Q: mail crashes repeatedly in mavericks on 2013 mba

Here's something I just noticed. I left Mail running for about 10 minutes until it finally opened up. At that point I went to accounts which spawned the InternetAccounts Preference pane. In there when I clicked on any of my iCloud accounts I got an agree to terms popup which I agreed to and then the CPU usage (which was pegging at 100%) for InternetAccounts calmed down. This then did allow me to browse my mail without issue but when closing Mail took forever and now when I go back into the app it again is taking a long time and pegging at over 110% according to Activity Monitor.

Definitely something not right here. I will try your idea as well JKS but hoping I can work something rather than having to delete all accounts and start again

I am having the above issue. Opening the mail app just hangs (not responding) and if I go to internet accounts and try to click on sync mail for my icloud account it just hangs for ages then throws me up an error saying my icloud mail cannot be connected. All other icloud options seem to be working fine. It's just a mail issue.

CPU usage goes up to 100% for both the mail app and system prefs when I try to go to the 'internet accounts' option.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but I deleted all my Internet Accounts from the prefs, rebooted and the same issue still occurs (hanging mail pegging at above 110%) so clearly another issue.

When I look at logs I see everything from 'Mail: void CGSUpdateManager' on multiple items as well as 'WindowServer UI updates were forcibly ddisbaled by application "Mail" server has re-enabled them'. I also see 'WindowServer UI updates were finally reenabled by application "Mail" after 44.98 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled)

Then finally mail comes back but again no change over when the accounts were all there vs deleting them to start again. The only other thing I have is archived mail locally but that shouldn't be causing an issue

It's possible that since JK's suggestion worked for some people and not others that it's not the exact same issue, just a similar symptom. Maybe post some crash logs so smart folks can compare and see what the issue is.

All

I appear to be making some progress here. I deleted my accounts from the Internet Accounts Preference pane (luckily most are IMAP) but noticed mail was still hanging and pegging CPU use so at this point I headed to the mail folder ~/Library/Mail/V2.

Once in the folder I noticed that there were remants of the deleted accounts even after a reboot so I went in and deleted everything under V2 (yes I mean all subfolders and their contents within this folder structure (V2). I copied my local archived mailboxes to documents for now. I then rebooted (for clarity) and went straight into Internet Account Preferences within System Preferences (not through Mail, leave that closed for now) and re-added my accounts from all services.

After this I went into Mail and it opened instantly then started to import my mail back from my services. All importing fine and CPU usage is at an all time low (since Mavericks upgrade) of 40% peak.

After this fully imported I quit mail (again it quit quickly this time), went back in and bingo instant open and 40-42% peak CPU use.

Not an ideal solution I know, but appears to be something with imported mail from the upgrade that is killing it.

Just wanted to share another solution. If you try what I did, post back here, let me know so we know we have a working solution across a few of us

Thanks

I am having the same issue: Mail just crashes after a couple seconds.

my error:

Application Specific Information:

*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '*** setObjectForKey: key cannot be nil'

abort() called

terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException

I tried JK Terminal fix but got the same: 

Domain (com.apple.mail) not found.

Defaults have not been changed.

Harrold, any chance you can try what I did, see if that works ?

First I renamed ~/Library/Mail to ~/Library/Mail.old

The I deleted accounts as above.

Mail then started up fine, I redefined accounts.

The archived mail that I wanted, I then manually restored with File:Import Mailboxes using the Mac Mail option.

Only one other point.

I had some mbox's embedded within mbox's and the Importer wouldn't work with these.

eg. Archived.mbox/{2001.mbox, 2002.mbox etc.}

All I had to do was move them into a folder like Archived, then I was able to import 2001.mbox etc.

I have had the same issues. I have methodically set up and re-set up things to conclude:

1. You need to delete ~/Library/Mail and ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail to get a clean start if you fail.

2. Setting up an Exchange or GMail account works.

3. The problems start with iCloud. I have been methodically turning on one iCloud feature at a time. So far, everything except Documents & Data and Mail are turned on. It's one of those two that cause the problem (probably Mail).

If you can live without iCloud mail (I can), then you're fine. Just don't turn it on. After you turn it off, delete the folders mentioned above, reboot (only if Mail won't turn off), and then re-add your non-iCloud Mail accounts.

My next test is to try this in a new user profile and see if it's particular to my profile or a general issue.

EDIT: Get this... It's Documents & Data. Just turned it on, and my Mail now crashes.

i turned off "Documents and Data" in my iCloud preferences and Mail started up.

it took a while to update all the messages ("Writing changes to disk" in the Mail Activity Monitor).

but then...

nothing.  it just sat there.  i could access all the menu pulldowns but could not access any messages.

After installing Mavericks, I also can't access any of my messages in Mail.

I picked up on the redComponent not valid string in the crash report as well. J.K. ROFLing answer eaisly solved my issue as well. Thanks!

simlid, at first glance this seems to have worked for me! Thanks!

tried both trunign off documents and data and the defaults delete com.apple.mail ColorQuoterColorList fix still crahsing here. have icloud mail turned off.

However, it appears to be realted to which network I am connect to so may be to do with which account can get through to which server.

barthrh.1's step 1 solved my issue which had the same symptoms as the ones in this thread. I'm using IMAP so resetting my accounts wasn't an issue as such.

Thanks

Steve