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Mail closes again immediately after opening

When I try to open mail, it pops up but immediately closes again.

And I get the notification "Mail stopped unexpectedly" where I can choose "ignore", "report" or "open again". But while clicking "open again", the same thing happens each time.

Anyone who can help with this issue?


iMac 21.5″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Dec 9, 2020 12:57 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Dec 9, 2020 2:00 PM

Go ahead and click the Report... button. That sends the crash report to Apple. More about that later.


Then, press and hold a Shift key while launching Mail from Applications or the Dock. Release the Shift key when Mail opens. That action causes the Mail app to open with no message selected.


If that does not resolve the problem, continue.


The fix will involve removing that Account from your Mac, followed by adding it again. That action will not affect any messages that remain undeleted on the server.


Instructions are described in Add or remove email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support. You will be following them in reverse order—in other words, remove the email account, and then add that same account again.


If you are unable to even open the Mail app due to its crashing immediately upon launch, you may not be able to access Internet Accounts from within Mail as it describes. Instead, amend those instructions as follows:


Click the (Apple menu) > System Preferences... > Internet Accounts, select the affected account, and then deselect the Mail checkbox for the account. To stop using the account in all apps, make sure the account is selected, then click the Remove button [—].


Please note that merely deselecting the Mail account won't remove it. It just temporarily turns it off in the Mail app, and selecting it again turns it on again in Mail. You need to follow the last (boldface) sentence above to actually remove the account. Adding it again will cause Mail to repopulate its contents. Since messages that remain on the server will be repopulated, you need to find and delete that message first. That can be accomplished through your email service provider's webmail interface, provided it offers one (most do).


Be advised that if Mail is crashing due to the way a particular message is formatted, Mail's crashing problem is certain to occur when another similarly formatted message is eventually received. Only Apple would be able to fix that, and the likelihood of them doing so with an update to a macOS version as old as "El Capitan" is just about nil. Send the crash report to them anyway.

1 reply
Question marked as Best reply

Dec 9, 2020 2:00 PM in response to bartdesutter

Go ahead and click the Report... button. That sends the crash report to Apple. More about that later.


Then, press and hold a Shift key while launching Mail from Applications or the Dock. Release the Shift key when Mail opens. That action causes the Mail app to open with no message selected.


If that does not resolve the problem, continue.


The fix will involve removing that Account from your Mac, followed by adding it again. That action will not affect any messages that remain undeleted on the server.


Instructions are described in Add or remove email accounts in Mail on Mac - Apple Support. You will be following them in reverse order—in other words, remove the email account, and then add that same account again.


If you are unable to even open the Mail app due to its crashing immediately upon launch, you may not be able to access Internet Accounts from within Mail as it describes. Instead, amend those instructions as follows:


Click the (Apple menu) > System Preferences... > Internet Accounts, select the affected account, and then deselect the Mail checkbox for the account. To stop using the account in all apps, make sure the account is selected, then click the Remove button [—].


Please note that merely deselecting the Mail account won't remove it. It just temporarily turns it off in the Mail app, and selecting it again turns it on again in Mail. You need to follow the last (boldface) sentence above to actually remove the account. Adding it again will cause Mail to repopulate its contents. Since messages that remain on the server will be repopulated, you need to find and delete that message first. That can be accomplished through your email service provider's webmail interface, provided it offers one (most do).


Be advised that if Mail is crashing due to the way a particular message is formatted, Mail's crashing problem is certain to occur when another similarly formatted message is eventually received. Only Apple would be able to fix that, and the likelihood of them doing so with an update to a macOS version as old as "El Capitan" is just about nil. Send the crash report to them anyway.

Mail closes again immediately after opening

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