Mail Showing Columns that did not appear before and I can't hide them

I'm having the same problem this morning. My Mail program was left open and wasn't getting new mail, so I restarted it and that's when all the extra columns appeared, including a Message Viewed column with '69 dates. I just force quit Mail and restarted and now it's as it should be again.

Nothing of the sort displaying here. What version of OSX and Mail do you currently have running? If 10.6.6, then should be Mail 4.4 (1082), or if the new 10.6.7, then Mail 4.5 (1084).

More info, please.

Ernie

Did you have any plugins or apps for enhancing Mail installed?

Ernie

I am running Mail 4.4 (1082) on 10.6.6, and I just started to see unusual behavior in Mail as well. I saw what seemed to be the entire set of fields (author, date saved, date sent, date received, etc.) in my Message Viewer window after a restart yesterday. I had to do a force quit, which seemed to correct the problem.

However, I still have Mail stability problems. When I try to collapse a thread (by pressing the left arrow key), the entire list view goes blank. I can click on other mailboxes, and get my total count and unread counts updated in the title bar, but I can no longer see any items in the list view... it's completely blank. The only way to correct the view is to force quit and reopen. I seem to be able to replicate this issue by expanding a thread, and then trying to collapse it again.

I am connecting to a corporate Exchange Server through IMAP, and I have a large set of emails (350MB between my inbox and sent items, not including my local mailboxes). I thought it may be my mailbox size, but I saw this thread... and this just started happening in the past day or two for me as well.

I forgot to mention: no plugins or enhancement apps. This is a plain vanilla Mail app.

Message was edited by: Pete O - San Jose

Hi lmdoc50,

I'm the developer of Mail Attachments Iconizer (now Attachment Tamer). The current mechanism for plug-in compatibility in Apple Mail works this way: Every time there is a significant update to Mail (or the underliying Message framework) plug-ins must explicitly state compatibility with that new version, otherwise they are deemed incompatible by Mail and disabled.

So if Mail tells you that some plug-ins are incompatible, and hence disabled, it doesn't mean that the plug-in was incompatible before or that any actual problems were detected. Additionaly, disabled plug-ins do not have any effect on Mail. In other words, plug-ins that are "incompatible", are immediately disabled, and cannot cause problems. There's also no need to forcibly quit anything.

Responsible developers use access to pre-release versions of Mac OS X to keep their plug-ins up to date and provide new versions in time. Attachment Tamer 3.0, which is compatible with Mac OS X 10.6.7 was released March 7. It's a free update.

Of course even "compatible" plug-ins may contain bugs like any other software, so the best practice is to keep them up-to-date (using automated update checking if available), and contact the developer if you have problems. I'll be glad to help you with any issues you have with my software.

I would never use either of those plugins, but I still would fully expect them to work if procedures outlined by Adam are followed by all developers. However, it is hard to pinpoint what unexpected action might corrupt the preferences, which clearly seems to have happened.

For Adam -- mutual contacts have suggested that you and I might exchange views on occasion, and if you are willing, my email address can be found in my Profile that results from clicking on my name.

If I sometimes express disdain for Attachment Tamer, it is because I see no need for it if you know how to send most optimally, and is not directed at the skill with which the application is constructed, nor its intended purpose. I would not install it, because I always, in every case, want View in Place to allow me to confirm what I have attached.

Ernie

JoyceD wrote:
I'm having the same problem this morning. My Mail program was left open and wasn't getting new mail, so I restarted it and that's when all the extra columns appeared, including a Message Viewed column with '69 dates. I just force quit Mail and restarted and now it's as it should be again.

That sometimes happens in Apple Mail. You usually have to Force Quit because the actual Quit menu option will be conveniently disabled. It doesn't happen often, but it isn't a sign that you have done anything wrong or that there is any way to fix it.