Mac mail messages appear blank

Question

Mac mail messages appear blank

A couple of months ago I started having this problem where the content of certain email messages appeared blank in my Mac Mail browser. The subject would show up, but none of the content of the mail (although occasionally attachments do arrive, without any accompanying text). The weird thing is, the problem seems to be getting worse. It used to be just one or two emails per week, usually those sent to a list; now it's three or four per day, at least, including those from people/sites that showed up a week ago.

Note: I can see the messages fine in iOS mail and when I forward them to myself from iOS, I can then read them on my laptop. It's a workaround, but a pain in the axe, too.

Based on previous threads I've tried checking and unchecking the "Protect Mail Activity" box in Mail-->Preferences-->Privacy. That seems to have no effect. I've also tried "rebuilding" the mail boxes. That didn't help, and may have been what made it worse.

Other suggestions? Please? Anyone?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 13, 2022 6:13 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

PRP_53

Level 10

85,435 points

Jun 24, 2022 6:24 AM in response to JonathanPeace

1 - Restart in Safe Mode. This will perform a Disk Repair, clear cache files and only load Apple Software, extensions and fonts. The boot up will be slow and can take some time - Normal.

2 - Does the issue present in this mode ?

3 - Sometimes a Safe Boot followed by a Normal Boot will just put things right.

4 - If not - there could be something in the main User Account playing up. To further isolate this - Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac. Then log out of the Main User account and log into the dummy account and test again if the issue persists.

5 - If the issue is present in the dummy account - then, this appears to be a System Wide issue on the computer.

6 - Understand, we are all working Remotely from all around the world.

7 - Therefore, we do not have the On-Hands experience the User ( you ) has with this computer.

8 - The next best thing for us to having an actual On-Hand experience on this computer is to follow the steps below

9 - Download the Application Etrecheck directly from a well Respected ASC Contributor. And Safe to use.

The application is free or paid from added features.

Run the application with Full Disc Access ( Security & Privacy - Full Disc Access ).

It will take a Snap Shot - both the hardware and software.

The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information.

Post back the Full Report - copy and paste - using the Additional Text Icon ( 3rd Icon to last )

We can have a look at the report for possible issues and may have possible suggestions to resolve the issues.

Reply

Answer 2

PRP_53

Level 10

85,435 points

Jun 13, 2022 6:25 AM in response to JonathanPeace

Any of the below should be removed as per Developers Instructions

This will include CleanMyMac , This will include BitDefender ,

This will included Norton Antivirus , Sophos Av Software

Intego AntiVirus, McAfee, MacKeeper, Avast AntiVirus

Ad Guard, Webroot , ESET

The The Built in Security is all that is required.

Reply

Answer 3

Jun 24, 2022 6:06 AM in response to PRP_53

I did indeed have Thor Antivirus loaded and I got rid of it. That seemed to fix the problem for a while. But now it has re-emerged, oddly, and I don't have any antivirus apps on my machine. What's strange is the inconsistency: One google news alert will show up blank, while the next one will be fine; one day Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter will appear as intended, the next it will be blank. Usually it's stuff from mailing lists, but not always. Sometimes the attachments will appear fine, but the text message will be blank.

Consider me befuddled.

Reply

Mac mail messages appear blank

Similar questions