Update to Catalina, Mail using excessive memory, cannot use Mail

Hello jeannette147! 

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities. I understand that the Mail app is crashing on your 2017 MacBook Air since updating to macOS Catalina. I know how important it is that I can access my email, and have some troubleshooting steps for you to try. 

1 - Quit the Mail app by selecting Command + Q or using Mail > Quit Mail from the menu bar. Once it’s closed, restart your MacBook Air: Go to the Apple menu in the top left corner of your screen > Restart. 

2 - Hold down the Shift key on the left side of the keyboard and click on the Mail app. Once it’s bouncing in the dock you can release the Shift key. This will allow the Mail app to start up by bypassing the saved state the app was in last. 

3 - If the issue persists, restart in safe mode and test again: Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac. 

4 - If still occurring in safe mode, you’ll need to create a new user and test it out again. This article will show you how: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac.

If you still are experiencing the same performance issues with the Mail app, or if you’re seeing any error messages, let us know. 

Have sorted out my Mail issues. No updates from Apple to tackle this. No help from their support.

The only way to do it is to rebuild everything. Sigh.

The Issues:

1. Mail ramps up to defcon 5 using 100% of RAM capacity, thereby rendering all other apps useless, or very slow
2. Mail taking almost a minute to bring up the Print dialogue box to print or Print to PDF which I often require for major projects
3. Mail not turning unread notification off after clicking on message, remains as unread with notification dot in Mail list
4. Mail unable to show accurate unread message count in dock icon
5. 
   

Here is the process I went through... in the hopes it might help others. Most is not new to anyone who has rebuilt their Mail from the ground up. I used to do this with each new system, haven't done so for a system catastrophe such as Catalina has brought on. A few things have changed with Mail -- possibly in earlier OS versions, just haven't encounter this to notice.

Rebuild Mail in Catalina:

1. Archive all Mail -- Control+click folders and export as mbox files.
2. Quit Mail. Do not start Mail again until all steps complete.
3. Navigate to Library folder -- Option+click Go menu at Finder to reveal Library folder in list. Find Mail folder. Back up by copying to another location and/or another drive.
4. Delete Mail folder from Library after making backup.
5. Optional -- delete Internet Accounts [if you want a really clean start]
6. Restart.
7. Start Mail and you should see the Create New Mail Accounts window. Create each new account you require.
8. Import saved mbox mail -- will appear in a folder called "Import"
9. Move imported mail messages to inbox if you want more recent mail readily accessible. Suggest no more than 10-20 at a time to give the mail server time to ingest old messages.

NEW:

1. Mail signatures -- no longer reside within the Mail folder, so these will remain active in Mail, you just need to reassign to new email accounts if you removed them [step 5 above].
2. Junk Mail Filters -- no longer reside within the Mail folder, so these will remain active, however, you will need to rebuild all of the folders you may have used to redirect any messages into, since these folders were within the Mail folder that was removed.

RESOLVED:

1. Mail no longer ramps up to defcon 5 taking all resources and slowing all other apps to a crawl.
2. Mail now actually turns the unread notification off when you read a message
3. Mail now accurately shows the number of unread messages in the dock Mail icon
4. Mail now prints to PDF quickly
5. Mail now saves the entire message to a text file when saving, instead of just the header and blank message

I hope this helps others having problems with Mail and Catalina, as Apple does not appear to know how to handle or offer any update to remedy this issue.

If anyone has any comments to improve the method outlined here, by all means, feel free to offer suggestions.

Thanks.

I have the same problem with mail since updating to Catalina, memory usage to the max (64 Gb). I cleaned my mailbox (trash, junk mail) and followed the steps outlined in this post. Mail crashes within a few minutes. I don't have the issue with my other devices (they keep my communications going), only with my Macbook pro 13" 2018. A screenshot describing the system is attached.

Henk

Hi jeannette147,

Great work finding the culprit that was causing the issue. Sounds like between your detective work, and Apple Support you have everything back under control. If you have any questions down the road, we're only a message away.

Cheers!

Actually the mailbox, that seemed to hold the bad email,, was not "Trash" or "Junk". It was a mailbox that I created to hold an email that I felt was suspicious. So, if your issue was caused the same way as my issue, you would have to try finding the bad email. Another step I had taken, at the suggestion of Apple Support and before deleting emails, was to download the free version "Malwarebytes" from the App Store. I was told to be careful not to agree to updating to the paid version, as it may cause my computer to run slow as it automatically checked it for malware. It found 3 files, one of which was freberi... (sorry I cannot now remember the full name, and one of the others which I also do not remember, was told was a bad virus. So at least these 3 malware files I was able to delete right from the Malwarebytes app. However, this did not solve the issue of opening "Mail" and have Memory in Activity Monitor show an immediate increase to gigs of memory, then crash. As I quickly tried deleting mailboxes one at a time. I watched Activity Monitor "Memory" almost immediately drop down. I had a recent Backup, so I was comfortable deleting mailboxes, and I started deleting only the mailboxes I had created. And of course I also had the new User account that I had created with the assistance of Apple Support. This user had the files I needed copied from the original User.

Hope this helps...

Mail under Catalina is a disaster.

If I leave my MacBookPro [late 2018] asleep overnight with the wifi off [so I can pick up messages elsewhere on my iPhone without Mail on my MacBookPro sorting them into the various folders] Mail will often just sit there, not even reading new mail in. Just sits there. Useless. So, restart Mail with the wifi on, it wakes up.

Never had this problem ever in countless previous OSs dating back to three MacBookPros previously.

If I leave Mail up and running, gradually, I notice other apps start lagging, I can get several keystrokes ahead and then well, just braindead performance.

Quitting Mail helps.

Perhaps deleting Mail altogether and replacing it with a professional mail app is the answer?

Because I have read dozens of threads on this and there does not appear to be an answer.

And of course, I have one of those MacBookPro models you can't start in Safe Mode. Who's idea was that?

Looking for help, I'm not about to revert back, but Catalina... sorry to say... I won't ever upgrade to any new Mac OS until it has been several months on and upgraded from base status.

I really don't need all thew new emojis - don't use any of them on either my iPhone and iPad.

Andrew, have you tried opening Activity Monitor in your Utilities folder to see if opening Mail causes Memory to jump up to Gigs of Memory use. That is what was happening to me. After trying various things and talking to Apple Support. I found that there was one email that was causing the problem. Apparently this email had infected my computer and the problem was not caused by Catalina. I have had not problems since then. At the suggestion from Apple support I downloaded "Malwarebytes" free version (w/out updating to the paid version) and it found 3 viruses, that app gave me access to deleting the viruses. Even then I still had to delete the bad email.

Jeanette, thanks for your reply. Have been very busy, and the lag in performance that Catalna and Mail have thrust on me have not been welcome. While I doubt any of my archived mail has viruses I guess I am going to have to delete everything and rebuild it. Not good when I have dozens of clients and numerous of streams of saved mail. Unlike previous OS updates, Mail did not state anything about being a new app and updating mailboxes, so I am guessing it is not entirely new and I truly believe Apple has dropped the ball on this - have never experienced such a mess before ever. Mail has always performed well after upgrades, performed better. This is clearly not the case with Catalina. I really wish I had not upgraded and will no longer upgrade when Apple tells me to - will more closely watch all of the forms for the warning signs in future. Thanks.

Thanks Andrew. As I stated, this email that caused the problem with me was suspicious to begin with, and is the reason I had put it aside in a newly created mailbox. The update to Catalina may have activated whatever was in that email, by not allowing it to block it, possibly a third party that needed to be updated. I don't think you need to delete every email, just start with the least important. Keep Activity Monitor open to the Memory tab. When the bad email is deleted, you will see Memory usage drop down immediately. Also did you try downloading and running the free version of Malwarebytes, and if so did it find allow you to delete any viruses

I have been struggling with this exact issue since upgrading to Catalina on 12/13/19 - Mail explodes my application memory...I have talked with several Apple Tech Support....we have done about everything, reloaded Catalina....ran Malware, ran about everything....nothing has worked....Mail crashes...after consuming all application memory.

I too am having this problem. Was on phone with Apple support for over 2 hours two weeks ago. They had me install Malwarebytes, but that not work. They tried to see if running in Safe Mode would work but it happened there too. They captured log files from my Mac and said they would get back to me within 48 hours, but I not hear boo from them. They also did not give me a ticket number. As a result, I cannot use the native Email 'Mail' app on this Mac and have to use the email from my Chrome browser. I'm not a happy camper!

You are not alone. Appears Apple has dropped the ball on the update - missing something vital with regards to Mail - and doesn't want to own up to the problem. So many months later and still no fix for this mess. I can't leave Mail up and running when MacBook goes to sleep, otherwise it freezes when I wake it again, forcing a complete shut down and restart.

Most major updates in the past have had Mail importing old mailboxes to update to the new system requirements.

This is what Apple needs to do to fix the problem. It is not going away, and the list of complaints continues to grow.

I have a feeling the only way around this is to completely scrub down to a reformatted hard drive, install Catalina, recover user from TimeMachine and pray and hope that works - otherwise another number of hours of downtime and futility.

I plan to get Apple to do the install at an Apple Store so they can watch and learn in the hopes it will head off further headaches for even more users who inadvertently update to Catalina thinking it is a good idea.

In the meantime - enjoy all the new emojis - lord knows we can never have enough of those!

Thanks.

I have tried everything from this thread, from Apple support and other forums. Nothing works. VM spikes to 64 Gb in 20 seconds after opening the mail app (all accounts deleted) and system runs out of VM.

There is something inherently wrong with the Mail app since the Catalina update.

I agree with previous comments, this is unacceptable!

Thanks Jeanette!

Henk