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Mountain Lion: Mail uses 100% cpu

Since the update to Mountain Lion Mail uses always more than 80% of cpu as long as it is running. Has anyone a solution?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Jul 29, 2012 6:37 AM

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Posted on Jul 29, 2012 7:10 AM

Same problem here. Installed ML yesterday morning, and machine has been running ever since. Mail hovers around 100% CPU. Have closed mail, restarted computer - no change.

39 replies

Jul 29, 2012 7:08 AM in response to jbeir

Might have fixed it. I had an old email account I was keeping around just to save old messages, but the mail server no longer exists. I temporarily disabled this account and CPU usage seems to be normal. I can re-enable to get access to old mail, but that's kind of a pain - but at least I think it solves my CPU problem.

Jul 29, 2012 7:25 AM in response to softwater

my console says


29/07/2012 15:08:54.934 Mail[43196]: Using V2 Layout

29/07/2012 15:09:25.976 Mail[43196]: [<_LibSasl2SASLClient: 0x7f821074fd50> mechanism: PLAIN security layer: no] Failed to start the SASL connection

SASL(-1): generic failure:

29/07/2012 15:09:26.394 Mail[43196]: [<_LibSasl2SASLClient: 0x7f82106b0e20> mechanism: PLAIN security layer: no] Failed to start the SASL connection

SASL(-1): generic failure:

29/07/2012 15:09:26.474 Mail[43196]: [<_LibSasl2SASLClient: 0x7f820aa99640> mechanism: PLAIN security layer: no] Failed to start the SASL connection

SASL(-1): generic failure:

29/07/2012 15:19:25.996 Mail[43196]: [<_LibSasl2SASLClient: 0x7f82116aa420> mechanism: PLAIN security layer: no] Failed to start the SASL connection

SASL(-1): generic failure:

29/07/2012 15:19:26.141 Mail[43196]: [<_LibSasl2SASLClient: 0x7f821169ccd0> mechanism: PLAIN security layer: no] Failed to start the SASL connection

SASL(-1): generic failure:

29/07/2012 15:19:26.144 Mail[43196]: [<_LibSasl2SASLClient: 0x7f821169ccd0> mechanism: PLAIN security layer: no] Failed to start the SASL connection

SASL(-1): generic failure:

29/07/2012 15:19:26.157 Mail[43196]: [<_LibSasl2SASLClient: 0x7f8210d842c0> mechanism: PLAIN security layer: no] Failed to start the SASL connection

SASL(-1): generic failure:

Jul 29, 2012 8:02 AM in response to sebvol

Go to


Mail > Preferences > Accounts | Account Information


Questions:


1. What does it say under 'Outgoing Mail Server'?


2. Is the 'Use only this server' box checked or unchecked?


3. Click on the drop-down menu. What are the choices?


4. In that menu, click 'Edit SMTP Server List', click the 'Advanced' tab, is there anything mentioning SASL?


5. Is 'Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) checked or unchecked?


From your console post, I would be looking for something mentioning SASL and trying to disable it in favour of SSL.

Jul 30, 2012 7:39 AM in response to sebvol

I had the same problem with Mail, even after disabling some accounts that from my work location were unreachable. In addition, I noticed that the 'sandboxd' process was also consuming a lot of CPU. On a hunch I decided to change the "Allow Applications Downloaded From" setting in the Security & Privacy control panel to "Anywhere", and that seemed to fix the problem. UPDATE: re-enabled the unreachable Mail accounts, and CPU shot back up. Disappointing.

Jul 30, 2012 3:53 PM in response to tobyfromgarland

I am experiencing this issue when I am at work and behind a secure firewall that blocks the ports to Gmail and iCloud mail. I launch the mail app and it constantly is trying to ping the Gmail and iCloud servers even though it can't get through. Get New Mail setting on Manual check, disabling the accounts brings the CPU usage down to normal, but it's annoying to have to disable and re-enable 4 accounts when I am moving locations.


I hope this gets paid attention to - I love Mountain Lion, just not this!!

Aug 2, 2012 11:13 AM in response to geordiskywalker

I have the same issue - and it is clearly related to having multiple accounts - some of which cannot be accessed from behind a firewall or other corporate type filtering device. I have an Exchange account (business) an icloud account and a gmail account (both personal). When I am on the company network (wired OR wireless), Mail's CPU utilization is consistently between 85 and 125%, and the macbook pro heats up, and the fans start humming - then I start getting erratic behavior like the search function not working properly in Mail, or it freezes temporarily, etc). If I switch to a wireless hotspot that is not on the company network, Mail's CPU utilization plummets to anywhere from .1 to 15%, and the macbook pro operates normally as expected.


So - clearly Mail is freaking out when there are mailboxes that are inaccessible.


This is extremely annoying and needs to be fixed. It is hard to believe that Mountain Lion got released with such a glaring bug.

Sep 16, 2012 12:17 AM in response to sebvol

I can also confirm this.


When at the office behind a proxy, Mail CPU usage shoots up over 100%. It does not help to disable (take offline) the accounts, CPU remains high. Restarting Mail also does not help.


When at home or using 3G Mail works normally.


This issue is forcing me to use the web interface for my exchange account, but worse, on one of the POP accounts I cannot receive mail, which I need.


At the moment I'm holding off setting up Outlook for mac. I only have 8GB RAM (which I use all of it most of the time) and cannot afford to have both mail apps running, which means I'll have to migrate all mail accounts to Outlook if this issue is not resolved.


Does anyone know if a bug report has been logged yet?


(I have an early 2011 MBP with ML 10.8.1 and Mail 6.0 with 2 imap and 2 pop accounts.)

Sep 16, 2012 4:10 AM in response to PollieKrismis

Hi there. Instead of disabling the faulty Exchange account, I can go to Mail, Preferences and disable the auto-discovery service. With this option activated, Mountain Lion will raise continously a "com.apple.dock.extra[280] : Could not replace account with identifier: <hexa number>" error message (seen on Console). This causes the Mail's cpu problem (at least in my Mac).


Cheers!

Mountain Lion: Mail uses 100% cpu

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