Updated to Big Sur, mail app opens with no windows

I had the same problem. Solved by following these steps:

1. Force quit Mail-app
2. Open Mail-app from Applications Folder in Finder (not from Dock)
3. Received notification that "Mail was forced to quit while trying to open windows" (or something like that)... Got asked if I wanted to "Reopen" or "Not reopen" windows. Chose to NOT reopen windows.
4. Voila! Mail was back up and running.

I hope this can help you.

I'm having this same issue! Once you force-quit the mail app, try re-opening it while holding down the 'Shift' key. That's the only way I've been able to get the viewer window to show up. Hope this helps!

This worked...thanks!

Like is previous macOS Catalina, launching Mail will only open Mail Minimized in the Dock. Once in Dock, click the Mail icon in Dock and it should open with Windows Open.

If you want Mail to reopen with Windows Open, when closing Mail make sure it is Fully Open and then press Command Q to Quit Mail.

Like LABcharlotte, this did not work for me. I did not get the message "Mail was forced to quit while trying to open windows" (or any message). As for P. Phillips advice, I'm sorry but I'm pretty ignorant about computers and this advice did not make any sense to me at all.

Ugh, none of these have worked for me. The mail app starts, but no panels will show until minimized, including message viewer, preferences, etc. When minimized, the panel appears and minimizes to the icon on the dock, but a single or double click on the dock icon will not restore the panel. I have been using the menu options Window>Message Viewer to get the panel to open on the desktop. The mail panels should open on the desktop, and when minimized, restored to the desktop from the dock icon, which is not happening for me.

This happens to me too.

Seriously Apple, this is only one of the many totally unacceptable problems I am experiencing with Big Sur...

This did not work for me. I can still not see the mail window after I launch mail. HELP!!

Oh, I have spent one week on this. Kudos to you.

I also tried this. I can see it but never re-appears.

Thanks!

The solution above did not work for me. But I could get the mail window back following the steps below:

1. Selected the mail app which shows the app menu on top (without the window).
2. Then minimised the app by clicking minimise option from window menu.
3. That showed the app minimised in the dock.
4. Then clicked on the minimised app icon in the dock.
5. That showed the mail app window in the middle of the screen like a tiny dot.
6. I had to manually hold and drag the window to make it look like normal.

Hope it helps.

This happened to me--no mail window opened with the icon on the dock, although the menu was there. I tried a lot of things including those mentioned here, but nothing worked, so I called AppleCare. The problem turned out to be that I was on Desktop 2, not Desktop 1. Never knew there was such a thing, don't know how I got there. You can get back to Desktop 1 by pressing Command + F3.

Been banging my head on this -- reset PRAM and that didn't work either.

HOWEVER --- going to email menu item 'Window' and clicking on 'Minimize' put the invisible mail windows into the dock where I can see it. Clicking on the minimized window in the dock then took it to desktop visible. Sounds stupid to you? Yeah me too but it worked.