Mac mail freezes constantly

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Level 1

19 points

Mac mail freezes constantly

Mac mail freezes and requires force quit when I address an email to a new email address not in my contacts. SOOoo annoying. Every time. Got the latest version of Sierra 10.12.6

iMac, macOS Sierra (10.12.5)

Posted on Nov 22, 2017 10:05 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Eric Root

Level 10

685,251 points

Nov 24, 2017 5:10 PM in response to staylorinoz

Do a backup, preferably 2 on 2 separate drives.

Quit Mail.

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Go to Library/Containers/com.apple.mail. Move the folder com.apple.mail to your desktop. You must move the entire folder, not just the contents.

Restart, re-launch Mail and test. If the problem is solved, recreate any required Mail settings and import any emails you want to save from the folder on the desktop. You can then put the folder in the Trash. If the problem remains, return the folder to where you got it replacing the one that is there.

If that doesn’t solve it repeat the above using Containers/com.apple.MailServiceAgent.

Information learned from Linc Davis. Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

Mail crashing

Crashes/quits unexpectedly

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Answer 2

Teddy_B

Community Specialist

Nov 24, 2017 2:15 PM in response to staylorinoz

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities staylorinoz,

If I'm understanding your post right, the Mail app freezes on your Mac when you create a new message and address it to a recipient that isn't in your contacts. I know how disruptive it can be to experience complications with apps on your Mac, and I'm happy to help you with a solution.

Let's start with a full restart of your Mac if you haven't done so already. This is a pretty basic step, but it can be really helpful for resolving various issues. Next, reset the NVRAM using the steps here:

How to reset NVRAM on your Mac

Do you have multiple email accounts set up in Mail? If so, let’s try seeing if we can narrow this down to a particular email account. Go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts. Select one of your email accounts from the left side and uncheck the box next to Mail and then test out composing a message in the Mail app. Do this for each one of your email accounts. If the issue is resolved with Mail disabled for one of those accounts, try removing and readding that particular email account next using the steps here:

Set up Mail with your email accounts

If the issue persists, see if you experience the same thing when using Mail while booted in safe mode: macOS Sierra: Start up in safe mode After that, test out Mail in a brand-new user account: macOS Sierra: Set up users, guests, and groups on your Mac . Also, let me know at what point does Mail freeze, for example, does it freeze after you type in the email address or does it not freeze until you try to send the email message?

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Take care.

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Answer 3

staylorinoz Author

Level 1

19 points

Nov 30, 2017 2:29 PM in response to Lahdaki

I’ve been researching this and it appears it has been plagueing people for years! I found this and I’m about to try it, but it is sub-standard to have to use these work-arounds. Pretty obvious no one at Apple cares about this or all those thousands of employees are doing something else. Really disappointing. This issue has caused me to make so many unprofessional errors in emails I have sent from my business account.

Here is what looks like a solution:

https://miapple.me/fixing-mac-os-x-10-10-yosemite-mail-not-responding/

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Answer 4

Lahdaki

Level 1

21 points

Nov 30, 2017 2:18 PM in response to staylorinoz

I have the same problem and tried all underneath explanations but without results. On the top of this Mail is just freezing constantly. 10-15 times a day I have to force closing it. Just amazing annoying. How can we fix this?

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Answer 5

Nov 30, 2017 3:44 AM in response to staylorinoz

Yup, while trying to update my Christmas Card list, my Apple Contacts freezes every time I try to move a contact to the my "Christmas Card" folder. Been doing this for 20 years and now it is impossible. What the heck is going on.

My OS is: 10:13.1

Contacts is 11.0

This is the message I get when it freezes: