0]: Sandbox: coreduetd(5127) deny(1) file-read-metadata /Applications/Mail.app

  • by Linc Davis,Solvedanswer

    Linc Davis Linc Davis May 2, 2016 9:33 AM in response to el_lee
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    May 2, 2016 9:33 AM in response to el_lee

    You have an IMAP account in which there's a message with a corrupt attachment that is causing Mail to crash. Please take the steps suggested on this page. Often a corrupt message on a mail server can be deleted by logging in to the server through its web page.

  • by Eric Root,Helpful

    Eric Root Eric Root May 2, 2016 9:32 AM in response to el_lee
    Level 9 (72,921 points)
    iTunes
    May 2, 2016 9:32 AM in response to el_lee

    Do a backup, preferably 2 on 2 separate drives.

     

    Quit Mail.

     

    Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J.  When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Go to Library/Containers/com.apple.mail.  Move the folder com.apple.mail to your desktop. You must move the entire folder, not just the contents.

     

    Restart, re-launch Mail and test. If the problem is solved, recreate any required Mail settings and import any emails you want to save from the folder on the desktop. You can then put the folder in the Trash. If the problem remains, return the folder to where you got it replacing the one that is there. 

     

    If that doesn’t solve it repeat the above using Containers/com.apple.MailServiceAgent.

    Information learned from Linc Davis. Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

    Crashes/quits unexpectedly

  • by el_lee,

    el_lee el_lee May 2, 2016 9:16 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 2, 2016 9:16 AM in response to Linc Davis

    How can I figure out what message is causing the problem? It seems to happen when mail tries to sync, not when I'm viewing any message in particular (i.e., it seems to crash when I notice it saying that it's 'downloading 1/10' or whatever in the bottom status area, regardless of what message I have chosen in the message list)

  • by el_lee,

    el_lee el_lee May 2, 2016 9:22 AM in response to el_lee
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 2, 2016 9:22 AM in response to el_lee

    Like, when I hold down shift like those directions say so that no messages are displayed in the viewer or selected, it still crashes as it gets started syncing.

  • by el_lee,

    el_lee el_lee May 2, 2016 9:32 AM in response to el_lee
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 2, 2016 9:32 AM in response to el_lee

    OK for anyone else that comes along, I did a couple of things

     

    Logged onto my gmail account through the website, and emptied out some spam messages that had attachments. One of these had been flagged by gmail as having a virus in the attachment when I looked there (so maybe that was the cause of this problem). In any case, this deleting of everything with an attachment that was in my spam folder seems to have fixed the crashing issue.

     

    To make it easier to debug in the future (and prevent mail from crashing itself when syncing -- or needlessly downloading attachments to things that have been filtered into my spam folder anyway, jeez), I have unchecked the box in the apple mail settings that says 'automatically download all attachments.'

     

    Thanks for your help Linc in pointing me int he right direction with this post. Re: Re: Mail.app crashing on start

  • by el_lee,

    el_lee el_lee May 2, 2016 9:36 AM in response to el_lee
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 2, 2016 9:36 AM in response to el_lee

    UGh also for anyone who comes along later and actually reads this far, I did NOT follow those directions about removing all my messages and accounts that Eric suggested. I just accidentally clicked that star and don't know how to unclick it. But don't do that if you're having this problem! UGGGHH