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umparrothead Author

Level 3

772 points

14.3 Mail.app - Corrupted/Garbled Text When Composing Messages

After updating to 14.3, I've noticed Mail.app messages (replies or new) will begin garbling and corrupting text display while you're writing (similar to writing in this field here). Usually when you've written a few paragraphs, the prior (or even current) text will garble with previous content, moving it around, erasing some, or even overlaying it with a previous paragraph.

Importantly, the text itself is not changed, as can be seen if you just ignore it and keep typing. However, if you stop and try to select the text, it cannot be grabbed, since it's not really there. It is a visual corruption only, but when you don't know what you have written, it's hard to confirm what's, well, written.

I've restarted, as well as reinstalled the OS with no change.

This is while Mail is in fullscreen and the message is using split-screen.

There clearly seems to be a text display bug (graphics or WebKit perhaps), but I'm trying to determine if it's just me or others are noticing it as well. I will also file a bug (Feedback Assistant) on the issue.

MacBook Air 13″

Posted on Jan 23, 2024 10:08 AM

Top-ranking reply

twiph

Level 1

28 points

Posted on Jan 26, 2024 5:45 AM

Yes, I am experiencing this very annoying problem when editing in Apple Mail. I have a new M3 Pro running the latest MacOS Sonoma 14.3. This had not occurred before the OS upgrade, a few days ago. I was worried that something was wrong with the M3 Pro hardware. However, I see other posts here that indicate the problem is not isolated to Apple Silicon, and seems to have surfaced right after the upgrade to MacOS 14.3.

And it seems to be isolated to Apple Mail so far. It makes it nearly impossible to compose longer e-mail messages. I may have to switch to another Mail app until Apple fixes this really bad bug.

Yes, it's in the display part of the code. I've found that I can force a redisplay to remove the garbled overwritten text by using the Mail Format tab, and then selecting either rich text or plain text, which forces a screen refresh to show all the typing I thought was lost. Otherwise, I can't see the text I'm typing!

It's actually horrible, making Apple mail message editing unusable. I'm ready to switch to MS Outlook to see if that helps.

Come on Apple! This is completely unacceptable. Fix the problem!

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Similar questions

140 replies

Feb 5, 2024 11:38 AM in response to umparrothead

This obviously needs fixing asap, but in my limited testing just now, I just needed to type ⌘-A (i.e., Select All) for the original text to be displayed again, allowing me to continue typing.

swsmac

Level 1

34 points

Feb 7, 2024 8:38 AM in response to Eric Lane

Any update...success with this? Apologies if I missed a post you may have placed here.

AaronA36

Level 1

21 points

Feb 7, 2024 9:16 AM in response to Ray Osborn

It's more than just "me too" it's adding another case outside of Mail where the issue can occur.

It's insane that such basic functionality can be fundamentally broken like this.

Feb 7, 2024 11:42 AM in response to Ray Osborn

Disagree.

Eric Lane

Level 1

116 points

Feb 8, 2024 11:35 AM in response to umparrothead

APPLE HAS THE UPDATE!

FYI: After support escalating my issue to lead, who then took system logs and screen record of the problem and escalated to engineering -- that support lead called 3 days ago and asked for a more detailed system log. 3 days later we have the update.

This is why I suggested everyone do what I did. Once engineering gets enough validated evidence of the issue, especially a simple one like this, there aren't any good reasons left to not fix it.

I'm also guessing Tim Cook's staff had some WTF moments with this issue and it got escalated very quickly.

Eric Lane

Level 1

116 points

Feb 8, 2024 8:58 PM in response to umparrothead

EVERYONE - the fix is out and it works. Check your software update.

swsmac

Level 1

34 points

Feb 9, 2024 5:11 AM in response to umparrothead

Yesterday afternoon upgraded to 14.3.1 and so far the problem appears to be fixed.

Feb 9, 2024 11:56 AM in response to swsmac

Sonoma 14.3.1, released today, contains a bug fix for: "Text may unexpectedly duplicate or overlap while typing". About time!

Feb 19, 2024 6:08 AM in response to umparrothead

I experience exactly the same issues. Is there a fix already, or any reply on behalf of apple?

umparrothead Author

Level 3

772 points

Jan 24, 2024 9:09 AM in response to Bobs7623---

Yes, that's it exactly. Are you on Apple Silicon or Intel, and which device? May as well start narrowing down causes.

Glad to know it's not a single machine issue; hopefully it's widespread enough that it'll get prompt attention and a fix.

I also noticed it happens when the message is floating as its own window, not just in fullscreen.

Are

umparrothead Author

Level 3

772 points

Jan 24, 2024 6:19 PM in response to Steve Allison-Bunnell

Thanks for sharing. So it's not limited to the M1, or to laptops, or even to macOS. Anyone seeing this issue with an Intel chip?

I'm really only doing Apple's troubleshooting for them to try and speed along a fix.

Jan 25, 2024 5:50 AM in response to umparrothead

Yes, I have this too on an M1 iMac and M3 MacBook Pro. Its very annoying. Im also seeing it duplicate the same sentences in the body of the text and garble things if you change the font setting eg regular to bold.

The other thing Ive noticed is there might be a similar sort of issue in Notes - I had a table I was working on that went very awry

umparrothead Author

Level 3

772 points

Jan 25, 2024 7:20 AM in response to My_Monster_G5

Yes, agreed. Something about text wrapping. I've never seen it happen with just one line typed.

Since it happens primarily in Mail, but also potentially in other apps, it's likely a macOS issue. I have no add-ons or extensions running in Mail, and only have few 3rd party apps installed (Office 2021, Firefox, Zoom, etc.).

umparrothead Author

Level 3

772 points

Jan 25, 2024 8:36 AM in response to Steve Allison-Bunnell

FYI: The text itself isn't going anywhere, just the appearance is getting corrupted. You don't need to Undo or rewrite anything; just keep typing and it will fix itself temporarily. Even if you just write testtesttesttest when it happens (talk about annoying), you'll be able to preserve what you already have.

umparrothead Author

Level 3

772 points

Jan 25, 2024 9:52 AM in response to DogsMakeMeLaugh

So it's not limited to Apple Silicon. That's hopefully helpful, since there's an even larger number of devices affected. Thanks for your input.

I've reported it under Apple Feedback FB13557502, if anyone wants to reference.

14.3 Mail.app - Corrupted/Garbled Text When Composing Messages