Apple Mail Crashes after Ventura 13.2

Yes, Mail started crashing after I updated to Ventura 13.2. At first it would crash after about 10-15 seconds of use. I read that you should leave it running for a while and that might fix it. It seemed to at first. It didn't crash until about 2 minutes of use. I then read you could delete index files and that might fix it. I did that, and watched it rebuild the index files, and I was hopeful. After that it crashed immediately upon opening. Someone said they thought Cox was the problem and it is my ISP, and to delete and then reinstall the account. I deleted it, and sure enough, it no longer crashed (at least in the 10-15 minutes I had it open, but then, I had emails to touch or actions to do. Then I reinstalled my Cox account (which ended up taking an hour because of a password problem at Cox) and now it is back to crashing after I touch anything. I've got the client open and am just leaving it there to see what will happen next. This is the craziest problem I've ever had since switching to the Mac.

Hey there!

I think the cause of yours is different. For this, (As well as Ndrz’ issue), I’d try the steps I provided here:

*.pdf Could not be opened - It may be dam… - Apple Community

Cheers, hope that helps.

I finally noticed that there's a blank mail page covering the email list, when I minimize it, I can see my email once again. This blank page appears often with no input from me, Here's a screen shot of it,

The only live buttons are the gray minus and green plus, everything else is dead. This just appears out of nowhere! Bug.

Dear DiZoE,

Your solution works like a charm. I've reposted your solution in another thread as more and more people are experiencing this problem.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255044159?login=true&sortBy=best&answerId=260134525022

Thank you!

Just an update on my post above:

At the end of my workday yesterday, I decided to just leave Mail in its frozen state on my work computer (mac-mini with an intel chip) and see if it managed to fix itself ... and somehow (miraculously?) Mail works completely normally again 14 hours later. I have no explanation, just a suspicion that some background installation processes still needed to complete when the computer wasn't actively being used???

Otherwise, DiZoe's suggestion sounds like it has potential, too. Fortunately, I don't have to try it now.

My Mail crashes immediately when opening too. I reloaded the os from on-line, and that lasted about 45 seconds. I can boot to an older system on a 2nd drive, and mail there works fine. I can access my mail using webmail fine. The issue seems to be the mail app itself. This sucks.

I tried this, and it worked, until I got to Cox. As soon as I touched an email, it crashed. Interestingly, now it makes my dock disappear when it crashes. I've set up Outlook. No problems with Cox or anything else.

Millions of people have Cox accounts. I have some that I have maintained for years. Removing and then re-adding the accounts is not a fix, and I have people that I support, holding on updating to 13.2 because of this issue. Thank you for the suggestions, but Apple really needs to fix this. My guess is that it is a security incompatibility that they have introduced in the new version, but since the crashes are so clean, it is hard to determine precisely what is going on , and I am not a developer.

Here's some more troubleshooting info:

Console error message when launching Mail states(I have changed username for privacy purposes):

Failed to create import mailbox for /Users/*myusername*/Library/Mail/V10/0F1A78F1-778E-48B9-96B8-5EF6AEA6AD69/Import.mbox/Mail.mbox/V3.mbox/IMAP-*myusername*@imap.gmail.com.mbox/[Gmail].mbox, Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=260 "The file “mbox” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file." UserInfo={NSFilePath=/Users/*myusername*/Library/Mail/V10/0F1A78F1-778E-48B9-96B8-5EF6AEA6AD69/Import.mbox/Mail.mbox/V3.mbox/IMAP-*myusername*@imap.gmail.com.mbox/[Gmail].mbox/mbox, NSUnderlyingError=0x600001876280 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=2 "No such file or directory"}}

Another console message: Temporary data directory does not exist (likely due to being empty) <private>

Yellow dot error message for process Mail on Console:

Rolling back transaction on connection [<MFPersistenceDatabaseConnection_macOS: 0x6000030f01e0> isWriter: YES, SQL connection: <EFSQLConnection: 0x600005f041a0> sqlite handle: 0x7f9b7221e920]

The permissions on the Mail directory (/Users/myusername/Library/Mail):

drwx------@   6 myusername  staff    192 Feb 25 18:24 Mail

OK, I accidentally clicked the minus button (red, grey, green) after my mail disappeared, and it all reappeared. Now when it disappears, I just click that minus button to get it back.

Looks like a bug to me.

Mail is again misbehaving, so in spite of the reported bugs, I'm "upgrading" to os 13.3, probably another buggy Apple update. I miss "it just works"!

I spent the weekend talking with tech support from, apple and the mail app still crashes, this all happened when I upgraded it to the Ventura 13.2

Nobody seems to know what is going on, we tried everything from removing the accounts, hold shift, new user, you name it nothing works, I even want to get an old mac that will have the old operating system just so I can have the email access. I may have to look for a 2018 MacBook, because the iMac and the new apple studio are not working.

You are no doubt correct. I'm getting crashes on Outlook as well as Mail when accessing Cox emails. Considering the numerous problems I've had with Cox mail over the years, and some truly unhelpful tech support (not always, but enough), I'm willing to bet they own most of the blame. Still, it started with updating to Ventura 13.2. I just hope it doesn't take too long for a fix. Either way, I am planning an eventual move away from Cox to another primary email provider.

The "fixes" only fixes the problem for a short time. I carefully deleted all junk and advert mail using Cox webmail to delete. Apple mail stayed open about an hour and then closed. Nothing was being used or touched, just closed on it's own. Now it will not open at all...again. This is not cool Apple...or Cox! Get it fixed!

I only have one mail account. I've disabled/removed the account many times in the last few weeks. I have spent 6 plus hours on the phone with Apple tech level 1. So pretty much stuck with web mail until they get it fixed.