Tim Reisinger

Q: Mail.app crashing

I have been using El Capitan for nearly two weeks with little no problems and then all of sudden this morning my Mail app starts acting up.  It locks up my computer for nearly 10 minutes, just trying to load the app, and locks up the computer from doing anything else.  It is still doing it this afternoon even after a few restarts and running First Aid out of the Disk Utility.  This is the first time I have had this much problem with any apps so far.

 

Is anyone else experiencing these same problems today??

 

I'm almost wondering if it is an issue with the servers or the app??  do I need to delete the app and reload and start over??

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Oct 13, 2015 12:56 PM

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Q: Mail.app crashing

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  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Oct 13, 2015 6:06 PM in response to Tim Reisinger
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Oct 13, 2015 6:06 PM in response to Tim Reisinger

    When Mail becomes unresponsive, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.  

    These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

    Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

    The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

              SYSTEM LOG QUERIES All Messages

    from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

              View Show Log List

    from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

    Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.

    Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.

    Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

    The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

    Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

    Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

    Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

    When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

  • by Tim Reisinger,

    Tim Reisinger Tim Reisinger Oct 14, 2015 1:13 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (49 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 14, 2015 1:13 PM in response to Linc Davis

    here it is....

    http://pastebin.com/Fu3suSQ5

     

    I hopefully got what you need, I'm not sure if I got where I opened the mail app, if not let me know

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Oct 14, 2015 1:43 PM in response to Tim Reisinger
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Oct 14, 2015 1:43 PM in response to Tim Reisinger

    You made the page private, so I can't see it.

  • by Tim Reisinger,

    Tim Reisinger Tim Reisinger Oct 14, 2015 1:50 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (49 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 14, 2015 1:50 PM in response to Linc Davis
  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Oct 14, 2015 2:37 PM in response to Tim Reisinger
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Oct 14, 2015 2:37 PM in response to Tim Reisinger

    That extract is much too long to be useful. Please review the instructions, especially the line in red letters, and try again. If the instructions are unclear, specify what you don't understand.

  • by Tim Reisinger,

    Tim Reisinger Tim Reisinger Oct 14, 2015 2:57 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (49 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 14, 2015 2:57 PM in response to Linc Davis

    I wasn't sure if what you wanted was from the first time it happened or can I go ahead and try loading the mail app and mark the time I start it and we'll go with that code??

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Oct 14, 2015 4:48 PM in response to Tim Reisinger
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Oct 14, 2015 4:48 PM in response to Tim Reisinger

    I'd just like to see the messages that appear when Mail first becomes unresponsive. No more than about 25 lines, please, after duplicates are removed. The extract you posted earlier spans about five minutes.

  • by Tim Reisinger,

    Tim Reisinger Tim Reisinger Oct 14, 2015 5:50 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (49 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 14, 2015 5:50 PM in response to Linc Davis

    this is right after starting the app and the spinning beach ball of death....

    http://pastebin.com/iX7usVqJ

     

    than at 8:26:36 the clock on my computer stopped for about two minutes, here is the code from that time period...

    http://pastebin.com/mkLht5KV

     

    I hope there is something there that cam be fixed

  • by Linc Davis,Solvedanswer

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Oct 14, 2015 8:32 PM in response to Tim Reisinger
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Oct 14, 2015 8:32 PM in response to Tim Reisinger

    A

    Remove the Sophos product by following the instructions on this page, and also this one, if applicable. If you have a different version, the procedure may be different.

    Back up all data before making any changes. Never install any "anti-virus" or "anti-malware" software again.

    If you still have problems after removing Sophos and restarting, see below.

    B

    A program, or perhaps more than one, is at times using excessive memory, causing the whole system to be temporarily unresponsive. That can happen for two reasons:

              A long-running process with a memory leak (a kind of bug)

              Not enough memory for your usage pattern

    Please note that if the cause is a memory leak, installing more memory will not help. That's likely if you already have more than 4 GB of memory. Tracking down a memory leak can be difficult, and it may come down to a process of elimination.

    When you notice the unresponsiveness, open the Activity Monitor application and select All Processes from the View menu, if it's not already selected. Select the Memory tab.

    If the graph at the bottom of the window is in the yellow or red zone, click the heading of the Real Mem column in the process table twice to sort the table with the highest value at the top. If you don't see that column, select

              View ▹ Columns ▹ Real Memory

    from the menu bar.

    If one process (excluding "kernel_task") is using much more memory than all the others, or if kernel_task is using more than about 1.5 GB, that could be an indication of a leak. A better indication would be a process that continually grabs more and more real memory over time without ever releasing it. Here is an example of how it's done.

    The processes named "Safari Web Content" render web pages for Safari. They use a lot of memory and may leak if certain Safari extensions or third-party web plugins are installed. Consider them prime suspects.

    Another process often implicated in memory leaks is "inkjet4" or "inkjet8," which is a component of the HP printing software. If it's present, force-quit the process in Activity Monitor to solve the problem temporarily. Empty the print queues in the Printers & Scanners preference pane (which has a slightly different name in each recent version of OS X.) If you don't use an HP printer, remove the software. Otherwise, if the problem is recurrent, update the software (which may not help) or contact HP support.

    "Wired" memory should be a small part of the total. That memory is not swapped, but it makes less physical memory available which may then result in swapping. If you have a lot of wired memory, that's usually an indication of a memory leak in a third-party program that modifies the operating system at a low level. Ask for guidance in that case.

    If you don't have an obvious memory leak, your options are to install more memory (if possible) or to run fewer programs simultaneously.

    The next suggestion is only for users familiar with the shell. For a more precise, but potentially misleading, test, run the following command:

    sudo leaks -nocontext -nostacks process | grep total

    where process is the name of a process you suspect of leaking memory. Almost every process will leak some memory; the question is how much, and especially how much the leak increases with time. I can’t be more specific. See the leaks(1) man page and the Apple developer documentation for details.

  • by Tim Reisinger,

    Tim Reisinger Tim Reisinger Oct 15, 2015 5:30 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (49 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 15, 2015 5:30 AM in response to Linc Davis

    Thanks Linc.....

     

    Sophos removed....

    Mail is loading a little quicker, I only have 4 gb of memory and I was already looking at upgrading it.  I opened the activity monitor and then opened Mail and watched it red line.  The Mail app was using up to 7.5GB of memory which is why it was locking up, since as I mentioned I only have 4.  It must be the new version because I haven't had any problems until now.. I was looking at getting another 4, but maybe I will have to get 8?

     

    thanks again for your patience and help

  • by Linc Davis,Helpful

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Oct 15, 2015 12:00 PM in response to Tim Reisinger
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Oct 15, 2015 12:00 PM in response to Tim Reisinger

    Please take these steps to delete the Mail "sandbox" folders.

    Step 1

    Back up all data.

    Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail

    Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

              Services Reveal

    from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a folder named "com.apple.mail" selected. If it does, move the selected folder—not just its contents—to the Desktop. Leave the Finder window open for now.

    Restart the computer. Launch Mail and test. If the problem is resolved, you may have to recreate some of your Mail settings. Any custom stationery that you created may be lost. Ask for instructions if you want to preserve that data. You can then delete the folder you moved and close the Finder window.

    Caution: If you change any of the contents of the sandbox, but leave the folder itself in place, Mail may crash or not launch at all. Deleting the whole sandbox will cause it to be rebuilt automatically.

    Step 2

    If Step 1 doesn't solve the problem, repeat with this line:

    ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.MailServiceAgent

    *If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination  command-C. In the Finder, select

              Go Go to Folder...

    from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You may not see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

  • by Tim Reisinger,Helpful

    Tim Reisinger Tim Reisinger Oct 15, 2015 1:03 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (49 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Oct 15, 2015 1:03 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Linc you're the man.... Everything is working as it is suppose to and looking at the activity monitor the usage is back down in the double digit MB

    I suppose now I can just throw the com.apple.mail folder away now??

     

    thanks again for all your help

  • by gandcgold,

    gandcgold gandcgold Oct 15, 2015 12:12 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 15, 2015 12:12 PM in response to Linc Davis

    This also solved the issues I was having.

    Thank you.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Oct 15, 2015 12:41 PM in response to Tim Reisinger
    Level 10 (208,000 points)
    Applications
    Oct 15, 2015 12:41 PM in response to Tim Reisinger

    I can just throw the com.apple.mail folder away now??

    Yes.

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