Q: How to reset mail to factory settings.

Quit Mail.

In the Finder, hold down the option key and select

Go ▹ Library

from the menu bar. Move the following items from the folder that opens to the Trash (some may not exist):

• Caches/com.apple.mail
• Saved Application State/com.apple.mail.savedState
• Application Support/AddressBook/MailRecents-v4.abcdmr
• Containers/com.apple.mail
• Mail
• Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
• Preferences/com.apple.mail.searchhistory.plist

Note: you are not moving the Mail application. You’re moving a folder named “Mail.”

Hi there,

I would also like to reset mac Mail to factory settings, but keep my folders in the left column with all the saved emails within them.

Thanks!

Steve

Export your folders to your desktop, then import them after the reset. You may have to drag the imported messages to where you want them.

I went through the steps that Linc Davis explained on June 21.  From his list of folders to remove, do you know which one contains the email messages?

The e-mail messages are stored in your user library/Mail/V2.

Thanks a lot from France.

I only found and trashed the following files :

> MailRecents-v4.abcdmr

> com.apple.mail

> Mail

And my previous e-mails have been downloaded from my Gmail account. Perfect.

Thanks again !

Yes, thanks Linc, it saved me.  Your the best.

Cheers

I followed these instructions but Mail wouldn't let me re-add the email account, Settings > Internet Accounts and unchecking, rechecking Mail had no affect. However, removing all the previous Mail accounts completely and re-adding them has gotten Mail working like new.

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is marked solved, less people are likely to look at it. You can link to this one.

Linc, Thanks for this, it's not the first time you have been of indirect help to me and many others I assume.

This one tip was needed to get rid of a very nasty and persistent state of Mail, after a series of beta Yosemite previews and consequent updates. At one given moment the mail app must have had a tiny thingie nuked leaving it in an unusable state. No addition of an account was possible, not accounts that were set up in SysPrefs / Internet accounts were being loaded.

I now have my main bug resolved. Not really a bug, as another user account on the same machine had no problems, so I considered this to be a state of bad luck for the given account.

Cheers!

Thank you,

this is the same on Yosemite, now I can start Mail again and reenter my Mailaccounts.

Thank you. My Mark up feature wasn't working anymore so now it does. Thank you! Bianca

Just installed the 10.11 beta, everything works great EXCEPT Mail...its pretty useless...When open my entire system comes to a crawl...when I finally manage  to close it, everything returns to normal....any tips?