Apple Mail started crashing when a gmail account is opened.

eston176 wrote:

Jack,

My Apple Mail is back online. I had to update my OS from El Capitan (10.11.x) to Sierra (10.12.2?). After the complete install, I took a chance and clicked on the Apple Mail icon and then, viola! all 39,290 emails loaded up. I am now reconnected Gmail through Apple Mail.

So I guess the lesson is, go to the OS update page and try to find the latest OS that one's particular iMac will accept, and then, poor yourself a cup of coffee (or tea) and go through the entire install and upgrade steps. It will be sooooo worth it!

Thanks again.

Eston

You're welcome!

Actually, any Mac that can run macOS Sierra can also be upgraded to macOS High Sierra, which is one-step newer. If you'd like, you could upgrade to this: How to download macOS - Apple Support.

Jack

Good news! You can upgrade to macOS High Sierra to avoid the compatibility issue completely.

Get macOS High Sierra here:

How to download macOS - Apple Support.

Jack

Jack,

My Apple Mail is back online. I had to update my OS from El Capitan (10.11.x) to Sierra (10.12.2?). After the complete install, I took a chance and clicked on the Apple Mail icon and then, viola! all 39,290 emails loaded up. I am now reconnected Gmail through Apple Mail.

So I guess the lesson is, go to the OS update page and try to find the latest OS that one's particular iMac will accept, and then, poor yourself a cup of coffee (or tea) and go through the entire install and upgrade steps. It will be sooooo worth it!

Thanks again.

Eston

Hello!

I had this same issue just a few days ago on my iMac running OS X El Capitan. The problem, for me at least, is that this older version of the Mac operating system isn't compatible modern email message(s) you may have in your Inbox. To fix this, I signed into my Mail provider's online mail interface (since I have iCloud mail, I went to https://www.icloud.com/), and I moved all my email in my Inbox into a new mailbox folder I titled "Older Message [Date Range]". This solved the problem for me.

If this doesn't work for you, or it isn't feasible, you could always use your Mail provider's online mail interface full-time instead of Apple Mail. If you do this, I'd recommend using Google Chrome, since it's the most up-to-date and latest supported browser for OS X El Capitan.

However, if your Mac is new enough, you may be able to upgrade to a newer version of macOS and you won't have to worry about this issue. To see if you can, please respond with what year your Mac is:

Find the model and serial number of your Mac - Apple Support.

Jack

Jack, hi. This is a Mid-2011 27" iMac 12,2; i5. 2.7Ghz. I just install new ram so I'm now maxed out at 16 Gigs

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: iMac

  Model Identifier: iMac12,2

  Processor Name: Intel Core i5

  Processor Speed: 2.7 GHz

  Number of Processors: 1

  Total Number of Cores: 4

  L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

  L3 Cache: 6 MB

  Memory: 16 GB

  Boot ROM Version: IM121.004F.B00

  SMC Version (system): 1.72f5

Jack,

You made my day!! I shot you a glimpse of my OS and config, so after I get back from running to the store, I'll get right down to this. Now if I can just get my old iTunes collection off my wife's PC and her Apple Music/iTunes account, which we now share but under her name, then I will will be in absolute a very happy man. Btw, she took over my old apple music account and put it in her name when I went to prison 5 years ago. I've paid my debt to society and am now back and trying to catch up. The trick is, though, I'm in NJ and she's in NE, so the only work around we could come up with was downloading my purchased music and sticking it on a 256G thumb drive (It's so amazing how cheap these things are now!) and sending it to me... Unless we can figure out another method. We do share an iCloud account. What do you think?

Thanks.