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cannot open mail receive message "Mail Quit Unexpectedly"

When I click on mail icon, it opens momentarily and then shuts down with messge "Mail Quit Unexpectedly"

MacBook Air 13″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Oct 4, 2023 10:39 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 4, 2023 7:47 PM

Press and hold a Shift key while launching Mail from Applications or the Dock. That action causes the Mail app to open with no message selected.


Release the Shift key when and if the Mail message viewer window opens and remains open.


In so doing you might be able to isolate the problem to a malformed message causing Mail to crash. If you are fortunate enough to find the problematic message, the ideal solution is to use the email account's webmail interface to delete it.


If Mail remains open long enough to not crash, you might try rebuilding Mailboxes according to Rebuild mailboxes in Mail on Mac - Apple Support. You can rebuild any Mailbox including Junk, Trash, Outbox, Sent, etc. You might as well rebuild all of them.


If nothing helps "Safe Mode" may be instructive: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support.


Be advised this problem will become increasingly frequent as OS X 10.11.x will be unable to cope with recent email message security protocols. If your Mac can be updated to a more recent macOS version, that's the way to fix it: Update macOS on Mac - Apple Support.


For reference: If you can’t send or receive email on your Mac - Apple Support

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 4, 2023 7:47 PM in response to comphelp1

Press and hold a Shift key while launching Mail from Applications or the Dock. That action causes the Mail app to open with no message selected.


Release the Shift key when and if the Mail message viewer window opens and remains open.


In so doing you might be able to isolate the problem to a malformed message causing Mail to crash. If you are fortunate enough to find the problematic message, the ideal solution is to use the email account's webmail interface to delete it.


If Mail remains open long enough to not crash, you might try rebuilding Mailboxes according to Rebuild mailboxes in Mail on Mac - Apple Support. You can rebuild any Mailbox including Junk, Trash, Outbox, Sent, etc. You might as well rebuild all of them.


If nothing helps "Safe Mode" may be instructive: How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support.


Be advised this problem will become increasingly frequent as OS X 10.11.x will be unable to cope with recent email message security protocols. If your Mac can be updated to a more recent macOS version, that's the way to fix it: Update macOS on Mac - Apple Support.


For reference: If you can’t send or receive email on your Mac - Apple Support

cannot open mail receive message "Mail Quit Unexpectedly"

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