Mail crashing on Macbook Air

Does anyone have any ideas why my Mail app is crashing and won't open?


This is actually the second time this has happened - the first was with my iMac probably about 2 years ago (I could never find a solution so I stopped using the Mail app and just logged into my gmail through my browser) and now it's happening with my Macbook Air.


Both my computers are old - purchased in mid 2013 I think. But they work just fine. But now the Mail app just won't open. Or it opens for a split second and then crashes and a Problem Report pops up on screen.


Any ideas on fixes or is this the beginning of the end?

MacBook Air 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Dec 3, 2020 3:43 PM

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Posted on Dec 3, 2020 6:15 PM

Yes. The cause is usually a malformed email message, and complaints are growing increasingly common. It seems to affect older macOS versions, exactly how old is uncertain though, and if you're still using El Capitan as in your Profile information it's affecting them more than later versions. Presumably newer versions of Mail can cope with them while older ones can't.


You can and should update your Macs to the latest available macOS version although I believe you will need a slightly newer Mac for Big Sur: How to upgrade to macOS Big Sur. That Apple Support document also includes instructions for upgrading to Catalina if that's the latest for your circa 2013 Macs.


Solution for now: press and hold a Shift key while launching the Mail app again. That will launch the Mail app with no message selected. In that manner you may be able to identify the problematic message, and delete it.


If you are unable to find such a problematic message because Mail keeps quitting, or if you don't want to arbitrarily sacrifice a bunch of emails, the only recourse you may have is to use your email service provider's webmail interface (assuming they offer one) to delete any likely problematic messages.


Normally I would suggest a fundamental first step, which is to rebuild the affected Mailbox(es) according to Rebuild mailboxes in Mail on Mac however it doesn't seem to fix the particular problem you're experiencing. There seem to be an increasing number of reports substantially identical to yours, so it's likely to get worse before it gets better, if it ever does.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 3, 2020 6:15 PM in response to MacLc12

Yes. The cause is usually a malformed email message, and complaints are growing increasingly common. It seems to affect older macOS versions, exactly how old is uncertain though, and if you're still using El Capitan as in your Profile information it's affecting them more than later versions. Presumably newer versions of Mail can cope with them while older ones can't.


You can and should update your Macs to the latest available macOS version although I believe you will need a slightly newer Mac for Big Sur: How to upgrade to macOS Big Sur. That Apple Support document also includes instructions for upgrading to Catalina if that's the latest for your circa 2013 Macs.


Solution for now: press and hold a Shift key while launching the Mail app again. That will launch the Mail app with no message selected. In that manner you may be able to identify the problematic message, and delete it.


If you are unable to find such a problematic message because Mail keeps quitting, or if you don't want to arbitrarily sacrifice a bunch of emails, the only recourse you may have is to use your email service provider's webmail interface (assuming they offer one) to delete any likely problematic messages.


Normally I would suggest a fundamental first step, which is to rebuild the affected Mailbox(es) according to Rebuild mailboxes in Mail on Mac however it doesn't seem to fix the particular problem you're experiencing. There seem to be an increasing number of reports substantially identical to yours, so it's likely to get worse before it gets better, if it ever does.

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Mail crashing on Macbook Air

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