Mail won't open after update

🙂

Kevin, thank you so much! I struggled with this for several hours yesterday, and spent some time reading through all of the suggested solutions. I am glad I skipped to the end and saw your post, it was so well written, easy to follow, and best of all, IT WORKED!!!!! Thanks again,

Abbiemo

You're sure welcome, Abbie!

Glad to have helped someone else out with this annoying Mail problem......

Happy Mac'in to ya, Abbie!
Kevin Kendall

<Edited by Host>

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the help and info.

I worked out a really easy way.

1. Move or Mail or Mail(original) and the new Mail 4.6 from Applications to Trash. Do not empty Trash or delete them. They may be needed again if things dont work.
2. Instal Mail from snow leopard install disk into Applications. It will be 4. ? less than .5
3. Re run SecUpd2012-004 either from where you down loaded it to or from apple updates site.
4. Restart computer and check if you have a new Mail file in Applications.
5. Check if mail opens.... if it does great. Empty Mail files from trash
6. If not try the complicated routes above.

Once I had it sorted in my head it took 10 mins to do it. But I could not have fathomed it without all the work from Kevin. Thanks Kevin great work.

It really is poor form on Apples part allowing this to happen and even continue to have the upgrade out there for several weeks knowing it does not work for Snow Leopard!

Regards

Ian Bracegirdle

Hi all

I still have one problem I have not been able to send from Mail since Nov 2011. I now realise that it must be the result of a previous update.

Any ideas?

Regards

Ian

No. It wouldn't have been the result of a previous update. This was the only one that had any effect on Mail. It is something else going on. Why don't you start a new topic and give more details.

ianbrace wrote:

Hi everyone. Thanks for all the help and info.

I worked out a really easy way.

1. Move or Mail or Mail(original) and the new Mail 4.6 from Applications to Trash. Do not empty Trash or delete them. They may be needed again if things dont work.
2. Instal Mail from snow leopard install disk into Applications. It will be 4. ? less than .5
3. Re run SecUpd2012-004 either from where you down loaded it to or from apple updates site.
4. Restart computer and check if you have a new Mail file in Applications.
5. Check if mail opens.... if it does great. Empty Mail files from trash
6. If not try the complicated routes above.

That's it, Ian, in a nutshell. You've got it.

Once I had it sorted in my head it took 10 mins to do it. But I could not have fathomed it without all the work from Kevin. Thanks Kevin great work.

Well THANK YOU, Ian!

The majority of my fixit texts tend to be long because many times instead of just saying "do this" or "do that" I like to tell people WHY they're "doing this" or "doing that." Most helpers on here don't do that, but I do. I like knowing that the reader(s) who's dealing with the problem has all or at least some idea of the "why" of what they're doing. That takes quite a lot more typing than the usual fixit response on here, usually.

It really is poor form on Apples part allowing this to happen and even continue to have the upgrade out there for several weeks knowing it does not work for Snow Leopard!

BINGO. 😠 Yeah. Reminds me of Microsoft's basic regard of its customers; i.e...... "DEAL WITH IT!"

Kinda strange about Apple & this particular Update snafu that occurred with lots & lots & lots of people....

But I hope their mostly ignorance of their customers' problems with this particular Update is not foreboding of more of the samesuch down the road. 😮 yikes.

Steve? Steve? Ya hear me Steve?? Little help here.....

Regards

Ian Bracegirdle

Couple of things which come immediately to my mind that could be causing that, Ian:

1. Your SMTP settings in your Mail account are not set correctly, and/or

2. You've got a Virtual Private Network (VPN) set up, or vestiges of an old one running in a background process that you thought you'd gotten rid of, keeping your Mail from sending messages out, though you can receive them through such a possible active VPN vestige. If you've got, or think you've got, such a VPN, try deactivating it.

I'd first check out your SMTP settings in the account that you get your mail in & out of in Mail though. Most likely cause.....

In Mail, click: "File => Preferences => Accounts [tab] => and then click on the name of your account that's you're not able to send from.

Then in that account's setting window, click on the "Account Information" button at top. Down at the bottom of that window you'll see "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)."

What do you see there?

Next, click on whatever words are showing there for that......

What do you see in the dropdown list when you click on those words?

In a reply, post the answers in here to those 2 questions of mine.

If your SMTP settings look ok as far as you know (and if you're at all doubtful of those settings, let us know that so that I / we don't bypass that possibility & erroneously go off on the wrong path!). *IF* you've got that account accessing mail through an IMAP server, try changing those settings that say something like "imap.mymail.com" to "pop.mymail.com" or "pop3.mymail.com" instead [goes w/o saying that I'm using the domain name "mymail.com" fictitiously here].

In a nutshell, an IMAP server lets you maninipulate your mail that's on your mail's server in real time; not so with the much more popular easier-to-access POP server mode. IMAP server settings are a bit more finniky and precise than POP server settings are.

Would like to know though Ian, is your email thru Google; i.e., is your address a GMail.com address?

If so, then that will likely greatly simplify fixing your problem, unless you're using a VPN or have an old VPN that's not quite all deactivated/eliminated, in which case either an IMAP or POP server's SMTP settings would likely be not part of or all of the problem.

Kevin Kendall

Hi Ian

Thanks for your simple schedule for the Mail problem. There is only one obstacle I have found.

When I try to move Mail to the Trash this little message comes up:

“Mail.app” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by Mac OS X."

It won't be moved, in short.

I am running ML and had no trouble with Mail under SL. Now Mail will not launch at all.

thanks

MV

You should be getting a message telling you to "authenticate," meaning to enter your admin password. Once you do that it will go to the Trash.

RE:

WZZZ wrote:

You should be getting a message telling you to "authenticate," meaning to enter your admin password. Once you do that it will go to the Trash.

My 2-cent addon to WZZZ's step, mvmarziale:

And then when you empty the Trash folder, you *might* get a message telling you that that file can't be permanently deleted.

If that happens, then use "Secure Empty Trash" to empty your Trash folder.

Hello Charlie--I'm reading your post--I did re-install Snow Leopard per the phone rep; however, I see per the blog that my Mail app is in a folder, and no wonder that re-install didn't work.

before I start, what is QT and VLC? I'm not cool on the terms, sorry--I badly need help and just about have a handle on it thanks to your posts.

How to get the folder into Applications---

I have Mail in both 4.2 and 4.5. Please advise if you get this, and thank you so much!

Texasrepublic --

Saw your post from yesterday, no answer from 007, thought I'd drop in & do a quick help out......

RE:

007Charlie wrote:

Bob-H

You're my HERO 🙂

After spending almost an hour with Apple phone support, the senior tech suggested a few solutions, one of them being reinstalling the system !!!

If not for you, that's probably what I would have done.

No one at Apple Updates was able to figure out that in fOS 10.6, users could displace Apple softs in other files (which you can't do anymore with newer OS).

Solution was simple enough

though QT still doesn't work but with VLC who cares ?

though Quicktime [Apple's media player] doesn't work but with VLC [VLC, a multi-multi format open source, multi-platform media player] who cares?

Thanks a mil...

We owe this update to those still having problems. Subsequently, just reinstalling the update did not work for us on some units. This, however, did:

1- move the generic icon Mail from Applications to the trash. Don't empty it yet.

2- click on the Mail labeled "original" in Applications and go to File->Get Info (or command-i)

3- unlock at the bottom with admin password

4- under Sharing & Permissions, change "everyone" to Read & Write", close window

5- now you should be able to rename original Mail to just "Mail" again at its icon in the Applications folder

6- After renaming it properly, leave it in the Applications folder, download and reinstall the security update

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1586

7- After a restart you should be good. at least it's working for us.😎

Steve Bilzi

Sr. Tech

Bilzi Mac Services

Wilmington, NC

Thank you so much WZZZ for taking the time to explain clearly how to resolve the problem with mail... This is my best Xmas present today! After having tried everything I could read about 'mail won't open after updates.." , I am lucky I saw your posts on the issue, and it worked... THANK YOU and best wishes. 🙂

That's great. You're welcome.