Mail is Slow and lagging.

However, a few hours later, I had 10 more emails. The first few showed the messages, and the rest did not, and then even the first few disappeared. There was a 2-minute delay before all the messages showed.

So CMMX is not the answer to this problem.

However, CMMX does have some interesting information about Mail.

There are the two Mail-related tools under CMMX’s Cleanup and Speed modules. I typed them as they do not copy and paste.

1

Cleanup -> Mail Attachments

Removes local copies of email downloads and attachments.

Saves local disk space – Removes email attachments as they remain accessible via inbox. 

Optimizes local mail data – Your email won’t be storing hundreds of company logos and other minor attachments.

2

Speed -> Maintenance -> Speed Up Email [Ed. This is one of 8 tools under Speed.]

Re-indexes the envelope database of your Mail application to improve inbox performance and search speed. It is a safe and useful procedure that does not affect your emails in any way.

Usage recommendations:

Slow search within Mail application

Various mailboxes issues

Occasional use is recommended

Apple Mail does already offer Rebuilding and Re-indexing, which MacPaw describes in this article:

https://macpaw.com/how-to/rebuild-mailbox-mac

But Rebuilding must be done one mailbox at a time, and I have dozens. And Re-indexing involves going deep into ~/Library/Mail and finding and deleting certain Envelope Index files which Mail will then rebuild. All that scares me. 

It sounds like CMMX apparently automates Rebuilding and Re-indexing.  

I do not run antivirus on any of my computers, Mail is only acting like this on ONE of them, my iMac.

iPhone, no issues; MacBook Air, no issues and all systems are running current OS/IOS.

This issue is posted all over these forums and there have been no real answers or solutions offered. I called tech support and the agent scoffed at me stating that I had no issue because we could not recreate it in real time. Yet it is constant.

I hope someone figures out a solution, it is really annoying and time consuming....

An update for my Mail issues:

I have three Macs: Mac Mini M1, MacBook Air M1, 14" MacBook Pro M1 Max

Mail is setup identically on all three Macs.

Mail is very slow *only* on MBP M1 Max. I have three Mail accounts online in Mail: Apple, Gmail, xFinity

Mail is painfully slow on message list and view updates. It often will hang on updating views and message lists when switching from one account to another, sometimes minutes.

I discovered that while waiting for Mail to update, if I switch my application context to another app (Safari for example), then Mail immediately updates while I am in Safari. I go back to Mail and switch accounts, view and message list update hangs, go back to Safari and then Mail immediately updates.

For some reason switching to another application causes Mail to instantly update.

I have Mail on an iMac and MacBook Air. Both have the problem, with the iMac being the slowest/worst.

Switching to another app while waiting does not help.

Like me coming here now:

I saw Openthread's complete message in Mail, and followed the link here to Safari here to start this reply.

Looked back at Mail, and his message field was gone.

Looking back at Mail now, a couple of minutes later, his message field has re-appeared.

Great comments from everyone and obviously a real problem - referring to the last message here, I cannot help remembering that the vast majority of these problems really became worse with the advent of Monterrey whatever changed in the priorities etc of the operating system.

This issue continues to get worse.

Now Mail does not display more frequently when Mail is open or just opened. If I switch to another program and come back to Mail there is no display of message previews for up to two minutes.

I have begun keeping a speedtest window open and can confirm there are ZERO connectivity issues, my up and down speeds continue to register well over 300mbps. Add to that, my iPhone connects instantly while sitting here at my desk, I think that indicates it is not a server level issue either.

There is no real rhyme or reason to what is going on here, does ANYone have any answers?

thanks,

gordon

Thanks for confirming Gordon - the problem is definitely Mail as it operates within MacOS Monterey - this is just begging for a solution before everyone just leaves to other mail management systems ... or maybe that is what Apple wants;-)

I have been having the same problems as described here, have re-installed the system on both iMac and MacBook Pro from scratch (one at the Apple Store) but still the mail program fails to download the text of the message into the preview pane at all, or only very very slowly eventually fills in. Meantime, I see the message "downloading" on the lower left hand corner.

Interestingly, another sending mail issue (outgoing mail server list corrupted), seemed to be fixed after the last update of the system. But the slow mail problem persists.

The only workaround I have found is to access our business mail through the web-based interface. Not great as I have multiple e-mail accounts, but at least I see the messages timely.

For my iMac, the problem does not seem to be in downloading.

I see the headers immediately, and even a few of the messages, with time to read one or two. Then all the message fields go blank. Even old messages in other folders, long since read, go blank. After a few minutes, all the messages, new and old, reappear.

Since the problem affects old messages stored in Mail folders on my hard drive, I don't think it is related to downloading.

Another odd problem with Mail is the launch time. The Mail icon in the Dock does not bounce, but immediately shows the black dot indicating that the applications running. However, Mail does not appear in the Menu Bar, and when the cursor is moved over the Menu Bar, it becomes a spinning beach ball. It takes a couple of minutes for the Mail Viewer Window to appear, with its blank messages.

I use Spam Sieve, and have perhaps an unusually large number of Mail folders. If wonder if all this is slowing Mail.

Spam Sieve has been deactivating and reactivating itself lately, which I do not remember it always doing. And although I manage (empty) the Mail Inboxes several times a day, I do have over a hundred (countless) Mail folders and subfolders of saved messages, with some going back 20 years.

It's driving me crazy, not only does it take forever to download, but in order to read the emails, I often have to "forward" it just to see what's there until it takes its sweet time finally showing up. I've never had this problem until I bought a new Mac in 2020 or 2021

Problem persists. I upgraded to Montery 12.6 and the issue went away for 1 day, now it's back.

Also, I have CleanMyMac installed, OldToad asked this...I wonder if that is part of the problem. I will uninstall and check.

Actually I may have spoken too soon.

Since deleting CleanMyMac fully - the problem is not nearly as bad.

My inbox is currently loading in 2 seconds, much improved.

I will see how it's looking and will report back in a day or so.

thanks

Monterey 12.6

I have NOTHING additional installed. I have also tried turning on and off every option I can think of in Mail/preferences none of that is any help.

I open Mail and wait, wait, wait for messages to load. Sometimes they appear right away but then disappear and again, I wait. This problem is posted all over this forum under many different headings. It is driving me to the point of insanity.

I finally reinstalled my OS, no help.

Nothing works, there appears to be no solution.