In Mail, I can't get main message to show up

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Level 2

195 points

In Mail, I can't get main message to show up

This has happened before, but not often. I just reinstalled Mojave on a new SSD, and now when Mail comes up, there's no message below the list of entries. And there's no clear way of getting the message to show up. Trying to use the "expand" arrow should work, but doesn't. Earlier, I was told to Force Quit Mail a few times until it worked, but there isn't any Force Quit option in the Mail menu any more. Can anybody come up with a solution? In case this isn't a clear presentation, see the attached screenshot.

Mac Pro

Posted on Mar 17, 2022 5:51 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Mar 18, 2022 3:40 PM in response to Birck Cox

Start with this..

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes or more.

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

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

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Answer 2

Owl-53

Level 10

103,207 points

Mar 17, 2022 7:35 AM in response to Birck Cox

Been a long time since using Mojave so bear with me please.

It looks like you are using " Column View " ?

Somewhere is the View Menu there might be a show " Preview Pane " >> "Below " or " Side " ?

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Mar 19, 2022 1:46 PM in response to Birck Cox

Looks like in Mojave it;s at...

/Users/YourUsersName/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

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Answer 4

Owl-53

Level 10

103,207 points

Mar 18, 2022 3:16 AM in response to Birck Cox

If the " feature " was present before the drive was replaced and is now not there in current version - must ask, after the new installation on new drives was done, what Migration Assist sed to bring back all the Old Stuff ?

Issues that may exist on the previous installation of Mojave will be migrated to the New installation of Mojave . This would badly pollute the new Original and Pristine installation of the new OS.

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Answer 5

Owl-53

Level 10

103,207 points

Mar 18, 2022 6:52 AM in response to Birck Cox

Personally, not 100% comfortable with suggesting this method, so please wait a little longer for input from Contributor @BDAqua

There might be a Mail plist file that has been messed up or possible corrupted.

To remedy this would require removing the plist file which would be re-created anew once Mail Application is opened again.

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Answer 6

Birck Cox Author

Level 2

195 points

Mar 17, 2022 2:23 PM in response to Owl-53

I managed to get the message to show the old-fashioned way. That's by clicking and dragging over and over and over on the lower margin of the List of Messages. That was the only way I could get it to work before. Now, however, that seems to be the way it's going to be in every case. I really don't look forward to going through this every time I want to read an email. Would re-installing the OS be likely to bring it back to normal?

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Answer 7

Birck Cox Author

Level 2

195 points

Mar 18, 2022 5:07 AM in response to Owl-53

The problem, to call it by its rightful name, had happened on this computer a couple years ago, and once I managed to correct it, it stayed gone. That was at least two OS's ago. It hasn't happened in Mojave before now, March of 2022, but now it's more persistent than it was previously. I can't get rid of it. Even if I finally, after multiple attempts, get the complete message to show up, then I leave Mail, when I come back to the Mail interface, the problem is back too. Same story. That is something new.

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Answer 8

Birck Cox Author

Level 2

195 points

Mar 19, 2022 5:58 AM in response to BDAqua

I checked, and all the accounts are IMAP. I did a Rebuild on each account inbox, on Inbox and on Mail mailbox itself. Since there is no "com.apple.mail.plist", I went to the Go/Library/Mail folder, to V6, and found ten .plist files. I'm not sure that trashing all of them would be wise, so I left them as is. The problem persists.

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Answer 9

Birck Cox Author

Level 2

195 points

Mar 19, 2022 11:12 AM in response to Birck Cox

At this point, it has become a bit academic. When I first requested help, on Mar. 17, I was planning to get a new Mac. Since then I have ordered one, an M1 Mini, which is due on Monday. Plus, I switched this one (a 2012 Mac Pro) to boot from a different disc, and it turns out that the problems were native to the first boot disc, but not present on the current one. So thank you, P. Phillips and BDAqua, for offering potential solutions. We still don't know for sure, but it may be a hardware problem. Thank you.

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Answer 10

Birck Cox Author

Level 2

195 points

Mar 20, 2022 5:35 AM in response to BDAqua

That did it. Problem gone. From the obscure nature of that solution, I assume that getting into "Containers" is something Apple would prefer to keep to itself, rather than include it with the standard solutions to everyday problems. What is the overall purpose of the "Containers" folder? In any case, thank you for pointing it out.

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