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mail stopped loading content, headers ok, over 100% CPU

I read my iCloud email from the mail app which suddenly took over 100%CPU time. My iMac does not seemingly slowed down, but mail does not load new mail content. I just can see the headers. This lasted over 2 days now...


I run mail as well on a MacBook Pro without troubles. The problem is only with my iMac.


I tried en/disabling my account. No difference.


Any idea?


iMac 2013, Catalina 10.15.7

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 3, 2021 12:52 AM

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Posted on Apr 6, 2021 2:00 PM

Tx for your advice Joseph_S. I first tried disabling my account from the mail application and back a few time to no avail.

Judging from the reading of many users comments, it looks that contacting Apple on the phone would be no option for me. Nevertheless Apple support pages are great...provided you find them. I found these links, bearing very promising titles:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204075

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mail/mail35803/mac


I then removed my iCloud account totally from my Mac. Of course when it asked me, I accepted to keep local copies of whatever data seemed to be important, Contacts, Calendar, etc...


So right now, it looks ok so far, my mail app (under the newly re-created iCloud account) is loading thousands of mail... I keep my finger crossed and tell you if I was wrong.


Tx again to all of you!

--

Claude


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11 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 6, 2021 2:00 PM in response to Joseph_S.

Tx for your advice Joseph_S. I first tried disabling my account from the mail application and back a few time to no avail.

Judging from the reading of many users comments, it looks that contacting Apple on the phone would be no option for me. Nevertheless Apple support pages are great...provided you find them. I found these links, bearing very promising titles:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204075

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mail/mail35803/mac


I then removed my iCloud account totally from my Mac. Of course when it asked me, I accepted to keep local copies of whatever data seemed to be important, Contacts, Calendar, etc...


So right now, it looks ok so far, my mail app (under the newly re-created iCloud account) is loading thousands of mail... I keep my finger crossed and tell you if I was wrong.


Tx again to all of you!

--

Claude


Apr 6, 2021 1:04 PM in response to claude_210

From your original account boot into Safe Mode according to Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support and test Mail from there. Reboot normally and test again.


NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files


Apr 4, 2021 9:44 AM in response to claude_210

Hi, Claude_210 and welcome to the Apple Support Communities. We understand that you're having issues getting your Mail accounts to load on your Mac. We'll be glad to help out with this.


To start, we'd like to test something. Go ahead and create a new user account on your Mac following this guide: Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac


Once done, add the email account to the Mail app on the new account. Afterwards, let us know if everything loads up properly in the new account.


Thanks for reaching out to us for support. We look forward to hearing back from you.


Cheers!


Apr 5, 2021 9:06 AM in response to claude_210

I find the way to keep all mail rules through different users using the same iCloud name:

https://support.apple.com/en-ae/guide/mail/mlhlp1017/14.0/mac/11.0


I still have the problem that in my original account Mail is creeped an unusable. Replacing a default user to a new account is not something I want to do often. It implies a lot of re-registrations, testings, etc...


Is there any alternative than delete my former account and keep the newly created one?





Apr 6, 2021 12:48 PM in response to claude_210

Thanks for clarifying, Claude_210.


From here, you can try removing and re-adding the account within Mail > Accounts... from the menu bar at the top of your screen. If it's still having issues after removing and re-adding the account, you may want to reach out here for more specialized support in getting this resolved: Contact Apple Support.


We hope that helps!

Apr 4, 2021 11:43 AM in response to karina184

Hi Karina, tx for your suggestion and for your time!


I just did that, giving the administrator rights to the new user. I added a single iCloud account.


First of all, under losing with the new user name, the Mail application is much faster and the Activity window tells what Mail *actually* seems to to do. It even gets blank and the application does not hug my CPU. Luxury!


It took a while to download my emails and my manually created Mailboxes but since it is a one off operation, it is ok.


The trouble is, I lost absolutely *all* my own email rules from the Preferences->Rules menu. Not nice, and I don't understand why, neither what to do to fix it. I would hate to recreate them by hand!

--

Claude

mail stopped loading content, headers ok, over 100% CPU

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