apple mail getting an untitled window

Had the same problem on a 14" M1 MacBook Pro running macOS Ventura 13.1, and finally fixed it. Problem was being caused by ONE old unsent email in the outbox of one of my internet Mail accounts.

I was having blank, greyed out windows appeared over Mail that looked like an empty 'compose' mail window except that it was completely greyed out and I could not type in it or close it. I could resize it or minimize it, but it would never go away. The number of blank windows would vary - from 1-2 to 6-8 - without any clear reason why.

I tried all the usual fixes - force quit Mail; turned off my Mail internet accounts, rebooted, and turned them back on; rebuilt each internet account's mailbox; opened Mail w/ shift key pressed; deleted preferences files; ran laptop in safe mode; ran Disk Utility; even reinstalled Ventura OS - but nothing made the blank windows go away.

Called Apple Tech support and spent time with a senior tech diagnosing the problem and trying to fix it with no joy until the tech suggested we turn off accounts one at a time to see if that affected the number of blank windows (it did!) and then went looking into the outboxes of the internet mail accounts, especially the one that seemed to have the largest effect on the number of blank windows displayed. There was ONE old email (response to an event invitation) that had not been sent for some reason. Soon as we deleted that one outbox email and closed / opened Mail the problem was gone! The email had no attachments or large file size, was just a simple 'decline' to an event invitation that got stuck in the outbox.

I'm not yet certain the problem has been solved for good, but at least now I have a path to fix it without having to do a bunch of software reinstalls.

I hope this experience is helpful to others. I spent a lot of time trying to fix the problem and owe the solution to a diligent Apple tech support individual who kept looking until we found something just a little unusual that was causing the problem...

I found 2 unsent emails in the Mail outbox from about 5 days ago.

I deleted the 2 emails and the problem of multiple untitled windows stopped.

May be random, but worth trying.

Also, this started for me after upgrading to Ventura 13.0.1

I had this problem too. Force quitting the mail app / restarting the Mac will not solve the problem.

I eventually found out a marketing email in my deleted (Bin) folder was causing the issue, as soon as I cleared out the Bin folder all of these open "untitled" windows closed automatically.

So (for me) it was a marketing mail trying and failing to open a pop-up that caused the issue, not a bug in Apple Mail.

Hi,

I had the same issue and realise I tried to send a large mail attach earlier.

I went in Mailbox > Outbox and deleted all unsend mail and the window stop popping up.

I hope this help.

I had the same issue today. After removing the image in the email to be sent I got a message window instead of the untitled window that revealed the reason: One of the recipients was no longer available and their email address is no longer valid on the receiving server.

So I removed the recipient that no longer existed and the email went through. Restarted the Mail app and the untitled window no longer appeared.

Send your email then check your outboxes for any old unsent emails still stuck in the outbox. Delete them. Close then restart Mac Mail and you may find that your blank window problem goes away. That's what fixed it for me (and for others above.)

I was struggling with the same issue. Rebooting my MacBook did not help. Deleting Mail accounts did not help. Then I noticed a message stuck in the Outbox. After deleting that message problem went away.

Look in the pane on the left for mailboxes that are "On my Mac", then look for the Outbox.

You should see one stuck email there. Delete that.

Should fix you right up

I figured out how to delete the messages that were stuck in the outbox. I clicked on the outbox and then I deleted them from list preview.

The untitled mail window has disappeare, at least for the moment.

Macbook air, Apple M1 chip, Ventura 13.1 - same thing.

It seems to be linked to an email sitting in the outbox (which I will often have with several accounts for several different consulting clients). Yes removing that (or after it sends) then closing and reopening mail does fix it, but it has never happened before and frankly should not happen.

Is it Drafts stuck in the outbox?

Setting it to an On My Mac Drafts box generally cures it if you don't need Drafts sent to other devices.

Try setting to an On My Mac Box.

Click on the Drafts Mailbox...

Hi vj1967,

Does restarting your Mac help at all? This can sometimes resolve minor software issues. You can also try starting your Mac in safe mode to see if one of the startup items on your Mac is causing this. Here's how to do that:

"Start up your Intel-based Mac in safe mode

1. Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately press and hold the Shift key until you see the login window.
2. Log in to your Mac.
3. You might be asked to log in again.
4. On either the first or second login window, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar."

If you have a Mac with Apple Silicon or want to read the full context of the resource you can here: Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support

We hope this helps.

Take care.

Just empty your Outgoing mail box. Worked for me.