Level 1

14 points

Catalina mail problem: blank emails

After upgrading to Catalina, most of the text in my emails have vanished. Sometimes there's just a blank message field, and sometimes there is a collection of overlapping boxes with question marks. Oddly enough, the images are mostly still there.

This has happened to both sent and received emails, and to messages sent before and after installing Catalina. Occasionally there will be an intact message, but I can't pick out anything to explain why one will be visible and the next one not.

Most of the messages come to a gmail address, and all seem to be intact when I go to gmail on a Chrome browser.

Is there any way to fix this and if not, how can I revert back to Mojave until this is fixed?

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 8, 2019 5:06 PM

Top-ranking reply

blgee

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Jan 2, 2020 1:00 PM

I was using Suitcase Fusion 18.2.4 (Suitcase Fusion 7) which is not compatible with OS X Catalina as I discovered. I uninstalled it and the random mail font issues went away.

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29 replies

Mar 4, 2020 5:57 AM in response to AnthonyFasolo

Couldn't agree more. I'm not a technophobe by any means but I'm not versed in the background stuff that makes things run and when the only solution to a persistent problem that affects day to day usage is to do technical jiggery pokery that is way over my head, I'm stuck. I wouldn't know where to start looking whether I have the wrong fonts or whatever. They just need to fix it.

Jan 14, 2020 6:42 AM in response to coxorange

Is anyone at Apple actually looking at this issue, I wonder?

Feb 6, 2020 8:59 AM in response to Gryff

Thanks for the info. I will try the update this evening and keep my fingers crossed. :)

Feb 6, 2020 9:20 AM in response to coxorange

You're welcome.

Q: did you have any 32-bit apps when you upgraded?

Q: have you checked that the content of all the emails is still present?

coxorange

Level 2

151 points

Feb 6, 2020 9:36 AM in response to John Biggins

Q: did you have any 32-bit apps when you upgraded?

Yes, about 400!

Q: have you checked that the content of all the emails is still present?

Yes, everything still present.

Feb 6, 2020 9:46 AM in response to coxorange

Thanks. And was it a 'clean' install, where you reinstalled all your applications after the installation, or was it just a straight upgrade from Sierra?

coxorange

Level 2

151 points

Feb 6, 2020 10:05 AM in response to John Biggins

No clean install. (I had learned that with "migration" a lot of files are not transferred.)

Feb 6, 2020 10:07 AM in response to coxorange

Sorry, slightly confused. Clean install or no clean install?

coxorange

Level 2

151 points

Feb 6, 2020 10:17 AM in response to John Biggins

No clean install. Just a "normal" upgrade.

(A clean install would require migration assistant to get the data

from the backup back to the Mac which I prefer to avoid!)

coxorange

Level 2

151 points

Feb 6, 2020 10:30 AM in response to John Biggins

Another disadvantage of a "clean" install: it wouldn't be possible under Catalina to re-install 32-bit apps bought from the Mac App Store, so you wouldn't get notifications about upgrades to 64-bit.

Feb 6, 2020 1:29 PM in response to WayanL

I doubt it’s a font issue. I have no font programs installed apart from native Mac.

coxorange

Level 2

151 points

Dec 26, 2019 5:01 PM in response to blgee

WayanL/blgee,

The font managers which you had installed, were they running/login items?

I have a font manager, but only use it when I need it (for finding/comparing/installing fonts), so I don't see how it could be a problem. It is also 32-bit, so it won't work under Catalina (I haven't upgraded yet), but I'd like to keep it installed to get a possible Mac App Store update notification.

Dec 27, 2019 1:54 AM in response to coxorange

I have only Mac’s native font manager installed.

Feb 6, 2020 10:24 AM in response to coxorange

Thanks for the info. Apple on the phone told me I needed to do a clean install. But the idea of reinstalling all my apps put me off.

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Catalina mail problem: blank emails