I have the list of incoming mail in my inbox, but the window below can't be accessed. In order to view my mail, I have to double click on one in the inbox. The email will only appear in a separate window. How do I make it behave normally?
iMac Pro
I understand now. What version macOS is that?
Meanwhile, see if the problem still happens in Safe mode (hold the shift key down at startup). It can take much longer to safe boot (10 min) so be patient.
How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support
Safe mode forces the OS to clear certain caches and logs and do other miscellaneous housekeeping. It's non-destructive to user data so is safe to do. Very often certain weird software behavior is corrected by simply logging in this way as a troubleshooting method. When you're in safe boot, the machine will not be at its best performance, especially with graphics, but that's normal.
Does the problem persist while in Safe mode?
Exit safe mode by restarting your Mac normally and re-evaluate the issue again.
If the problem is still unresolved, please return here and post a reply and we’ll see what else we can come up with for help.
I understand now. What version macOS is that?
Meanwhile, see if the problem still happens in Safe mode (hold the shift key down at startup). It can take much longer to safe boot (10 min) so be patient.
How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support
Safe mode forces the OS to clear certain caches and logs and do other miscellaneous housekeeping. It's non-destructive to user data so is safe to do. Very often certain weird software behavior is corrected by simply logging in this way as a troubleshooting method. When you're in safe boot, the machine will not be at its best performance, especially with graphics, but that's normal.
Does the problem persist while in Safe mode?
Exit safe mode by restarting your Mac normally and re-evaluate the issue again.
If the problem is still unresolved, please return here and post a reply and we’ll see what else we can come up with for help.
Hi JC,
Exactly what am I supposed to change in Viewing preferences in Mail on Mac? Please, be specific.
I tried changing my "List Preview" in Viewing preferences from 2 lines to 5 lines. Frankly, that was the only thing that seemed remotely possible as a remedy to my problem. But, that didn't have any impact on accessing the window below my inbox.
Attached is a screen shot of my Mail Viewing preferences.
Sincerely,
Gerardine
In the Mail menu bar, click View > Show Side Preview.
EDIT - If Side Preview doesn't immediately display, you might need to drag the viewer into view from the right edge of the Mail window using the cursor shown in this pic. It should become visible at the edge of the window, and sometimes required quite a long drag before the preview display pops into view.
When I select Mail menu, click View, I don't get the option of "Show Side Preview". (See screen shot below to see what I get.) But, that wouldn't solve my problem even if it did! My problem is that I can not click on an email in the list and have it open up below the list as a selected message. It's a horizontal viewing issue, not a vertical one.
The problem occurred first when I lowered the bar under my list of emails too far down to view the contents of my inbox. Then when I cursored the line back up to the top of my emails, I couldn't get it to engage the window for "selected messages." The horizontal line cursored up approximately 4.5 lines and stopped. I tried hundreds of times to cursor up and down, hoping the selected messages window would reappear with no luck. I paid special attention to the dot in the double line border of the window, hoping that was the key to engaging the selected messages window. No luck!
This problem occurred for me once before and magically self corrected. I suspect it will magically self correct,
again.
Thanks for trying D.I. Johnson.
Sincerely,
Gerardine
Thank you, D.I. Johnson! You're a prince. My mail now works with the intervention of 'safe mode'!
FYI, you asked what version of macOS I have. I'm not technically competent at all. So in order to answer your question, I took a screen shot of 'About This Mac'. (See below.)
Thanks, again!
Sincerely,
Gerardine
You are welcome. I'm glad to know you sorted this out.
Just for future reference, the info you generally need to provide is right there on that screen.
The Mac model and year, and the macOS version are usually most helpful.
And in the future be careful about posting screenshots with personal info and serial numbers. 😉
Hi gerardine955,
It looks like you're having issues with Mail on your iMac. If that's correct, let's try the following.
Change Viewing preferences in Mail on Mac
This should help.
Cheers.
Problem with viewing email on my desktop
