Why do I Have to Click Twice to Open Catalina Mail

Here's the fix. It's a peculiarity of Mission Control. Open Mission Control in System Preferences and check the box that says "When switching to an application, switch to a space with open windows for the application." (This choice must have been the default previously, but not in Catalina.)

Yes, kekoa, and closing the window with red dot is what is currently remembered by the app so that when you quit and re-open it requires the extra click. i.e. Red button causes the problem - OK?

IF you need to clear the workspace of clutter then what I am saying is if you want to avoid this feature/bug/change of behaviour then minimise rather than close.

Re-read the thread.

In system preferences > trackpad > point and click if the box of tap to click is unchecked , you have to double click on mail application to get it open , so to open the mail in a single click check the box .

If the issue still persists create a new test user account https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT204443

And add the mail account https://support.apple.com/en-in/guide/mail/mail35803/mac

I had this same problem. I think I figured out the issue. Catalina relaunches the app in the same state you left it. If you closed the Mail window before quitting, then relaunching the Mail app will not open any windows. Try quitting without closing the window. Then launch Mail. See if the window automatically opens. This might also be related to the "Close windows when quitting an app" option in System Settings/General.

[This has been explained several times in this thread already, but here it is one last time.]

There is no "clicking twice" to open. Opening an application is NOT the same as opening a window.

Mail starts at your first click - just look up there in the menu bar - it will say Mail.

As many said before; the red button closes the window; it does NOT quit Mail.

So don't close the window, press command-Q to quit.

Then you click the Dock icon ONCE, Mail will start and show its message viewer window.

SOLVED!!!! Found the Answer! If you close mail using the red x then click mail - quit on the menu bar, you'll have to reopen Mail from the dock by double clicking. If you just go to the menu bar and click mail - quit then you can reopen Mail from the dock icon with one click. We tried this on 2 different Macs running Catalina and it works each time. Have NO idea why and it's DUMB but easy to fix!

I only half to click once on the icon in the Dock.

Boot into Safe Mode and try from there. Then reboot normally and try again.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. 

Also log into another user account on your Mac and test Mail in the Dock there. That will tell us if the problem is system wide or limited to your user account.

As has been told here time and time again, there is no bug.

Clicking the Dock icon starts or activates Mail - just look at the menu bar, and see that it switches to Mail.

Some people equate "starting Mail" with "opening Mail Message Viewer", and that window will not show unless it was open before. This is correct behavior.

And the reason why has been explained. If you want Apple to change how Mail works, use the feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

None of us here can change this.

The default way to start an application is to restore the windows that were open prior to quitting.

People close all windows, it starts with all windows closed. It is simple.

If you quit the application using Command-Q (or Mail->Quit) and you then click the icon ONCE, it will restore the previous state, so don't close the message viewer and it will be there. Simple. (And, to my mind, the correct way).

Don't close the window, press Command-Q to quit.

Then you click the Dock icon ONCE, Mail will start and show its message viewer window.

"Barney, you should know better too

Yes Mail opens with one click on the Dock icon ...but it does not always open and actually show the window on one click.

"

Barney is correct and this "bug" has been explained away but some people just refuse to read.

The Message Viewer window opens or not depending on whether it was open when the user last quit Mail.

This behavior is different from the previous behavior, but it is consistent and agrees with how applications in general work. Just try the same thing with Preview, Safari or any other application. If the application was quit with the windows closed, it starts the same way.

I've been frustrated with this behavior since upgrading to Catalina. Frustrated because it wasn't the behavior I had prior to the upgrade. However, reading this thread, and specifically your point about closing Mail with the red dot, got me thinking.

I normally close an app using the red dot. Mail was no exception. Given this though, I tested by closing Mail from it's Menu bar (Mail > Quit Mail) and then single-clicking on the Mail icon. It launched with Mail open as I want it to (and as was the behavior pre-Catalina). So issue resolved (for me).

Thank you for pointing this out.

You always have to double-click the Apple Mail icon in your Applications folder, but a single-click is only necessary with Mail in the Dock, or within the LaunchPad icons. This has not changed for several years, and how it presently works for me with a clean install of Catalina updated to 10.15.1.

Purpleflyer wrote:

Same problem. Did an erase/clean install of Catalina with no change. Just installed 10.15.2 with high hopes. Opening Mail still requires two clicks.

Same answer. Do not close the Viewer window with the red close button before you quit Mail.

I apologize. Like somebody wrote on Page 2 about pressing "Command + Q," when closing Catalina Mail, problem solved! No need to "double click" Mail icon in Dock to open. Apparently, I'm "slow" to catch on.☺️👍