Lag in Typing in Yosemite's Mail w/ External Apple Keyboard

I've experienced this problem since 10.10.0, as far as I know. And I don't use an external keyboard. Furthermore, the other running applications on the same computer don't show typing delays, only Mail. And it’s always while the Activity window is showing mailbox synchronizing activity. Any time that the Activity window is idle, there are no typing delays. So it seems like a clear case of improper thread priority assignments, which is what I reported to Apple in their feedback system.

Hi Kirk,

Made a backup and repartitioned the drive, downloaded a fresh yosemite 10.10.1 copy and performed a clean install. I copied back the mailfolder and mail preference file from the backup and now it works without a glitch. I also had other little gremlins that seem to have disappeared. Apparently the upgrade install procedure is not flawless.

Mark out.

Thanks Mark.

So you did NOT restore your entire system from a Time Machine or other backup after you clean-installed?

No. A complete clean install.

Marx

After Mark's clean install without a full restore purportedly fixed the issue for him, I went down a troubleshooting path that Mail may have cached something on machines which were upgraded from an older operating system. I made a few changes on my machine and wonder if this will help others. Here's what I did:

1. Quit Mail

3. Open System Preferences > Internet Accounts.

3. Disable Mail on all accounts.

4. Launch Mail and Quit.

5. Back in System Preferences > Internet Accounts enabled my most significant account (an IMAP hosted by a Kerio Connect mail server).

6. Launch Mail. Type several replies and create new messages. No text entry delay so far.

When I launched Mail after step 3, I noticed the Activity window trying to connect to an unrelated/old SMTP server. When I looked in my SMTP Server list (Mail Preferences > Accounts > Edit SMTP Server List... (pop-up menu under the SMTP server field), I found and deleted the irrelevant SMTP server from the list.

Sorry - changed two variables, but Mail is behaving with no text entry delays.

Next step will be to (one by one) re-enable my other mail accounts.

Disregard my previous post - I'm still testing...

Has anyone found a solution for this yet? Its driving me batty.

No solution here either. Mail becomes nearly unusable. It's a really, really stupid bug for such a primary program and I'm not about to completely wipe and reinstall an OS in the hope that that will fix it. APPLE needs to fix this. Yosemite is being sold on all new Macs. It's no longer beta and it's no longer a choice for consumers. I didn't even want it on my work computer but I wanted the new Mac mini and had waited a long time to upgrade. Has Apple even acknowledged the bug yet? At the very least, I'd love to see something like a, "Yes, we're aware of this bug and are determined to fix it in .2" Even better would be a standalone fix.

I don't have time for this and continue to appreciate those who do. Please post here if anyone finds a reasonable fix or workaround for Apple.

Much Obliged,

Mick

Any luck Kirk?

Hi All,

I've backed up my internal disk, erased it, clean installed 10.10.1 and restored from a backup. The text entry delay is still present (though it takes a few minutes of running mail for it to start happening again).

Mark - you reported that a clean install without restoring your data from a backup fixed the issue for you. Is that still the case?

And all: It is REALLY important to tell Apple about this issue directly on their feedback page here:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Simply posting a "me too' post here helps us know the issue isn't just something amuck on our machines, but it isn't the way to tell Apple they need to address this. Please use the link above to tell Apple you're experiencing this too.

Kirk out

Hi Kirk,

I've just spent an hour and a half typing an e-mail in order to test it thoroughly, and no lag whatsoever. I'm surprised that your reinstall didn't fix things. Could it be the way you configured your mail app? Specific formatting, rules, large number of active accounts, iCloud synchronisation?

I use standard formatting (rich text, standard fonts) I don't use rules, junk filtering is enabled, I have 4 active accounts and 6 inactive ones configured. I do not use iCloud synchronisation for my e-mail. I have aprox. 19.000 messages in my inbox and 16.000 messages in my sent items.

Just for the record, after I did the clean install, as described, I did restore (copy) my mailfolder and prefs from the backup to the new installation. So that would rule out any problems with the preference file or mailbox structure. Only other thing I can think of is that I did not reinstall iPhoto and iMovie however I can't think of a compelling reason how that would make a difference.

Anyway good luck in sorting it out. A **** nuisance!

Mark

Another me-too post. And, yes, I have filed an official Apple feedback report.

In my case, this only began on a new, loaded, retina iMac with Yosemite preinstalled. I tested Yosemite through all the betas and didn't see the issue. I think it's something that came up in the release version.

I have no Mail plugins and only ever used an Apple BlueTooth keyboard.

I see no text delay in any other app.

Hitting Command S often fixes the issue for a few seconds at least. Quitting and restarting Mail or closing the document and opening it again helps temporarily.

I was suspicious of Handoff, but saw the issue when my iPhone was in another room on another floor. And it continued when I turned Handoff off on the iPhone. (It still could be Handoff to another device on my LAN.)

There's certainly a lot of sending and receiving activity going on while composing in Mail, another indication that Handoff may be an issue.

I think KirkvanDruten may be on to something with connection doctor. I realized that I had an unused outgoing mail server set for some inactive e-mail names, and fixed that. I also deleted an unused e-mail name.

I will report back if that helps. Meanwhile, I'll look forward to 10.10.2

I think you may have highlighted something there, Klahane. I have noticed odd network activity when typing e-mails (via VirusBarrier Traffic Monitor which I have permanently visible on my desktop) and didn't stop to analyse it.

However, I just messed around with it typing garbage into an e-mail and noticed that every time I typed a space, i.e. finished a 'word' there was a short burst of traffic both in and out. If I didn't type anything for a while, nothing happened but as soon as I typed another 'word' with a space at the end, there would be traffic.

This happens with grammar and spell checking on and off - which is what I first suspected several weeks ago.

I don't want to sound paranoid but it seems that every word I type into e-mails (and web forms when using Safari) is being processed as it is completed.

After I cleared out one unused account (that was showing errors in Mail's Connection Doctor) and edited the outgoing server list, I'm not seeing all the back and forth activity while typing in Mail. Without some testing, I can't tell if the typing delay is gone.

I wonder if Mail knows when I'm typing a test message instead of a real one. 😁

Same problem here. Mid-2011 iMac. Clean install. Problem is with both or either of Apple wired keyboard and/or wireless.