Apple Mail glitch

If Apple Mail on your Mac is flashing on and off and you're unable to stop it without using force quit, you can try the following troubleshooting steps:

1. Restart Mail: First, try restarting the Mail app. Close the Mail app if it's open, then reopen it from the Applications folder or the Dock.

2. Check for Software Updates: Ensure that your Mac's operating system and Mail app are up to date. Go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Software Update to check for any available updates.

3. Restart Your Mac: If restarting the Mail app doesn't resolve the issue, try restarting your Mac. Sometimes, a simple restart can resolve software glitches.

4. Check Mail Settings: Review your Mail settings to ensure there are no configurations causing the issue. Go to Mail > Preferences, and check settings related to accounts, notifications, and syncing.

5. Disable Mail Extensions: If you have any third-party Mail extensions installed, try disabling them temporarily to see if they are causing the issue. You can do this by going to Mail > Preferences > General > Manage Plug-ins.

6. Create a New User Account: If the issue persists, try creating a new user account on your Mac and see if the problem occurs there. This can help determine if the issue is specific to your user account.

7. Reset Mail Preferences: As a last resort, you can reset Mail preferences to their default settings. Keep in mind that this will reset all Mail settings to their defaults, so you may need to reconfigure your accounts and preferences afterward. To do this, quit Mail, then navigate to ~/Library/Preferences/ and move the com.apple.mail.plist file to the Desktop. When you reopen Mail, it will create a new preferences file.

If none of these steps resolve the issue, it's possible that there may be a deeper software or hardware problem with your Mac. In that case, contacting Apple Support or visiting an Apple Store for further assistance may be necessary.

For that Mac, before clicking on the Apple Mail icon to run it, hold down the <shift> ... then click on the Mail icon.

This will prevent the Mail app from loading any of its configured email accounts. Then with the Mail app now running, select Mail > Settings > Accounts. Then for each account, select it, then select the Account Information tab. Then deselect the "Enable this account" option. Do that for each of the accounts.

Now close the Mail app, and then, reopen it. Does it start up without flashing? If so, return to the same Accounts location, and enable one of your email accounts. Then shutdown the app, and then, reopen it. Still not flashing? If not, then enable each account until it starts flashing again. That would be the culprit.

Tesserax wrote:

For that Mac, before clicking on the Apple Mail icon to run it, hold down the <shift> ... then click on the Mail icon.

This will prevent the Mail app from loading any of its configured email accounts. Then with the Mail app now running, select Mail > Settings > Accounts. Then for each account, select it, then select the Account Information tab. Then deselect the "Enable this account" option. Do that for each of the accounts.

Cool! I didn't know about that.

Trust me, I learn about 100 new things from you for every one you may learn from me. ;)