The mail app will open all by its self. After checking mail and then minimizing the app, it will suddenly just pop open again. There is no new mail in the inbox when this happens.
iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS 10.14
For anyone who did not see my solution/workaround from a while back in this thread, i'll link to it here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250385204?answerId=251388086022#251388086022. It includes quite detailed instructions, but the basic idea is that two step authentication for gmail does not work properly in the Mail app. The workaround is to not use the built-in google preset when adding the account. Instead manually set it up (which is quite easy as well) with an "App password" set up in the google account. For me, this has worked for over two months without mail ever opening since.
It looks like Catalina fixes the problem!
I think I solved this issue for me by adding my gmail accounts manually (only mail, no notes). But to be warned, Mail‘s config is full of bugs.
Other stuff I did:
-Add two factor authentification
-Use gmails application password instead of the normal password to configure mail.
-Set notifications of google calendar as shown in web (did not work for me)
If you're already hiding Safari just do the same for Mail. Command-H keeps mail out of your dock and prevents it from popping up. Regardless, these are work arounds not solutions. Apple needs to address this issue.
I'm aware of that particular workaround, and reticent to call it a "solution" as it does not address the actual problem. The issue being that a macOS feature - the ability to add your Google account within System Preferences - results in Mail consistently opening itself in order to perform what appears to be some kind of authentication "handshake" with Gmail servers.
For what it's worth, if you minimize the Mail window, it'll stop popping up all the time. It's certainly not a fix, but at least it stopped driving me nuts.
Try disabling "Send large attachments with Mail Drop" for any gmail related accounts. https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/download-attachments-mm6b1a4d4d/icloud
Did you try putting Mail it in Full Screen mode and test.
Use Mission Control on your Mac - Apple Support
command tab keys is an easy way of navigating all open apps, including your full screen apps:
four finger swipe up will show you Full Screen apps in Mission Control
To be clear, it's running, but with NO windows actually open. It will then seemingly randomly open the application window by itself.
As a follow up, I would like to consolidate my findings in hopes of expediting a solution.
EXACT Same Issue:
Possibly Related:
I also have mail check a Gmail account so perhaps you are on to something in this regard. It was reported earlier that 10.14.4 caused gmail accounts in mail to offline when mail checked. This started happening after I installed 10.14.5 last week.
Thanks for all the links, I will read them later, and yes, your description
(To be clear, it's running, but with NO windows actually open. It will then seemingly randomly open the application window by itself.) is the same as what I have.
I have this issue with gmail too, it seems like the mail app open by itself to refresh the connection with gmail server, as the exclamation mark can be seen for a second or two after the mail open by itself, and disappear once it establishes the connection. This bug is probably related to the fix for the previous gmail bug which cause the gmail account to go offline, and in this Mojave 10.14.5 update, it fixes that issue but caused another, which is the mail app opening by itself.
The only way I guess it to file a bug report which we've already done... But you can do it as well. The more, the better. If they don't do anything about it in the near future, we might reach out to some tech publishers :P
Update - CalDAV settings for those that want to try to setup a separate IMAP and CalDAV.
New CalDAV, Advanced Setup:
Username: username@gmail.com
password: your_password@gmail.com
Server Address: www.google.com
Path: /calendar/dav/**username**@gmail.com/user/
Port: 443
Leave SSL Checked
Uncheck Kerbos v5
Well then maybe I should elaborate haha. Try disabling Mail Drop on any non-iCloud accounts. I only have gmail and iCloud and now I'm thinking it's probably any 3rd party who doesn't support the Mail Drop API... if there is such a thing...
And post the results .
Exact same thing happening here. Had the same exact issue on my previous iMac. Only thing I've been able to come up with so far, is it seems to be related to gmail accounts.
Mail App Opens Randomly Mojave 10.14.5
