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Mela1987 Author

Level 1

29 points

Mail stops responding to mouse clicks in Lion

Since installing Mac OS 10.7 Lion, I am experiencing an intermittent problem in Mail. After running for a period of time (I have noticed this as short as ~15 minutes after launch, but usually 2-3 hours), Mail stops responding to mouse clicks in its window. I have noticed the following conditions:

- Mail gets stuck on whatever message was being displayed. Clicks on other messages in the message list or other mailboxes are not reconized. It is impossible to change focus on mail items with the mouse.

- Mouse clicks on the toolbar buttons or the buttons in the new capsule between the message headers and message body are not recognized.

- Mouse focus is recognized: e.g., moving mouse pointer over message headers or the capsule buttons will cause them to highlight or change color, but clicking has no effect.

- Keyboard still works, so pressing up or down arrow will bring up the next message in the message list and the preview pane changes to display the new message.

- Keyboard still works to activate Mail commands, i.e., all command key combos still work. Delete key will delete the selected message.

- Mouse still works for the menubar and menu commands. In full screen mode, moving the mouse to the top of the screen displays the menu, and all menus can be clicked on, activated, and selected. All menu commands work properly.

- If in full-screen mode, clicking on the full-screen toggle button in the top-right of window will return Mail to windowed-mode, but clicking on the same button while in windowed-mode will not return Mail to full-screen mode; the click is ignored.

- Quitting Mail and restarting makes the problem go away.

This happens on both my machines that have Lion:

1. Late 2007 21" iMac, 4GB RAM

2. Mid 2009 15" MacBook Pro, 8GB RAM

For all the above, you can substitute trackpad for mouse. The iMac uses Magic Mouse and the MacBook Pro uses either built-in trackpad or Magic Trackpad. The problems above happen with all pointing devices.

In my usual Mail setup I have 7 Mail Bundles active, but I have removed all Mail Bundles and the problem still occurs. For reference, the 7 Mail Bundles usually installed are:

Attachment Tamer.mailbundle

MailActOn.mailbundle

MailFollowUp.mailbundle

MailRecent.mailbundle

MailTags.mailbundle

DEVONMailConduit-SnowLeopard.mailbundle

OmniMailMessageServiceEnabler.mailbundle

Has anyone else seen this behavior? Does anyone have any ideas on possible cause or suggestions to resolve?

Thank you,

Drew

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 5, 2011 11:17 AM

70 replies

Aug 19, 2011 6:25 AM in response to danlandrum

Thanks. However, I don't have magic prefs...

Aug 19, 2011 6:32 AM in response to JohnOMalley

Do you have any other add on input device drivers? Now that I think about it, I might have uninstalled Microsoft and Kensington drivers the same day.

The only add-on input device driver I have installed now is for my Wacom tablet.

Aug 19, 2011 6:47 AM in response to danlandrum

No, I only have the track pad on the MBPro. I'm not a mouse person.

onebus

Level 1

4 points

Sep 1, 2011 1:39 AM in response to Mela1987

Same same, but different. I get allmost the precise behavior. In FS mode cklicking on the mailboxesmenu will no longer work. Closing an reinitialise FS mode brings back some of the mouseover behaviors but no real help.

Mail is like the most sick but iCal and Safari they can do it too…

no luck with resetting PRAM

I seamed to me that it started to happen after some Software installation (GrandTotal/TimeLog)

Any further Ideas?

Sep 4, 2011 12:40 PM in response to Mela1987

Happens to me too. Specifically on Mail and Calendar, and always when I shut down while they are full screen. They are both boot items, so at every boot they are unresponsive to mouse clicks. (but fully responsive to keyboard) This is a giant, giant bug - I use those every day and I started not to close my MB because of that hassle.

einord

Level 1

10 points

Sep 17, 2011 12:53 AM in response to Mela1987

Exactly the sam problem here aswell!

I've also noticed that it can happen when using the Terminal window in full screen for a while, almost as frequent as for Mail.

Really hope Apple sends us an update soon...

gcastell

Level 1

6 points

Sep 20, 2011 2:58 AM in response to einord

I have the same problem since I upgraded to Lion. Fortunely for me is only Mail but I am surprised Apple doesn't have a solution, maybe most people is OK with restarting Mail. 😟

glev1

Level 1

44 points

Sep 20, 2011 6:03 PM in response to gcastell

Have the sam eproblem - Mail, Screen sahring, Safari, VMWare and more. Or just one app running like Mial can cause the problem. Don't know how or why or when. Was hoping for a soluiton here. Ready to throw out the whole operating system.

I have an older MacBook Pro (Late 2007). Wonder if it is older machines or all machines?

Sep 26, 2011 8:41 AM in response to Mela1987

My Mail does the same thing except it shadowes itself. When this happens, the window becomes gray.

ciumeo

Level 1

0 points

Oct 14, 2011 2:21 AM in response to Mela1987

Same exact behavior for Mail here on my iMac 24". Hope devs are aware of this and do something to fix it, it's not a critical bug but still a very very annoying one. One thing i just noticed: if you click on the dock icon and hide mail, then unhide it, it starts working again.

BocaBoy

Level 1

88 points

Oct 17, 2011 6:26 AM in response to ciumeo

Add me to the list of people who are experiencing this issue. The problem for me is that about 25% of the time, the first click on a message in Mail is ignored. Clicking again will select it. My issue is limited to Mail.

I can tell you that this has been reported to engineering so we'll just have to await a fix in a future release. I was hoping it would be addressed in 10.7.2, but alas, it wasn't.

No, I don't work for Apple, so I really don't know more than I've written here.

anc77

Level 1

51 points

Oct 30, 2011 9:32 AM in response to Mela1987

On an iMac with Mighty Mouse... about 2 years old.. running 10.7.2

I have the problem or similar... started after the 10.7.1 update as I remember.

I start Mail, in the "new" view with three vertical panes that looks like an iPad in horiz mode (not the old "classic" one from Snow Leopard). I'll have a long list of emails. I'll click one and it shows up. Works fine for a while. Then after a while I will click an email and nothing happens. I click a second time, the email shows in the view pane.

Same on POP boxes and iMAC... Inbox as well as Trash and "saved" folders.

It is random!

I've tested this every which way and can't find anything to explain it. It is as though moving the mouse to an email in the list does not "register" as a "link" or something "clickable." And it is random! The second click always works. What I do find is that a quick double-click will open a new window and that works all the time.

I'm turned off the mouse and back on... no luck. I have not un-paird the Bluetooth device because I don't know how... or how to re connect it.

I don't have anything strange in the background that I can think of. I thought it might be some conflict with iChat, but it isn't.

I have no problem with ANY OTHER application... (Safari, Firefox, Chrome, NeoOffice, Address Book, etc.)

I've not done any hardware resets (PRAM) ect. as I'm not sure how.

Anyone have any ideas?

anc77

Level 1

51 points

Oct 30, 2011 10:28 AM in response to anc77

One thing that seems to work for a short while is to put iMac to sleep and wake it up again. On mine I have to press the on-off button on back to wake it. Keyboard or mouse won't... but that can be set in system pref as I remember.

anc77

Level 1

51 points

Oct 30, 2011 10:51 AM in response to Mela1987

I started another thread on this before I knew this one was available. No one answered mine:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3434769

anc77

Level 1

51 points

Oct 30, 2011 1:03 PM in response to anc77

One more thing. For the past hour I've been in "classic" view I find that the problem does not happen. All my mouse clicks are "heard." I go back to the "non-classic" view and after a while the problems appears where some emails show when clicked and others require a second click.

If you are having the click-not-responded-to issue, try using "classic" view (Mail, Preferences, Viewing and check "Use Classic layout".) See if you still have the problem. That may help narrow it down as to what is causing it.

Mail stops responding to mouse clicks in Lion