Mail on El Capitan

Update: I have twice gone through setting up Mail all over again. The second time, I quit Mail, went into the Library and dragged the entire Mail folder onto the desktop, and then started Mail up again. Had to set it up like new. Then I used the option to "Import Mailboxes..." in Mail to re-import the inboxes from the Mail folder that I'd drag to the desktop (They were in the V3 folder).

Yet again, it started a cycle of endless downloading of files. And it stalled at the end, stuck with no progress in "Downloading message..." for one last email. I let it run all night and by morning the logs had filled over 30 GB of space. I deleted the logs and got the space back, but the "Downloading Message..." thing didn't go away. Left alone, the fans would kick in and the log would fill up.

Then... on a tip from another forum... I ran "Console" and checked what was going on (I'd been trying to do that in "Activity Monitor" but it wasn't telling me anything useful).... there was a message there "IMAP response defective!" or something like that... and it was tied to an antivirus checker, Avast.

So...

I went into Avast, turned off the Mail filter (checking for viruses)... and lo and behold, suddenly the floodgates opened in Mail. It jumped from downloading one message to downloading 206... but they were really downloading. And now, it appears, Mail is back to normal (I mean back to the Yosemite days of normal).

I don't know if that will help everybody, but if you're running a virus checker, consider looking into it. Personally I figure that I got by for years without Avast or similar, and I can keep on getting by without it. I've deleted it entirely from my system. Both Mail and Safari seem to work better.

Thank you so much - this worked straight away.

I haven't been able to work for 2 days!

Thank you so much for this tip. I had even changed to another mail client and was desperately short of setting up the machine completely new again. Solved the issue. Of the specific files, my EWSBodyFetch.log had grown to 49 GB!. Now everything back to smooth execution.

Perfect! Worked a treat. Thanks for the tip.

This is a random fix that I'm guessing won't apply to all... but it's made such a HUGE difference for me, with this Mail problem...

And I want to make sure anybody it can benefit will see it. I too, had massive log files... which I'd deleted over and over... but they kept coming back.

For me, it turned out to be a virus checker program called "Avast."

I shut that off... and instantly the problem was gone. I stopped getting huge log files, my mail started downloading normally, and... voila.

Anyway, again... probably not the cause for everybody... but if you're running something that's filtering your email for virus checks, consider turning it off to see if that's enough to deliver a fix. (I confirmed this was the issue, by the way, by noticing an error message from "Avast" about IMAP in the logs of the Console app).

Thank you JTF! Avast was the cause of my problem! I would near have figured that out, I'm so glad you did. Thanks for posting it here!

I also noticed the error messages in the console logs. I did disable avast mail check. It reduced the rate of growth of my logs. Thanks for that suggestion. But until Apple puts out a mail app that is not compiled with Debug level logging enabled, I can't use my Mac mail for my business mail. I get too much and the logs grow huge. It is such a simple fix, multiple errors. Because the developer compiled it with Debug enables. Q/A (if there is any since Steve Died) missed it completely, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) missed it as well. "So much for using a MAC because it "JUST WORKS". I knew when Steve died THAT reliability would change and it has. So I have to go to outlook. WOW. That is reality setting in.

Think about how critical email is to us today, as is texting, and tweeting. How hard is it for Apple to recompile the mail app without debug, and make it available in an executable. Even if they need to call it beta, I would install it. As an engineer, when I was coding, I ran dual Windows and Unix/Linus.

As my career progressed, I needed a system that always "Just worked". That was a Mac with OS X. The reason I payed more for less hardware. $2800 for a 16GB MacBook Pro, when I can buy a Laptop, 8 core, 64GB Ram for half the price, That was the value of "It just works everytime". That is gone, and I am saddened as my late 2012 MacBook Pros, Ipad mini 2, Ipad 4 start to age, and need replacement, I dread the thought of having to go to Google Android based tablet, and a PC running what? Windows 10? {FLavor of Linux} Desktop. This is what I feared. I don't want a Watch, I want my IOS and MacOS to "Just work". Clearly that is gone. That is a huge loss. It isn't about getting used to another GUI, they are just not Coco, as integrated. The controls Steve forced on us, were for our own good. Heat for not including FLash on Tablets. HTML 5, Steve was right again!! This is just simply very sad.

I don't think I can say it better than Marco Arment, a respected developer and huge Apple fan. I included his statement. It is a huge disappointment to know the end is near for something that was so great, helped me be so productive. 😟

Respected developer Marco Arment is worried about Apple's future. In a blog post, he writes, "Apple's hardware today is amazing — it has never been better. But the software quality has taken such a nosedive in the last few years that I'm deeply concerned for its future." Arment was CTO at Tumblr, before he left to start Instapaper. "Apple has completely lost the functional high ground," says Arment. "'It just works' was never completely true, but I don't think the list of qualifiers and asterisks has ever been longer." He blames Apple prioritizing marketing for the problems with Apple's software. Apple wants to have new software releases each year as a marketing hook, but the annual cycles of updating Apple's software are leading to too many bugs and problems, he says: I suspect the rapid decline of Apple's software is a sign that marketing has a bit too much power at Apple today: the marketing priority of having major new releases every year is clearly impossible for the engineering teams to keep up with while maintaining quality. Maybe it's an engineering problem, but I suspect not — I doubt that any cohesive engineering team could keep up with these demands and maintain significantly higher quality."

I hope you posted a request with Avast.

I am having a similar setup with El Capitan/Mac Mail/Avast. I only switched to Avast from Kaspersky a few days ago (thinking it was my Kaspersky GIS installation causing the problems). I experienced same issues (filling disk space through mail logs) with my Kaspersky installation, but in addition I was unable to connect to the Internet through Firefox. I uninstalled Kaspersky. Now with Avast, I can connect to internet again, but the mail problem persists. Very sad that nothing seems to "just work" with El Capitan...

@db1964 Thanks for that information. I was looking for something to do on the holiday night and saw your note. So I re-started my avast mail scanner and took a closer look at the messages in the mail logs verses the console system logs. I now believe this extensive log growth will happen with ANY AV Mail scanner. Not accessing my mail at all, I noticed that anytime mail was active, be it a push or poll, it is generating DEBUG logs. The AV Mail scanner during its scan process causes mail to generate additional logs on every open, pull, read,(scan), attachment check. I suspect all AV software will result in the same. So we really need the mail.app without Debug logging enabled. Interim, anyone running an AV on mail will see relief.

Thank you...

after finding this Solution the Problem was solved weithin minutes...

regards,

andreas

I got the same problem BUT with the PHOTO app with the latest El Capitan! I actually did reinstall the whole computer because I had little space and just wanted an Clean Install but the problem remains. If I leave a few apps open like: MAIL / Photos the Error Message Displays. And If you look at the memory usage the PHOTO is going app all the time.... it start from a few MB to GB .... even when I don't do anything. Very strange? This accrues before the reinstall and after.

Look at the screenshot..

HI Miguel,

This fixed my problem. Started chat with Apple support earlier today. Despite a pretty good description of the memory leak got no help beyond "boot in safe made"...Can't believe that this has not made it into Apple's priority list - maybe the bug only happens in certain smaller cases. Anyhow, thanks for your help.

Lucian

It is so sad. Apple has become the "Old Microsoft". When Xmas shopping I always use the time of year to refresh equipment. (Who will buy you a better gift for you than yourself?? I have 2 MBPros late 2012, A MAc Mini Mid 2013.Old IPAD2 and a IPad 4. There was a huge push at Microsoft with Windows 10 and somewhat of a shocker with the impressive hardware. I suspect my MacBook Pros will go the way of the New Windows PC/Tablet. It was hard to take the first step. But my Iphone 5S died today. I replaced it with a Samsung Galaxy, which was actually more expensive than the IPHONE 6S Plus. (But Android store is CHAOS compared to Apple store. There was reason Steve kept tight controls. FOr key apps, it must work on mobile, and it did.

The old Ipad2 was replaced by a new MS Surface. Apple: A Watch, now a HUGE IPAD PRO? Replace my PC? IOS? Tried that. If IOS was the replacement for my laptop, I would have done it a long time ago with my IPad 4. Bigger is better, but reality is I need Mac OS X often. As for display size? My MBPro's are mostly closed anyway unless I am on the road. I use2 Rows of 3 monitors at my Deck. (Not THunderbolt, so I have to pay $2500 per monitor.... Simple USB 3.0 to DVI works like a charm on 6 24" monitors. I am not running Halo, I am working.) I worked with Windows 10 in a VM On OSX for the last few months before I made any move on hardware as once I go back, I won't reverse course again. It is a lot worse than just MAIL..., but 'Mail" How hard is that???? Compile with debug off please!! it is trivial, and no QA needed. Seems Apple is doing far less of that now days anyway. "It just works", NOT. Apple's inability to address this quickly reminds me of the old Microsoft and years before that the "Old Big Blue IBM". That BLUE is dead. Thought too big to fail. There is an IBM, but it is a totally new IBM. Apple is not too big to fail. THey have cash to play with, but it will be more quickly depleted as momentum begins to gain as analysts start to finally come to the same conclusion. I work as an engineer on Wall St for my entire career. The equity and market analysts are always asking me about these companies.

When Steve died they lost the Crazy QA that made Apple "Just work". Innovation? Big IPad? Bigger Phone (Copy Competition), Car? Copy Google. Apple is using others innovation. Steve Never did that!! He didn't put Flash on the IPAD!! "Adobe won't own multimedia, and shouldn't" he stated. Of course he was right, and HTML5 is replacing flash more and more. That is "Strategic Vision"!! It is so sad. Six Months ago I thought MS was dead. Certainly Azure and 360 wouldn't save them alone. Windows 10, and a new collection of innovative hardware, (WOW where did that come from)?

The spiral around the drain has gained momentum for Apple, and analysts have begun to take a closer look..... I put this day off for months. (My old Ipad 2,.. it was painful using 8.x, but OK for the coffee table to check weather outlook. Like OLD PC's used to become "Dumb terminals" and good for browsing... I held out hoping there would be some positive signs. There are now, but not what I had hoped. Not from Apple. If this were Apple equipment inbound, I would be excited. Cool MS stuff, but there is no joy at all. I will never be as productive on Windows as I have been on Apple products, and it was the whole of the products and integration in addition to the COCO feel. The amount of code from "Users" helped make Apple great as well as did apples Controls, even if we were not thrilled with them at times. I will miss being a Mac powered engineer. Sorry for the length. This is just an awful day.

I finally resorted on doing a clean install of the OS. It was great for about 15 minutes, then started to bog down again and act strange. I'm at a total loss. I've run Norton and no bugs. Cleared PRAM......

Help Apple!

I finally found the only solution that has worked consistently - I'm now using Postbox instead! Like others, I have two Mac's and mail works fine on one but not the other. What is most frustrating is the amount of time I have spent screwing around with it. Hope they get it fixed soon.