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

I'm seeing the same issue on my work MacBook Pro 13" Retina. Fresh out of the box with Mavericks. IT immediately installed Yosemite, and it's since been upgraded to 10.10.1, so it's relatively fresh. Email is Exchange server only.

I don't recall seeing this at all on my home MacBook, but can't check now because I reverted to Mavericks. Twice. Because Yosemite has too many issues for me.

If only I could revert my iOS devices, too. (Hey, Tim Cook! If you don't allow users to downgrade, then your "upgrade" statistics don't really measure users who have happily upgraded.)

Hey....I am running 1password and I do have this issue when typing in Mail. Tried the usual fixes and still nothing.

FWIW, I have the following in common (but maybe newer versions):

Keyboard Maestro (keyboard macros) 6.4.7

Timbuktu (screen sharing) 8.8.5

Snapz (screen capture) 2.5.4

ClipMenu (multiple clipboards) 0.4.3

1Password 5.0.1

ClamXav 2.6.4 (with Sentry running set to monitor several folders)

GFXCardStatus 2.3

Dropbox 2.10.41

CrashPlan 3.6.4

Seems unlikely that there'd be a conflict, but who knows.

Of those, I know that KM, 1Password and Dropbox have been aggressively updating. Snapz still has not fixed the audio kext, and I worry about that.

I did follow up on an earlier suggestion to delete any error-causing servers or accounts. A few hours later, the typing lag came back.

I can usually keep working by hitting Command S when Mail hesitates. Sometimes hitting the space key also makes the characters fill in.

I am running the following applications in common (though not necessarily the same versions):

Keyboard Maestro (keyboard macros) 6.4.7

Timbuktu (screen sharing) 8.8.5

Snapz (screen capture) 2.5.1 not Snapz (screen capture) 2.5.4

ClipMenu (multiple clipboards) 0.4.3

1Password 5.0.2 not 1Password 5.0.1

ClamXav 2.6.4 (with Sentry running set to monitor several folders)

GFXCardStatus 2.3

Dropbox 2.10.52 not Dropbox 2.10.41

CrashPlan 3.6.4

But if I understand correctly, some of you have done clean installs (with the extra apps?) and still have the lag?

My inclination is that the lags are caused by Mail doing something like spell check, or auto save, or iCloud syncing, or something like that, but I have no expertise in this area so it's purely speculation.

And yep, I've filed a report with Apple.

My inclination is that the lags are caused by Mail doing something like spell check, or auto save, or iCloud syncing, or something like that, but I have no expertise in this area so it's purely speculation.

I think you're exactly right. It feels like Mail is busy with something and isn't keeping the typing input in a separate thread.

I suspected Handoff, but turning Handoff off on my iPhone didn't make any difference. I did not try turning Handoff off on everything. It also seems like I'm seeing a lot more outgoing and incoming activity in the Mail Activity panel when composing a new message.

I'm on older hardware (MacBook Pro 2010) which doesn't support Handoff (no Bluetooth 4.0 LE), so unless this is a massive bug in Handoff, I'm not inclined to think this text entry delay in Yosemite Mail is related.

If I'm reading right, others in this thread are experiencing this with current Mac hardware, straight out of the box. Is anyone who is having this problem NOT running a screen capture utility called Snapz from Ambrosia software. They haven't updated it in a long time, but I *believe* I've experienced the text entry delay with Snapz turned off. I've tried so many variables, I could be wrong - thus my question above: has anyone experienced the Mail text entry delay on a machine which is NOT running Snapz? If so, we can rule that variable out.

Here's my (growing) list of stuff I've tried to further isolate/figure this out:

*Changed Mail to save/not save to IMAP server

*Disable ClipMenu (a multiple clipboard utility)

*Turn off GFXCardStatus

*Fix duplicate fonts and scan for font issues with Font Book

*Switched default font to Helvetica Neue

*Turned off ClamXav Sentry

*Disabled AppNap (via Terminal command)

*Turned off spell check in Mail

*Updated to 10.10.1

*Disabled Transparency (Sys Prefs > Accessibility)

*Disabled ALL mail accounts in “Internet Accounts” pref pane

*Deleted old irrelevant SMTP server(s) in SMTP Server List

*Removed all POP and IMAP folders in ~/Library/Mail/V2/ and let Mail rebuild the local caches

*Reinstalled Yosemite 10.10.1 from freshly downloaded installer from the App store, restored from Time Machine backup

*Reinstalled Yosemite 10.10.1 from freshly downloaded installer from the App store, restored from SuperDuper clone

It seems to be quite intermittent. Saving defintiely helps

byronwolfe wrote:

My inclination is that the lags are caused by Mail doing something like spell check, or auto save, or iCloud syncing, or something like that, but I have no expertise in this area so it's purely speculation.

I have tried switching off both Grammar and Spell Checker and the problem did not go away - see post on p5 of this thread.

I was suspicious of Snapz Pro. The problematic kext, which enables sound capture, is not loaded in Yosemite.

I don't have Snapz Pro on my Mac and there is nothing on my system with 'snapz' in the filename.

Apple apparently released 10.10.2 to developers today:

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/12/04/apple-seeds-second-10-10-2-beta-to-devs/

... but sadly no mention of any issues with Mail:

"In the release notes for the second 10.10.2 beta, Apple asks developers to focus on Wi-Fi, indicating the update may fix some of the lingering Wi-Fi problems."

I don't have those apps and I have the problem. Mid 2011 iMac so no handoff.

It comes and goes, but mostly is there. It does feel like something is running and conflicts with typing. I thought maybe Time Machine, but there seems to be no correlation to it.

I take it back - there is apparently a new version of Mail in 10.10.2:

"Mail has also been updated, likely to improve reliability (again)."

I'm curious, does anyone else who has the text entry delay in Mail use keyboard shortcuts in System Preferences > Keyboard > Text?

Clearly not all Yosemite users have this issue (or there would be a LOT more people on this thread). What is it about our specific environments that is causing this?

I *believe* someone chimed in and said they had the issue with a Mac out of the box, but I wonder if their past keyboard shortcuts (or something else) might have synced down from their iCloud account?

Just speculating (and enjoying lag-free typing here in my browser!)

Kirk out

I have some shortcuts set in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts, but none for Mail specifically. I also use Keyboard Maestro, but again, no group for Mail.

The only thing I've noticed is that Mail is very active with outgoing and incoming mail when I'm composting a new message. Presumably this is because of iCloud syncing. It doesn't seem to make a difference whether I have my mac.com address as sender or a POP account.