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Mac Mail not responding after Monterey 12.1 update

Has any experienced an issue with Mac Mail after 12.1 update? Any action in Mc Mail other than opening an email, eg, Reply, Compose, etc, causes 'beachball' and app not responding.

iMac 27″, macOS 12.1

Posted on Dec 21, 2021 9:53 AM

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Posted on Dec 23, 2021 11:56 AM

Quit Apple Mail. Go to system preferences and then in there to Internet accounts. Turn off mail for either talktalk or iCloud, then restart Apple Mail. Does the problem continue? If yes, quit Apple Mail. Go to system preferences and then in there to Internet accounts. Turn off mail for the one you left on, and turn on the one you left off. Restart Apple Mail. Does the problem continue?


Do this and you'll isolate if, and which, server is the issue. I'm going to bet it's iCloud.

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Dec 23, 2021 11:56 AM in response to dest60

Quit Apple Mail. Go to system preferences and then in there to Internet accounts. Turn off mail for either talktalk or iCloud, then restart Apple Mail. Does the problem continue? If yes, quit Apple Mail. Go to system preferences and then in there to Internet accounts. Turn off mail for the one you left on, and turn on the one you left off. Restart Apple Mail. Does the problem continue?


Do this and you'll isolate if, and which, server is the issue. I'm going to bet it's iCloud.

Dec 22, 2021 7:55 AM in response to PRP_53

Thanks @P.Phillips. My mail accounts are with talktalk and iCloud. I've just used Connection Doctor and all accounts are connected OK, but I then pressed the 'compose' button and we're back playing beachball! Further development is that when I hit 'Get Mail', the 'Checking for Mail...' message bottom left seems to be 'hanging', e.g., it's been at that status for 10 minutes now. Appreciate your help.

Dec 24, 2021 2:52 AM in response to stevewhitemd

Thanks @stevewhitemd. That has identified - as you suspected! - that iCloud is the culprit. A bit more investigation leads me to think that it is a message 'being sent' that is clogging things up; when I open Mail with all accounts enabled and online (checked via Connection Doctor), things seem to grind to a halt and bottom left shows 'Sending Message...46kb' and that stays there for hours. When I then try to, say, compose a new email I get the beachball, and then when I try to quit Mail, I get no response so have to use Force Quit. The trouble is that now we don't seem to have an Outbox any more, I cannot identify what the message is, nor how to get rid of it from the 'queue', or whatever the equivalent is. I'm too late to ask Santa for a new Mail system(!), so any ideas would be gratefully received. (And do have a very happy Christmas btw!)

Dec 24, 2021 2:09 PM in response to dest60

Hello and thanks @dest60. I think the Outbox only appears when you have something in there. In considering this and thinking about when I noted the problem (just after I updated my work computer to 12.1 but now appearing on my other two computers with 12.0.1), I wondered if I had a bad message or something. So I used the iCloud mail web browser to go through all my files and see if I had any mail that might be 'bad'. I've deleted a bunch that didn't seem essential even if I couldn't tell (I generally save too much stuff). So far that hasn't helped. I've also done the usual to delete the 'envelope' files in the V9 folder of ~/Library/Mail, forcing Mac Mail to reindex, to delete the mail container in ~/Library/Containers, and delete the mail plist in ~/Library/Preference. Also no joy yet.

Dec 27, 2021 2:48 AM in response to stevewhitemd

Success!! Took iCloud account offline in Mail, went to my iCloud emails in my web browser and deleted all Junk, Bin and Draft items. Logged off, put iCloud back online in Mail and Hey Presto!, messages downloaded quickly, no hanging Sent item, and all now working as it should be. Didn't have to delete any Library files (thank goodness - that sort of thing makes me very nervous!). Thanks again @stevewhitemd for your suggestions - just a shame the above steps haven't worked for you thus far; I wish you luck.

Dec 27, 2021 1:54 PM in response to dest60

@dest60 -- good to hear this. I ended up doing much the same using the iCloud web browser, but I also deleted Envelope files, etc. so I'm not sure what the magic elixir was. However, as of yesterday everything started working again. Perhaps a bad message or junk mail, perhaps a bad envelope file, or perhaps Apple fixed something on their end.


Thanks for your help!

Mac Mail not responding after Monterey 12.1 update

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