Sierra - Mail crashes when adding attachment

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Level 1

5 points

Sierra - Mail crashes when adding attachment

Every time I try to add an attachment, Mail crashes. The window to select file begins to open and then crash. New mail or reply sees the same behavior.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Sep 23, 2016 7:19 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 16, 2017 5:53 PM in response to chris_g1

I want to clarify that you are saying that I need to take a complete backup of my operating system and all my user data because an operation that used to work for years in Mail.app doesn't work in Sierra on my new expensive MacBook Pro with touch bar? I just want to be sure that I understand what the recommended course of action is to move forward on this issue.

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Answer 2

chris_g1

Community Specialist

Sep 24, 2016 1:27 PM in response to daalliso

Hello daalliso,

Thanks for asking your question here in the Apple Support Communities. It seems that your mail is crashing when you add an attachment since the upgrade to Sierra. Of course we want you to experience the new operating system functioning exactly as you would expect it. Here is what I recommend.

The first thing we want to ensure is that all your data is safe. You can make a backup using Time Machine and an external hard drive. Some people recommend an external hard drive two times the size of your internal hard drive because it will fill up with backups eventually, but as long as you have a drive large enough to store all the data currently on your Mac, that will suffice. Use this article for help making a backup for your Mac: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac .

Once you have a backup of your data, please open this help article: macOS Sierra: If an app freezes or quits unexpectedly . There are many things to check there to try to resolve this for you. The last step asks you to see if the computer functions properly in safe mode. This step will tell us if the issue is related to any third party apps, caches, or plugins.

To check safe mode, please open this help article: Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up . If Mail is working properly again, but then is still not working as we want it to when you restart the Mac to leave safe mode, please check the section titled "If an issue doesn't happen in safe mode" for troubleshooting steps.

If the issue is also happening in safe mode, you want to test this in another test administrator user account on your Mac. A test user will let us know if the issue is isolated to your account, or system wide. Please check this help article: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac . You will have to set up mail and try adding an attachment here in the new user to test this. If the issue is not being experienced in the test user, check the section titled "If an issue happens in only one user account" from the article provided in the previous sentence of this paragraph. It has a few things to check, but then leads to this help article: Mac OS X: How to troubleshoot a software issue for further troubleshooting.
I am confident your issue will be solved by one of these. Thanks again and have a great rest of your day.

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Answer 3

Sep 26, 2016 9:58 AM in response to chris_g1

I have exactly the same problem. It happens whether I use the paperclip or drag and drop the image into the draft email. The rainbow spinner starts and never stops. I have to Force Quit Mail.

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