Constant stream of sandboxd Mail error messages in Console

Yep, I can confirm Matthew's suggestion solved the problem for me as well.

I've checked this system-level preferneces file for Mail through XCode and found no specific settings in it, so I removed it and everything is fine now.

I also have an upgrade from Lion on my machine - Apple's installation procedure obviously forgot to delete this file, which should probably no longer be accessed by sandboxed Mail app.

Problem solved removing the file. Tnx to Matthew....

But now.. the question is... How to clean your mac, removing unused preferences files?

Confirmed as well here.

Hi Matthew,

I seem to have a strange issue with mine in that I dont have a com.apple.mail.plist file ?

Is there away of getting mail to recreate the file ?

Thanks in advance - I am having the same issue BTW.

Mick

Sorry ammend that - I have just found the correct libary file !

Thanks

Mick

Matthew Connolly3's solution solved the problem on my Mac as well.

To help other's find this solution, here is a sort of generic error message I was getting in Console:

sandboxd : Mail deny file-read-data /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

The solution is to delete the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist in the Library folder on your harddrive (not the Library in your user folder; although I deleted the user~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file first and it had no impact on the error)

thanks. worked!

Mr Picasso wrote:

Matthew Connolly3's solution solved the problem on my Mac as well.

[snip]

The solution is to delete the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist in the Library folder on your harddrive (not the Library in your user folder; although I deleted the user~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file first and it had no impact on the error)

@Mr Picasso: You're a genius. That small fact -- the main folder not the user folder -- had eluded me. I kept trying everything, to no avail. Now, in three seconds, all is fixed. Many thanks.

I have this same problem. My Mail app stopped communicating with Gmail's SMTP server, and I checked Console and found these same logs. I have wasted a whole evening trying to figure this out. I don't have the 100% CPU problem though.

Thanks Matt, I had the same problem but it was happening every 3-5 seconds. renaming the plist file stopped the messages. This was an upgrade to Mountain Lion from Lion. Which, also, was a clean install but TM restore from Snow Lepoard. I also had a lock file in there that I removed.

Deleting com.apple.mail.plist solved my problem as well. Thank you very much.

Does anybody have any suggestions to why I don't have that file; com.apple.mail.plist

It's not in the root directory/library/preferences nor in my home folder...?

In Finder select in GO --> Go to Folder and type

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/

you will fine the com.apple.mail.plist there.