Sierra Mail Preview pane stuck closed

For the life of me, I can't get Sierra's Mail Preview pane to open. I closed it so as to not load the contents of a spam email, then as I have in the past, I hover my cursor over the far right edge of the Mail viewer window, make sure the cursor changes into the appropriate icon showing I can reveal the preview pane, but when I click, hold and drag left, the preview pane won't be revealed.

I'm using a Magic Trackpad 2, and I thought it may have been a glitch with pressing/holding and dragging, but that doesn't seem to be the issue.

I've quit and restarted Mail. I've restarted my Mac.

I opened a .plist for Mail to see what I could find.

There is an entry for:

NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode and I set that to NO (was YES).

That didn't help.

There's an entry for:

NSNavPanelExpandedSizeForSaveMode and it was set to a size that appeared to be the preview pane being CLOSED. So I reset it to the same size for the is value: NSNavPanelExpandedSizeForOpenMode

But that didn't help.

Any ideas how to fix this?

Thanks.

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Mar 20, 2017 2:40 PM

Top-ranking reply

citygirl2359

Level 1

8 points

Posted on Apr 26, 2018 8:58 AM

I just now stumbled upon the answer! You must first be sure you're NOT in the classic layout. (Mail/Preferences/uncheck the classic layout.) Then, put your cursor on the far right side of the Mail screen until you get the sideways "T" cursor (not the double arrow cursor that enlarges the screen.) With the sideways "T" cursor, drag the right-hand edge of the screen to the left. At first, it will look like nothing is happening, but keep going left and then the Preview Pane will appear like magic. Once you select a message, then the Preview Screen will populate. Good luck! 😉

View in context

24 replies

silphium

Level 1

18 points

Dec 21, 2017 5:38 PM in response to rolyrock

Add a "me too" to the mix. Keep dragging and it will suddenly appear. My goodness. This has got be to be one of the stupidest UI design goofs I've ever seen on a Mac. No visual feedback whatsoever while you're dragging. What's the user going to think? "Nothing's happening, it's not working." Someone really dropped the ball on this one.

Nov 21, 2017 3:56 PM in response to Kevin Callahan

I found the answer in someone else post about same issue - keep dragging... even though it looks as though nothing is happening, the preview window will eventually open.

Mar 20, 2017 3:53 PM in response to Kevin Callahan

See if restarting your Mac helps.

Mar 20, 2017 3:56 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Hi Carolyn - As noted in my initial post, I did restart my Mac, to no avail. I will see if I can find a mouse to determine if the problem is my Magic Trackpad 2 somehow misbehaving.

Nov 22, 2017 5:53 AM in response to bjincosta

bjincosta is spot on. This is the fix! Cheers!

imatsig

Level 1

7 points

Nov 24, 2017 5:31 PM in response to bjincosta

Genius, thanks for that, much simpler than complex things with plists and re-boots etc. that don't work, this just worked, keep dragging though it looks like nothing is happening, brilliant.....:)

rolyrock

Level 1

4 points

Nov 25, 2017 2:02 AM in response to imatsig

This was the only solution that worked for me too - was a frustrating couple of hours figuring out how to solve this.

Thanks for the suggestion

sasemt

Level 1

4 points

Jul 4, 2018 3:48 AM in response to bjincosta

This is the only fix! Took about 10-15 attempts and PREVIEW is back. Thank you.

brfisher

Level 1

4 points

Jul 17, 2018 6:30 AM in response to bjincosta

Well, for crying out loud. It works. Thank you.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Sierra Mail Preview pane stuck closed