User profile for user: Iron Geezer
Iron Geezer Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Sierra Mail hangs up

I loaded the Sierra operating system and the problem I have is that on starting mail I get the mail upgrade screen and it just hangs and does not open a mail window. However I have another user set up on my machine and that account had no problem with the mail upgrade and opening mail and loading old and new emails. This second account had a lot less old mail. I suspect my mail data in my mail account has become corrupted. It is not clear to me how I can reload mail data from time machine other than returning the entire system back to before the new OS was loaded. An suggestions?

iMac, Other OS

Posted on Sep 30, 2016 5:08 AM

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16 replies
User profile for user: CP10934
CP10934
User level: Level 1
26 points

Feb 5, 2017 3:26 AM in response to Iron Geezer

I have the same problem and am running with Sierra 10.12.3 which is not a beta. Running on a brand new (one day old) late 2016 MBP with the touch bar. In fact this is the second late 2016 MBP I have had. Apple swapped out the one I bought two weeks ago and gave me this new one because I was having the same problem.


No answer from APL CARE and the "Genius" bar other than to turn off the machine with the power button and turn it back on.

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User profile for user: Corrie84
Corrie84
User level: Community Specialist

Oct 1, 2016 9:51 AM in response to Iron Geezer

Hello Iron Geezer.

If I’m understanding your post right, each time you open Mail in your user account on your Mac, you get stuck at an upgrade screen and it never actually takes you to your Inbox. I know how important it is to have the Mail app working properly on your Mac, so I’m happy to help you get to the bottom of this.

What I would recommend doing first is restarting your Mac, logging into your user account, and then hold down the Shift key on your keyboard while you click on the Mail application. Keep holding down Shift until Mail opens. This will cause Mail to open up without any specific mailboxes or messages to open. Give Mail some time to load to see if the issue persists.

If you were wanting to try restoring mailboxes with Time Machine, you can find the steps here: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac To view your messages in Time Machine, you will need to have the Mail app open at the time that you actually enter Time Machine.

Next you can try booting to safe mode to clear some system level caches and verify as well as repair the disk if needed. Once you log into safe mode restart as normal and test the issue again.

Try safe mode if your Mac doesn‘t finish starting up

Follow these steps to start up into safe mode.

  1. Start or restart your Mac.
  2. Immediately after you hear the startup sound, press and hold the Shift key.
  3. Release the Shift key when you see the Apple logo appear on the screen.

After the Apple logo appears, it might take longer than usual to reach the login screen or your desktop. This is because your Mac performs a directory check of your startup disk as part of safe mode.

To leave safe mode, restart your computer without pressing any keys during startup.


If you continue to have issues with your Mail app, the next thing I would recommend is reinstalling macOS so Mail gets reloaded. This is not going to erase any data on your Mac. You can find the steps on how to reinstall listed under the "If you're reinstalling for other reasons" section of How to reinstall macOS You can skip step 2 in that section since you aren't going to be erasing your drive first.

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Take care.
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User profile for user: dianeoforegon
dianeoforegon
User level: Level 5
7,305 points

Oct 2, 2016 2:03 PM in response to Iron Geezer

What type of account(s)? (POP, IMAP, Exchange)

If you have POP accounts with no data stored locally under "On My Mac" you can start with a clean Mail setup.


Quit Mail

Go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts

Uncheck Mail for each account.

Go to User's Library > Mail

Move Mail to Trash

While in the User's Library, scroll to Containers.

Delete the com.apple.mail folder

Log out/in under the Apple in the Menu bar.

Go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts

Add back one account at a time.


If you do have local folders, you can restore from Time Machine.

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User profile for user: Iron Geezer
Iron Geezer Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Oct 3, 2016 6:11 AM in response to Corrie84

Hi Corrie, Thanks for the suggestions. Starting Mail in safe mode and then starting the computer in safe mode did not alter Mail upgrade hanging up.

I then tried reinstalling the OS. Since downloading Sierra there has been one update which I installed. When I tried reloading the OS the computer tells me that I have a newer version of the OS than the one I am trying to install and will not let me install it. Is there a way round this?

Other users on the computer are working fine. My problem is having access to all my old emails in this account. Mail is not the only problem in this user account. Dropbox will not run on this account but is fine on the other users. Any other suggestions would be welcomed.

Iron Geezer

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User profile for user: AppleJoe
AppleJoe
User level: Community Manager

Oct 3, 2016 10:09 AM in response to Iron Geezer

Hello again, Iron Geezer.

It sounds like Mail may be hanging because of there being a large amount of emails it's trying to download for your email accounts. Let's try these steps:
  1. Open up System Preferences > Internet Accounts.
  2. For each email account you have listed on the left, select it and then uncheck the box next to Mail.
  3. Once Mail is unchecked for all of your email accounts, open up your Mail app.
  4. Open Mail > Preferences > Accounts.
  5. Starting from the first email account listed, select it and then check the box next to "Enable this account". Allow all of the emails to finish downloading for each account before enabling the next one in the list.
After all of your email accounts have been enabled and all emails have been downloaded, close out of Mail completely and then re-open it to make sure it opens with no problems. If reinstalling macOS Sierra is still necessary, make sure you're following the steps for reinstalling from Recovery in the support article I provided previously.

Take care.
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User profile for user: dianeoforegon
dianeoforegon
User level: Level 5
7,305 points

Oct 11, 2016 10:17 AM in response to Iron Geezer

What you have is the very latest public beta. When Apple releases 10.12.1 for the public it will be what you already have.


My recommendation:

  • Clone your drive to an external drive.
  • Boot from the clone and wipe your internal drive.
  • Install Sierra. Not the beta but the public version. I suggest you remove yourself from the beta.
  • Setup Mail from scratch.
  • Once you are satisfied that Mail is working, bring over only your files. Do not bring over anything from your User's Library. There are only a few items you want to bring over from your User's Library like Stickies but most things will work best if you start fresh.
  • If you have messages stored under "On My Mac" or if you have POP accounts, you will need to export your data first.


Tips for an easy transfer of data to a new install:

  • Turn on sync for all iCloud options before backing up. Even if you don't normally use the Keychain in iCloud set to sync for the setup then you can turn it off.
  • If you use Firefox and Chrome, you can also sign in and your bookmarks etc will sync.


Leave the Public Beta


Opt out in the App Store preferences and then run

sudo softwareupdate --clear-catalog

Update should disappear when App Store is restarted


Some users have had trouble stopping beta builds. See these posts:

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/cant-get-off-public-beta.2000863/


http://mjtsai.com/blog/2016/10/03/disabling-macos-beta-updates/

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User profile for user: Iron Geezer
Iron Geezer Author
User level: Level 1
6 points

Oct 11, 2016 3:38 PM in response to dianeoforegon

Hi, Thanks for the input, this sounds like the way forward. However I am a bit of a novice at using Disk Utility for cloning a drive. I have connected a hard drive, and formatted and partitioned it. However every time I try to use Restore to copy the HD to it, I get an error message, Source is read - write and can not be unmounted. Obviously I have some setting wrong but I don't know what. Individual files can be copied to the drive without any problems.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks

Iron Geezer

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Sierra Mail hangs up

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