Mail stuck on 'Saving Drafts'
I solved a problem where the Apple Mail app would be stuck on saving drafts (and moving other messages). While I was able to use the app to send and receive messages, it did annoy me.
This problem probably started when I tried adding a large file (>20MB) to a message. The mail app tried to save my draft, but got stuck. Because I have multiple accounts in my Mail app and couldn't find a large message in my drafts folder I set out to find a solution.
Here it is:
This is how I solved the problem:
- (Force) Quit the Mail app and make sure it has actually quit (no dot-indicator under the app icon in the dock)
- Go to finder
- Go to the path Library by holding the Option/Alt key while clicking 'Go' in the upper menu bar, and ,while still holding Option/Alt, select Library.
- Go to path Library/Mail/V5
- use the top-right search bar, press a random key to enable the search-engine, remove the key
- A new bar appeared. Click the button 'Search V5' instead of 'Search This Mac'
- On the right side, click the '+'-icon and a new bar appears
- Use the dropdown menu on the left side to change the 'Name' to 'File-size' (possibly through 'other')
- And search for files larger than 10MB
Finder should now show files bigger than 10MB in the folder V5.
I found multiple large files in my ~/Library/Mail/V5 folder, even though some dated from years ago. I therefore only deleted the files of when the problem emerged, in my case 1 week ago.
When restarting the Mail app, several errors of 'the message could not be saved' were found, but after accepting them the app worked perfectly again.
Hope this helps someone else!
Take care,
Sjoerd
MacBook Pro
