Mail won't open after update

My need for a spoon-fed solution was provided by a "senior" support person at Apple. It took nearly 15 minutes and I couldn't repeat it if my life depended on it.

Well, at least there's one tech at Apple that knows what they're doing. What I've heard reported from Apple techs for this issue has, until now, been completely lame, just clueless.

Hi! Thanks for trying. Actually I tried it like that before I froze my iMac. I've also ran disk utilities from the disk and didn't see any mention of mail in the fixes. I haven't tried reinstalling Snow L... and I also have time machine and went back before the security update and restored mail but it wouldn't open. Would appreciate advice on the direction I should take. I have OS 10.6.8 on an iMac/2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 duo. Thanks, it's people like you that keep me sane and it's times like this that makes me really miss Steve. Thanks Again

Don't just resore Mail from TM. I think you must restore an entire drive snapshot from before the update. After that's done, move Mail into the Applications folder -- and it must be sitting alone there, not in some enclosing folder. Then run the update again.

it's times like this that makes me really miss Steve.

I doubt that would have made any difference.

I had the same problem and Wzzz gave great suggestions. Haley Duke, I did go back to TM and restore an earlier version of Mail. I did not restore the entire drive. As Wzzz says, you must put the older, retstored version of mail into the applications folder on it's own. If you receive a message that there is a newer version do you want to overwrite with the older, say yes. You should only have one version, the older one, of mail in the applications folder.

Then, I went to my download section and put any of the previous security updates that I had downloaded from Apple in the trash (since my original security update didn't work, I manually downloaded a few times to try and get it to work).

So, now you should have the older version of mail in your applications folder and no security update in your download file. Go to apple support and manually download the security update. Once it does it's thing, it should work for you.

The downloaded security update should be about 296.6 MB; my earlier downloaded tries obviously didn't download correctly because they were much smaller.

Hope it works.

First off thanks WZZZ for all the help. You are a blessing to those of us that are clueless about the inner workings of an operating system.

I just had this same issue, and I have updated security, combos, installers, and everything else under the moon 10.8.6, as well as following every piece of advice you gave, and nothing worked. Finally after 6 hours of messing around with it, I made it to the Genius bar, and the verdict was I should just install Mtn Lion.

Spent the $20, and installed Mtn Lion, and mail was instantly fixed, and now I'm synced up on the cloud with all my other devices. When all is said and done, I think you should just upgrade to Mtn Lion, so worth it.

Thanks again everyone!

You're welcome. Too bad nothing worked for you except to upgrade.

The "Geniuses" couldn't find a solution other than to go to a completely different OS? That's like going out and buying a new car when yours is only in need of some kind of simple repair.

That's a solution that not everyone will find desirable. There are many who, for various good reasons -- not the least of which is that it's the last OS to be able to run PPC applications -- choose to stay with Snow Leopard.

After reading through solutions and reinstalling the security update for Snow Leopard to no avail, it dawned on me that I needed to put the old version of Mail (4.5) in the Applications folder, where this buggy update could "see it."

That worked (after a big tumbler or bourbon and a lot of wondering what the heck Apple is thinking these days)

- I made sure the only version of Mail in the Applications folder on the Mac HD was the old 4.5 version

- Then I downloaded and installed the Leopard Security update again. The link for that is in one of these other posts.

- Worked.

I suppose the somewhat dumb update finally found and updated the Mail up correctly.

Apple, be nice to hear a solution from you once and awhile!

P.S - I'm a stockholder!!

P.S.

I should have added, that after those steps, you'll need to start Mail out of the Mac HD.

And create a new alias, while in the HD list. Drag that to the dock and trash old alias.

You will end up with the correct version of Mail - 4.6, if this works for you.

Check that by going to menu - Mail, About Mail (with Mail up)

Hope this helps.

Between, this and the iPhone 5 map debacle, I'm thinking Apple needs to do a little soul searching.......

This is a great community, thanks for all the help, just got my imac back from the apple store and everything is working fine. I took it there because it quit doing anything after I restored it from TM. They said it was a software issue and did it for free. Plan on updating to the latest OS, I'll be back if there's trouble. Thanks again.

The re-update worked for me too on Snow Leopard. When I checked the Application folder beforehand,

I noticed that I had my original Mail.app within a folder. Here is what worked for me:

1. Take the mail.app, the bad one without an icon (the one in the root of the applications folder,

and put it in its own folder.

2. Drag the original mail.app (the one with the proper icon) from wherever it is into the root of the applications folder.

3. Download and run the Security Update again. Here's the Snow Leopard one: http://support.apple.com/downloads/

4. After restart, it should all be back to normal.

5. Delete the bad mail.app... the one without an icon (the one you moved in step 1).

Thank you all for this thread; spent the last day furious that I couldn't open Mail, and of course, my 3 year coverage just ran out, so didn't want to call Apple.

You are all wonderful!!

Because *IF* you use OSX's integrated Software Update app from the Apple menu to do the "004" updating, and *IF* your Mail.app is NOT in the Applications folder, then buddy, you've got some sitdown fixit time ahead of ya and/or some internet tie-up time downloading the "004" update file itself.

Been through it all, already. In fact, just got done getting my Mail back up & running. And I tried everything short of attempting to unpacking my "Mail.pkg" receipt file using... whatever... even Pacifist couldn't get it out. So that fixit "Plan D" died quick. And I'm not savvy enough to use Terminal commands to do "Plan E," so that SUDO stuff was my brick wall.

So I compressed my entire "Mail" subdirectory that contain all my emails, for safekeeping during the required surgery, or whatever would work, leaving the original Mail directory where it was. In case something bad happened in all my fixit whatevers, the one thing I *didn't* want to cross paths with was a hosed Library -> Mail folder. Then I'd be pssd. But I can wipe out that ZIP now 'cause all's well now. After 6 hrs of downloading thru a mobile broadband hotspot running at only 14KB/sec speed due to my having gone over my T-Mobile hotspot plan's bandwidth amount (throttled-down after reaching the limit, tho not cut off completely. Kinda nice, but it's a huge speed drop).

I tried moving the two Mail.app versions around, compressing them & then trashing the original so they wouldn't be recognized, blabla, even booted my Mac in Safe Mode & reinstalled the "MacOSX 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) Update Combo.dmg" update file, which in the past has fixed many problems. But after restarting, not this one.

Like a dummy who ignored knowing better, I had my Mail.app in a folder other than the Applications folder, with only an alias to that being in the Applications folder. NOT GOOD ENOUGH. The updater don't see that as nuthin special or useful.

So if you've got, like I've got, "old" icons for Mail.app (v4.5) in your Finder toolbar & in your Dock that all point to "Mail.app v4.5" in whatever folder you've got that in, other than in the Applications folder (where Apple apparently REQUIRES that it be located, and ONLY there, at least for OSX updating purposes), then after you download & autorun that "004" updater using Software Update, NONE of your pre-existing Mail icons will work. And MOST aggravatingly, **NOR** will your brand-new "Mail.app v4.6" work that came out of the "004" updating installation. So basically, your Mail.app's... all of 'em.... are hosed. But only if you run the "004" update without your "Mail.app v4.5" being located in your Applications folder and ONLY in your Applications folder. And duplicates of Mail.app, scattered around your HDD?? Always a problem with many Apple apps.... The Apple software engineers apparently like 'em to be in the Applications folder, and in ONLY there, and ONLY the latest version, and ONLY 1 single copy of each on your entire HDD. They just don't seem to stress that enough, it appears. Kind of an oversight for them to not emphasize that, IMO...

My recommendation for this particular September 2012 "004" update:

If you run Software Update, and if you see the "Security Update 2012-004" listed as available for download, UNCHECKMARK IT. DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT USING SOFTWARE UPDATE ! Instead, download the actual update file itself.

Same thing, only a different way of doing it. Most importantly, you'll be skipping the auto-installation that Software Update performs.

AND you'll have that update file on your HDD for future fixits, should a nasty "unfixable" problem come up.

First, #1. Do a filename search for "Mail" (Option-Command-Spacebar). Scroll down to where the "Apps" are located in the list under the "Kind" column heading. First, find your Mail.app that's v4.5. Get that bugger into your Applications folder if it's not already there. Next, Trash all other "Mail.app" apps you see in that same list that you may have elsewhere on your HDD.

#2. Go here: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1586

And download the actual "004" DMG update file: "SecUpd2012-004.dmg"

And of course, it's a biggie.... 270MB... so watching grass grow may be involved here if you've got a slow connection (go to a MacDonalds & do it, like I shoulda done).

3. After downloading, I'd recommend closing down all apps, emptying the Trash, and restarting.

Then, after restarting, run Disk Utility's "Repair Disk Permissions."

Then, doublecheck that the Mail.app version 4.5 is in your Applications folder.

THEN fire up & install "SecUpd2012-004.dmg."

Reboot.

After the reboot, your Mail.app version 4.5 in the Applications folder will have become Mail.app version 4.6 in the Applications folder, and all will be well again.

And you can dump that zipped-up "Username -> Library -> Mail" folder then, too. 😉

Happy Mac'in!

Kevin Kendall

Why not just cut to the chase and tell people what worked for you? Why do they need to hear everything under the sun, and more, you tried? No one wants to plough through all that. You aren't writing a novel. Please stop posting this thing all over the place.

Here's what I did:

Reloaded original mail program from disk.(Of course that wouldn't work). Then, reinstalled both updates and magically all back to normal. Seems simpler than some of the fixes I've seem here. I had a hard time following the geek speak.(sorry guys).