Raffy1

Q: High Mail CPU with El Capitan

Since upgrading to El Capitan, I noticed the Mail application using a lot of CPU. About 80-90% sometimes.

Then going down to a few percent and then without any reason going up again.

Did a few times a "Rebuilt Mailboxes", but that did not help.

 

Any suggestions to repair this?

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11), 3.06 Ghz, 8 GB

Posted on Oct 10, 2015 10:33 PM

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Q: High Mail CPU with El Capitan

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  • by agnew50,

    agnew50 agnew50 Jan 8, 2016 1:23 PM in response to GerardFromUlrum
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2016 1:23 PM in response to GerardFromUlrum

    A few days after the restart of my rogue IMAP account the high cpu issue returned. I disabled the mail shield in Avast and nothing happened. Then I rebooted and all was OK - was still OK after 2 days. Decided to remove Avast and install Avira - surprisingly it was heavy on CPU - not a killer but far from what I expected since reviews had said otherwise. I think its still Beta for Mac and I read that bugs are being cleared - probably in better shape under Windows. I see that Grant reports 'spamseive' as good so maybe I will give that a try. I have used Avast since 2012 without problems - be it Apple or Avast, it will probably get fixed and then I may return. What an effing waste of time!

  • by brown607,

    brown607 brown607 Jan 8, 2016 1:56 PM in response to agnew50
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 8, 2016 1:56 PM in response to agnew50

    I got back from the Apple Store researching today this issue. While she could not for certain pinpoint issue she was able to find a rogue spread sheet file that was in an outbox folder in the mail library folder but I was showing nothing in my outbox in the application. She also recommend the setting up a second user scenario but decided to go ahead and do a reinstall of the operating system. Will see if it comes back.

  • by Michael Dickey2,

    Michael Dickey2 Michael Dickey2 Jan 8, 2016 7:07 PM in response to gretta
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jan 8, 2016 7:07 PM in response to gretta

    I'm piling on too.  I can find lots of posts describing the problem and no real solution!

     

    OS 10.11.2 with a mac.com e-mail address using Mail on a 27-inch iMac, Late 2013.

     

    My CPU usage has been as high as 250+%!

     

    Closing the app and restarting "resets" the problem and the email updates but then it quickly stalls again.  Not happening on my other machines though (MBA or any IOS device).

  • by GerardFromUlrum,

    GerardFromUlrum GerardFromUlrum Jan 9, 2016 12:26 AM in response to Raffy1
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Jan 9, 2016 12:26 AM in response to Raffy1

    I uninstalled Avast and up till now, I only see relatively high percentages of CPU usage when I instruct mail to get new mail for all accounts (order of magnitude is about 140-180% - peaks of >200% - for about 10-15 seconds).

     

    Would you guys let us know how your CPU percentages for mail are when refreshing and how long it takes to revert to normal?

     

    By the way, I posted the problem on the Avast forum, with a link to this thread, and, from my Avast account page, I brought it to their attention. Wondering wether hey will respond.

     

    In te meantime I'm looking into alternatives for mail, Postbox seems the most promising so far.

     

    Gerard

  • by Grant Lenahan,

    Grant Lenahan Grant Lenahan Jan 9, 2016 5:13 AM in response to GerardFromUlrum
    Level 4 (1,468 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 9, 2016 5:13 AM in response to GerardFromUlrum

    I expect it depends on what else you are doing and how many cores you have.

     

    for 15 seconds, when first open or checking all accounts, Mail will use significant CPU - and more if you are also checking spam, viruses,e tc. Then it should fall to negligible (< 1%).

     

    Somehow high usage for a few seconds sounds normal. It is a program after all. It performs work.

  • by GerardFromUlrum,

    GerardFromUlrum GerardFromUlrum Jan 9, 2016 6:11 AM in response to Grant Lenahan
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Jan 9, 2016 6:11 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

    Okay Grant, I get your drift. Of course a program uses some CPU.

    But in similar circumstances, Postbox does not ever exceed 25% CPU.

    That's a rather significant difference, for which IMHO is no justification.

    Apple mail does not do THAT much more in terms of functionality.

  • by Mike Felton,

    Mike Felton Mike Felton Jan 9, 2016 6:27 AM in response to GerardFromUlrum
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 9, 2016 6:27 AM in response to GerardFromUlrum

    I have been suffering this Mail app problem with the iCloud account for months and have had several long sessions with very helpful Apple support people via phone. However any solutions we tried only gave relief for a few days and like a lot of people report the issue returns after a couple of days.

     

    Anyway seeing the recent reference to AVAST being involved I tried DISABLING THE MAIL SHIELD (not even uninstalling the programme) and it instantly solved the problem!! Mail app downloaded everything as normal and caught up. What relief!... :-)

     

    Regarding using alternatives - the reason I want to stay using the Mail app is because I am heavily reliant of the fantastic Mailtags plug in <http://www.indev.ca/MailTags.html> which enables custom tags to organise and keep track of different projects.

  • by Grant Lenahan,

    Grant Lenahan Grant Lenahan Jan 9, 2016 6:34 AM in response to Mike Felton
    Level 4 (1,468 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 9, 2016 6:34 AM in response to Mike Felton

    folks,

     

    I'm neither defending Avast (which i think is not needed) nor Apple (who changes APis like i change socks).

     

    But why is it surprising that a program that looks at every incoming mail and attachment,

    often scanning the entire payload for patterns, will increase CUP ---- maybe by a LOT?

     

    Not only that but if you look on their site, there is no mention of El Cap compatibility - its as if they disregard it.

    Quite obviously, something changed in the OS that they interact with.  Note that all developers had test environments long ago and technical documentation so they could make changes and at least advise users as to whether it was compatible with X.11. They obviously did not.

     

    Dump useless programs. Practice safe computing. Check compatibility.  Your lives will improve slightly.

     

    Grant

  • by Grant Lenahan,

    Grant Lenahan Grant Lenahan Jan 9, 2016 6:36 AM in response to GerardFromUlrum
    Level 4 (1,468 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 9, 2016 6:36 AM in response to GerardFromUlrum

    I'm not saying all is necessarily well.

    But what's the difference between using 100% of a core for 10 seconds vs using 25% of a core for 40 seconds?

    Its still 10 CPU-seconds.

     

    I do find it high. I have nearly a dozen (large) IMAP accounts, i have an OLD machine, and i use less.

     

    G

  • by GerardFromUlrum,

    GerardFromUlrum GerardFromUlrum Jan 9, 2016 6:44 AM in response to Grant Lenahan
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Jan 9, 2016 6:44 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

    Oh Grant, come on...

     

    As I stated some posts back, I completely un-installed Avast. So it is NOT scanning all mails, it does NOTHING anymore.

    So it is totally the OS X mail app that is to blame for this.

     

    And the operand term in my last post was "in similar circumstances"...

     

    "Practice safe computing. Check compatibility" my ***...

     

    Read, and ye shall prosper.

     

    [edit] We apparently cross-posted, which takes the edge of for a bit... [/edit]

  • by Grant Lenahan,

    Grant Lenahan Grant Lenahan Jan 9, 2016 6:46 AM in response to GerardFromUlrum
    Level 4 (1,468 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 9, 2016 6:46 AM in response to GerardFromUlrum

    Gerard-

     

    Folks is plural.  You are singular. read all the continuing comments - my reply was not all about you.

     

    read all the continuing comments " i use X, I use Y, I use Z" - as if nothing has been said.

     

    I also maintain that an app using significant CPU for  a brief time, especially if other tasks are low, is not an indication of trouble.

     

    All i know is that on may machines of different types i have no issues.  So what's different?

     

    G

  • by GerardFromUlrum,

    GerardFromUlrum GerardFromUlrum Jan 9, 2016 6:52 AM in response to Grant Lenahan
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Jan 9, 2016 6:52 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

    Grant, like I edited in my previous post, we apparently cross-posted.

    By the way, I read the whole thread...

     

    I do not dispute your remark that doing stuff takes CPU cycles, and sometimes a lot of them.

    What I find peculiar is that OS X mail seems to use significantly more of them then i.e. Postbox.

    That can't be justified imho. Something's rotten there, as you stated yourself: "I'm not saying all is necessarily well."

     

    Lets just hope that this issue is going to be looked into, and solved soon.

     

    Gerard

  • by Grant Lenahan,

    Grant Lenahan Grant Lenahan Jan 9, 2016 6:59 AM in response to GerardFromUlrum
    Level 4 (1,468 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 9, 2016 6:59 AM in response to GerardFromUlrum

    Just a data point.  I just checked mail;, read yours, clicked on the link. Mail jumped to 2.1% CPU.

     

    After about 20 seconds it fell to quiescent - 0.1%

     

    So the problem is?

     

    My point is "what is different in your system"?

     

    G

  • by GerardFromUlrum,

    GerardFromUlrum GerardFromUlrum Jan 9, 2016 7:33 AM in response to Grant Lenahan
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Jan 9, 2016 7:33 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

    Just about the same here Grant, it's only when instructed to check for new mail that it goes thru the roof (between 120 and 170% CPU for about 15 seconds).

    Whereas Postbox goes to max 25% under the same conditions (AFAICT).

     

    I inserted some snapshots taken from the Activity app (Dutch version).

     

     

    For OSX mail:

    OSX_mail.png

     

    For Postbox:

     

    Schermafbeelding 2016-01-09 om 16.25.18.png

  • by figante,

    figante figante Jan 9, 2016 3:55 PM in response to GerardFromUlrum
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Jan 9, 2016 3:55 PM in response to GerardFromUlrum

    Hi:

     

    Just entering here cause I have the same problem. (Yes, after upgrading to El Capitan, Mail fires up to 200% CPU for a few minutes, and repeats that each time I check for new emails.)

     

    I tried all the suggestions here (including removing log files, rebuilding/reindexing/synchronizing, changing several settings in Preferences > Accounts, removing and recreating the accounts, completely uninstalling Avast, etc.), but things did not change. I even created a new user and recreated the accounts from scratch, to no avail.

     

    The problem appears to be related to an IMAP account that has ~1500 mailboxes, since it goes away when I disable that account. I am not an IMAP expert, but from the log files it appears as if each time Mail checks the account it loops through and checks each of the 1500 mailboxes over and over again (I can provide parts of the log files if that is of any use). I would have expected that some "flag" would tell the program to check only those mailboxes that did change.

     

    What about those here still experiencing the problem? Do you also have an IMAP account with lots of mailboxes?

     

    Thanks,

     

    Mariano

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