Mail App v.14 Big Sur Can't Save Preferences

Andano wrote:

New iMac straight out of the box will not save Mail preferences.

Mail setup and import all worked OK.

Cannot save preferences, including:

• Downloads Folder destination

• Fonts & Colours > Message List font, Message Font etc.

• Choose Signature (within Compose)

When changes are made to preferences and the window is closed, those new preferences don't work. When the preferences window is re-opened, the preferences have reverted to default settings.

Help appreciated.

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/Anti-Virus/VPN

To trouble shoot further you can:

—Try a SafeBoot https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Takes noticeable longer to get to the login screen, does a 5-15 minute disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, including dynamic loader cache, etc.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test as caches get rebuilt.

In Safe mode third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled, it removes malware, etc hampering smooth operation, however a reboot will put it back to normal mode.

This test will tell you if third party interference; extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204443

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

Andano wrote:

Mail preferences work fine in a second user account.

Are there some app/system files I can delete?

If it is a corrupt plist, you can try deleting the "com.apple.mail.plist"

Quit Mail and from Finder>Go>Go To Folder, copy and past:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

Delete this plist, relaunch Mail.app it will rebuild the default plist. You can test at this point your mail preferences.

You can alway Control click the plist in the Trashcan>Put Back from the contextual menu to return the plist, If no change.

pmei wrote:

on my Mac BigSur ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist dose not exist.

I deleted ./Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist test. which is maybe a new location of the file.

When I start the mail app again the issue is still the same. No save of the mail preferences.

Hmmm...

reboot if necessary and try again.

If you copy and paste the full path:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

In Big Sur macOS 11.2.3

You should most certainly see the plist

There is no stand-alone "Mail.app" to install. You can reinstall the macOS on top of your existing macOS from Recovery , for a fresh copy of the Mail.app and associated files.

You have choices here, you want to preserve all your user data on this re-install.

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Andano wrote:

Thanks for posting.

There are no third party apps to uninstall (Cleaners/Optimizers/Anti-Virus/VPN).

I rebooted in Safe Mode > the problem persisted.

The link in your last paragraph returned a 'Page Not Found' error. I created a Test User account and rebooted but it wanted me to recreate my Mac Mail account which I didn't do.

What/where is/are the preference file(s) for Mail in BigSur. Can I manually delete them?

Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac - Apple Support

on my Mac BigSur ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist dose not exist.

I deleted ./Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist test. which is maybe a new location of the file.

When I start the mail app again the issue is still the same. No save of the mail preferences.

The file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist do not exists still with copy paste not.

I have reinstalled macOS on top of my existing macOS from Recovery.

But still the file do not exist.

still the mail preferences will not be saved.

I'm trying to change the account information of my IMAP account. Define alias address, change Download Attachment behavio but after restart of the mail the original setting are back or the alias is gone.