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Mail freeze in Big Sur

My new M1 MacMini has suffered two mail freezes in Big Sur, don't know if an OS bug or a computer bug, but when it happens the spinning ball appears, can't send or receive mail, cannot open mail prefs and can't even quit mail because the quit mail link goes gray. Only way is to force quit with the escape key and the only way to get mail to work again is to restart the computer. Has anyone else had the same experience?

Mac mini, macOS 11.2

Posted on Feb 23, 2021 7:58 AM

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Posted on Feb 23, 2021 8:33 AM

I have not, but boot into Big Sur infrequently.


Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


If still no good Disconnect from the Internet, then start Mail, look for the last rec'd eMail.


Does Mail crash if no internet?


Quit Mail & login to your WebMail in a Browser, if possible delete any later eMails there after the last rec'd one on the Mac.


If you have no POP accounts & they’re all IMAP accounts then in Mail’s Mailbox menu choose Rebuild.

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 23, 2021 8:33 AM in response to Holger Jensen

I have not, but boot into Big Sur infrequently.


Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?


Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.


If still no good Disconnect from the Internet, then start Mail, look for the last rec'd eMail.


Does Mail crash if no internet?


Quit Mail & login to your WebMail in a Browser, if possible delete any later eMails there after the last rec'd one on the Mac.


If you have no POP accounts & they’re all IMAP accounts then in Mail’s Mailbox menu choose Rebuild.

Feb 23, 2021 11:28 AM in response to BDAqua

Had another freeze just now but Mail worked fine in safe mode, which actually showed three more e-mails received after the latest freeze. I did hit rebuild since all my e-mail accounts are IMAP but haven't tried to see what happens by disconnecting from the internet, but will try later. One possible cause of the problem. My new M1 Macmini came with Big Sur but all the settings I transferred from a Time Machine backup on my old MacMini were Catalina. Apple Support assured me there would be no problem doing so and everything seemed to work just fine. Then, while downloading a Big Sur update in the new MacMini, the entire system crashed and I had to restart and download a whole new OS. Everything again seemed to wsork until this mail problem cropped up.

Mail freeze in Big Sur

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