Mail crashes when selecting more than 3 messages and trying to print.

Question

Level 1

8 points

Mail crashes when selecting more than 3 messages and trying to print.

Running Sierra 10.12 on an iMac. When I select more than 3 messages in Mail the app crashes when I try to print. There is no problem printing 3 or less at a time. I did not have this problem before today. I have shut down and restarted the computer but it still behaves the same.

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12)

Posted on Oct 14, 2016 6:36 PM

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Answer 1

braden85

Community Specialist

Oct 16, 2016 10:45 AM in response to DJMusk

Hello DJMusk,

Thanks for asking about your mail crashing here in the Apple Support Communities. I understand how important email is for everything these days. I'm happy to provide a few things to check this with you.

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. Use this article for help making a backup of your Mac: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac .

Once your data is safe, I recommend you boot into safe mode. Safe mode will tell us if the issue is related to a startup item or plugins, and sometimes is all that is necessary to correct some problems. When you boot to safe mode, log in to your account and check if the issue is also occurring in safe mode or not. This help article will help you with the steps for safe mode: Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up . If everything is working properly in safe mode, but then is not working after you restart the Mac to leave safe mode and boot back into your user account, 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 . If the issue is being experienced in the test user also, then we need to check the section titled "If an issue happens in more than one user account" from the article provided above which will lead you to this help article: Mac OS X: How to troubleshoot a software issue .

Thanks again and have a great rest of your day.

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Answer 2

DJMusk Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 16, 2016 10:51 AM in response to braden85

I tried safe mode and logging in as another user. Neither of these solved my problem. Mail still crashes when trying to print more than 3 messages at the same time. Here is a screen shot of the error:

Perhaps reinstalling Mail would help but the instructions given in the article: Mac OS X: How to troubleshoot a software issue were for older system software. I have 10.12.

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Answer 3

Eric--F

Community Specialist

Oct 17, 2016 11:46 AM in response to DJMusk

Hello DJMusk,

Thanks for continuing our troubleshooting here in the Apple Support Communities. Thanks for testing if the issue occurred in both safe mode and a test user. Since it does seem to happen in both of these, yes, you need to reinstall the operating system.

To ensure you don't lose any data, please make a recent backup prior to doing this step. You can make a backup using Time Machine and an external hard drive. Use this article for help making a backup of your Mac: Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac .

It's recommended to remove the email account before reinstalling macOS, but you have to be sure of what type of an account this is prior to doing this. If it is a POP account, your emails are not stored on the server, and they will not come from the email service provider when you set it up again. You will have to restore them from your Time Machine backup. If it is an IMAP account, the emails are stored on the email service provider servers, and will repopulate once you add the account again.

To remove the account, go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts. Find the account for your email. Uncheck the box for mail. You will get a notice that this will delete the emails. This is normal and you will get them back in the ways described above. Or if you have the option, go ahead and just delete the account.

Then, you can reinstall macOS Sierra. You will need to start with the Mac powered down. If necessary, open this link on another device, take a screen shot with another device, or print these instructions: About macOS Recovery . You can use the built-in recovery disk to install a new copy of OS X while keeping your files and user settings intact.

Important: You need to be connected to the Internet to reinstall OS X.

Step 1: Choose Apple menu > Restart. Once your Mac restarts (and the gray screen appears), hold down the Command (⌘) and R keys.

Step 2: If you’re not connected to the Internet, choose a network from the Wi-Fi menu (in the top-right corner of the screen).

Step 3: Select Reinstall OS X, and then click Continue.

Step 4: Follow the onscreen instructions. In the pane where you select a disk, select your current OS X disk (in most cases, it is the only one available).

Step 5: To start the installation, click Install.

This normally takes anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. It can take longer depending on your Internet Service Provider upload and download speeds. Make sure you are connected to an open wireless network like your home network. Once it is reinstalled, go ahead and log into your account, and then re-add your mail account. Test to see if the issue is still occurring.

Thanks again and have a wonderful rest of your day.

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