Mail MacOS Ventura 395 Gb free but Mail says not enough space available

I have 395 GB free of 8GB in my home folder on my Mac mini M2. This is running on a Crucial X8 SSD.

Attempting to use mail in Ventura I repeatedly get the message

"The Import Failed. An error occurred during the import Make sure you have available space in you home folder and try again"

!!

The "best" that has occurred after reboots has been a start to download the mail data which has quickly failed.

This is an infuriating failure - can someone please explain what causes this, how it occurs and, of course, how to fix it?

Thanks

TerryB

Mac mini, macOS 10.14

Posted on Nov 24, 2023 9:04 AM

Reply
7 replies

Nov 24, 2023 11:34 AM in response to Terry Q Brinkworth

Terry Q Brinkworth wrote:

I have 395 GB free of 8GB in my home folder on my Mac mini M2.

Is 8GB a typo? Did you mean 8TB?


Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.


NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files


NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.


Nov 29, 2023 4:39 AM in response to Terry Q Brinkworth

Terry Q Brinkworth wrote:

there’s nothing like 20/20 hindsight is there?

There's the next best thing - correcting problems.


At a bare minimum, you need to erase that drive and start over. Then, you can decide what level of pain you want to inflict upon yourself.

1) Least painful. Setup computer with default settings using internal boot drive. Store large files on the external. If necessary, you can move your Photos library, and maybe your Music library to the external too.

2) Moderate pain. You can enable ownership on the external drive and use it to store your entire home directory. You will need a backup user account that is stored internally for when the external flakes out and takes all your data with it.

3) Most pain. You've done some of this already. You would just need to do it correctly. Setup your external as the boot volume, but don't do any extra partitioning on it. Just let the OS do what it wants.


Any option above will definitively solve the problem. Option 1 provides the best performance, most reliability, most daily annoyance. Option 2 is good performance, good reliability, and relatively little daily annoyance. Option 3 is worst performance, worst reliability, and least daily annoyance. Choose your poison. Decide later whether the hassles were worth the money saved in the long run.

Nov 27, 2023 8:08 AM in response to Old Toad

Hello Old Toad and thank you for your reply.


As you guessed my Crucial X8 SSD has 1TB available which I have partitioned to 2 * 500GB, I partition of which is for the system and 500GB for data.

Only 266.83 GB is now available on the system.


I have tried Mail in Safe mode and still it fails! I find it interesting (but only intellectually!) that if I hit "quit" when it fails and try again, on the 4th attempt in one test it managed to load just under a third of the mail before punting.


Ventura is supposed to be a "mature system isn't it which makes me wonder it it's related to the M2 chip in some way?


Still, it's amazing how frustrating not being able to get one's mail can be!


Incidentally, I use a wired keyboard but thanks for checking.


Any further ideas please before I tear what is left of my hair out?


TerryB


PS I went Apple in 2004 when Steve J said that "it just works": maybe he was holding it all together because it seems to be lot more troublesome now :-(

TerryB




Nov 28, 2023 8:13 AM in response to Terry Q Brinkworth

An update:

I have tried many times now on Ventura from that SSD with the same results as mentioned above.

I have even re-installed Ventura OS and with exception of getting about 1/3rd of the way before punting on the first attempt and failing thereafter.

So I went back to Sonoma on my Macintosh HD (which has even less available space the SSD) and everything worked. Grrr!


TerryB



Nov 28, 2023 9:22 AM in response to Terry Q Brinkworth

Terry Q Brinkworth wrote:

As you guessed my Crucial X8 SSD has 1TB available which I have partitioned to 2 * 500GB, I partition of which is for the system and 500GB for data.

Don't ever do that.


In fact, you are doing two things you shouldn't ever do. Your Mac mini has a hard drive about 4 times faster than yourCrucial X8 SSD. Why spend money, then spend even more money, to make your computer run slower?


The system already does its own partitioning. All you are doing is making your life difficult.

PS I went Apple in 2004 when Steve J said that "it just works": maybe he was holding it all together because it seems to be lot more troublesome now :-(

That doesn't apply when users are actively trying to fight the system at every turn.

Nov 29, 2023 2:11 AM in response to etresoft

I thoroughly agree. My problem was that i had gone from an older mac mini with lrger RAM and disc to this M2 which has a barely adequate boot drive size for my requirements. Perhaps if i had realised what i was up against i might have saved up a bit more to get the ( much) more expensive larger drive : there’s nothing like 20/20 hindsight is there?

Mail MacOS Ventura 395 Gb free but Mail says not enough space available

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.