Mail App Opens Randomly Mojave 10.14.5

For a while now (1-2 months), my apple mail app on my iMac will open randomly into split view, without my clicking on the mail app. Happens I would say either every day or every other day. Mail app preference for opening into split view is unchecked. Google calendar notification settings are all turned to off. Can't figure out what's wrong. Just called apple support...and they say they've never heard of this before. Apple Support said that they can't help because I can't replicate the problem on command (i.e., it happens randomly, and by the time it's happened, it's too late to call apple support). So I guess I'm on my own on this. Any ideas?

Not sure if I'm the only Software Developer in here, but I think it's pretty safe to say we've found the issue (reproducible as well). I've seen this app elsewhere in these forums for debugging, not so useful here @tygb. Apple needs to patch this in the next release of Mail.

FWIW, I have been trying to track down this issue for a week now on 5 different Macs running 10.14.5, 10.14.6 Beta and 10.15 Beta. I have 3 Gmail accounts in Mail. The only way I can reproduce the problem is to use the red close button as opposed to the yellow minimize button. Minimized Mail has not opened on its own for me in that week.

G Suite may have different results but I don't use it.

This bug is present for years. Apple simply ignores it. The most annoying thing will probably never get fixed. It's been like this since Sierra.

And despite all workarounds in the Internet this is impossible to fully fix without Apple. I gave up a long time ago, this will keep happening and there's nothing we can do :/

And none of the possible solutions offered here work for me... I design and develop websites, either it's quit Mail, and forego email notices until I remember to start it up again, or have Mail windows constantly popping up and having to close them from in the middle of everything... Sooooo bloody annoying...

No. That is not what we are all reporting. Please read the thread before responding with copy and pasted info. We are reporting that Mail RANDOMLY and SPONTANEOUSLY opens itself into split screen view when Mail starts off in full screen mode, and is then closed (but still running) by clicking the red X. To be clear: it will happen when mail is still running, as indicated by a dot under the Mail charm, but no Mail screen is open.

That didn't work for me. Turned (at least I think so) all possible calendar notifications off and it still pops up. I don't even have the calendar added in my account on Mac. Of course it's a matter of Gmail accounts, no idea why. Someone said that it must be connected with AppleScript but I don't find it helpful at all. I've filed a bug report to Apple but considering what you guys wrote here I don't hope they'll even look into it anymore. Is there some kind of a genius who is able to find for example in the Console what particular thing makes Mail pop up? Desperately running out of ideas...

Agree. On the Microsoft boards, actual members from their product teams will respond to discussion board messages. It's frustrating that Apple has no real mechanism for reporting widespread, fairly serious glitches like this.

Tried what is suggested at the Reddit link a while back, , the settings are a bit different for google calendar now but all notifications are presently turned off or "none," and it is no help at all for this issue... And I do not even use google calendar, disconnected and deleted what automatically gets set up even further back ...

The Reddit info worked for me. You are correct that the settings are laid out differently now; the post is about 2 years old so that makes sense. However, I was able to use the strategy and follow the recommendations even though there have been UI changes. Sorry it's not working for you.

When Reddit info worked for you was it recently, or before the settings the Reddit info is pointing to changed...? Just wondering if this might be related to some other changes at G-Suite that maybe happened at the same time as the settings changed...

All this started for me only when I updated to macOS Mojave here on my computer, which was not all that long ago...

There is something bumping into something, somewhere, but only for some of us, it seems... Anything that might help narrow it down...

That's one possibility but as others pointed out - not for everyone unfortunately. And also a workaround is not a solution. Apple - do your job! I hoped that maybe it's something to do with errors or caches created while ugrading to Mojave but once I set up my Gmail account on an entirely new Mac it was exactly the same.

I spoke to someone at apple who said they've heard of this (the mail app opening randomly in split view) but aren't sure yet what's causing it. They suggested that, as soon as it happens, write down the exact minute it occurred. Then, open the terminal app, and type "sudo sysdiagnose" (without the quotation marks) -- supposedly that provides a log of everything happening on your computer and the exact minute that it's happening at. (That way Apple can see what processes are going on at the exact moment the mail app spontaneously opened). This log can be saved as a file, which either you could send directly to apple, or you could screen share with an apple support person on the phone. Not sure that actually gets any of us closer to an answer, but at least it's more than I had to go on before. Funny enough, the mail app issue hasn't happened for me yet this week (just last week), so I haven't had a chance to test this out yet. If anyone has any luck with this, let us know!

What do you mean by “someone at Apple?” This is a widespread issue. Google search the title of this thread and you’ll see tons of others here and elsewhere, for quite awhile now. I am certain that the brainpower at Apple could isolate the problem if they tried, so I don’t believe whoever told you that. Shame on Apple for letting this go on, and they should be embarrassed for themselves and their customers.

It was a person I spoke with the apple support phone line. I agree that it would be nice if Apple already had a fix for this, but I was excited that at least someone at Apple admitted the problem existed. (The previous two people I had spoken with from apple support said they had never heard of this before.)

You don't have to believe them, but I'm not sure why they would lie to me about wanting me to give them diagnostic data from the moment that the mail error is occurring. (If it was an intentional misinformation campaign by apple, why did it take me three phone calls to apple support to finally get this answer for the first time?)

It seemed like a legitimate request and a reasonable way for them to help figure out why this might be happening. It's also something I'm actually capable of doing, running a terminal script. Whereas the previous person I had spoken with said they couldn't do anything for me if they weren't on the phone live with me as the error was occurring, which I had explained to them wasn't possible because it happened randomly when I didn't expect it. This terminal command on the other hand is something I can try even if I'm not on the phone with apple support just before it occurs.

You don't need to try this out if you don't want to. I was happy though to have received some sort of reasonable suggestion from apple, which it seems no one on this board was able to get yet. Hence I wanted to share the info. Ignore it if you'd prefer.