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Mail won't stop crashing. Help?

Mail won't stay open. It crashes repeatedly.

For the last three days, here's what's happened:

  1. Open mail
  2. Mail crashes within a minute.
  3. Send a report to Apple.
  4. Repeat


Mail will sometimes allow me to send an email in that short span.

It will download emails to two of my three inboxes.

But it no longer downloads to my third, and most important inbox.

And it will not stay open!


Any ideas how to reset / refresh / revive and use mail?

I rely on it very heavily for work and home use.


Thanks!

MacBook Air, macOS High Sierra (10.13.1), null

Posted on Dec 15, 2017 5:57 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Dec 15, 2017 6:27 PM

Hi there,


Did you try rebuilding the mail app? Here is how:


Go to mailbox menu

Select Rebuild at the bottom of the menu


Most of the time rebuilding the Apple Mail app helps considerably, however macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 update has a impact on the system and create a lot of issues for many users...


But hey, positive thinking it might very well work! Please let me know if helpful otherwise we'll look for another solution!


Good luck!

11 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Dec 15, 2017 6:27 PM in response to PapaandMamaBear

Hi there,


Did you try rebuilding the mail app? Here is how:


Go to mailbox menu

Select Rebuild at the bottom of the menu


Most of the time rebuilding the Apple Mail app helps considerably, however macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 update has a impact on the system and create a lot of issues for many users...


But hey, positive thinking it might very well work! Please let me know if helpful otherwise we'll look for another solution!


Good luck!

Dec 20, 2017 6:10 PM in response to PapaandMamaBear

Gosh, still...


OK then if rebuilding didn't help, then rebuilding one by one as well as reindexing the Apple Mail Application, here below how to do it, then let me know if helpful.


Otherwise download Etrecheck, it is a system reporting app, widely used on Apple Communities forum, it gives a snapshot of the system and very often help to pinpoint issues. You can past the report here in and we'll see what we can find... Do not worry, it is perfectly safe and does not record any personal or sensitive data from your computer...


Some times ago I found the following online (credit to Computer World):


Mac users depend on Apple Mail for day-to-day email use, but as those messages come in and go out your Mailboxes will become bloated. When they do, Mail's performance will suffer and you'll find that even something as simple as downloading new messages takes an age.

Before to begin

  • Delete messages inside your Deleted Items and Spam folders
  • Delete messages you no longer need
  • Update to the latest version of Mail

Now you've done that, we may be able to improve things using these two tips:

User uploaded file

Step 1: Rebuild

Rebuilding a Mailbox in Mail sound daunting but it really isn't. Launch Mail, select one of your mailboxes and click on the Mailbox menu. At the bottom of the pane choose the Rebuild option. If you have a large mailbox, you can expect the process to take a few hours.

You must repeat this step for each one of your Mailboxes.

While the process takes place, you may experience system performance lag, as it can consume a lot of system resources and memory.

Another caveat, if you use IMAP or Exchange with any of the accounts, the process will redownload every message from the server, so you'll use a lot of bandwidth.

Now that you've completed these steps, work with Mail a little longer. If you are still having issues, or Mail fails to launch, you should try a manual reindex.

Step 2: Reindex

Manual reindexing of Mail messages is the only way to go if the application has become so unresponsive it barely works at all, search is not functioning correctly or the app won't launch.


Mail will automatically attempt to reindex your messages if it detects problems with the mailboxes, but sometimes a manual reindex is the best option. If you are still having problems with Mail after following step one, try manual reindexing.

Quit Mail if it’s open.

User uploaded file

To get to your home Library folder, hold down the Option key, then in the Finder choose Go > Library.

In ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData, delete any file that begins with “Envelope Index,” such as Envelope Index or Envelope Index-shm. (Before you actually delete the files, it makes sense to copy them to a folder on your desktop.)

Launch Mail and the app will build new Envelope Index files -- this can take a long time if there are numerous messages to go through.

If everything seems to be working correctly, you can now delete the copies of the "Envelope Index" files from your desktop.

In most cases, these two tips should solve most Mail problems

Credit to computer world...

Jan 16, 2018 6:16 PM in response to xmetienne

Hey Xmetienne,


It's acting up again, badly.

I've rebuilt and reindexed a few times.


It's just being nasty.


I've done etrecheck. Can't see anything worth seeing, but maybe you can?


EtreCheck version: 3.4.6 (460)

Report generated 2018-01-17 12:27:37

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 4:09

Performance: Good


Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.


Problem: Apps are crashing

Description:

Mail fails.



Hardware Information:

MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2014)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir6,1

1 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-4260U) CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Handoff/Airdrop2: supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 101

Proxy: ProxyAutoConfig

Proxy: ProxyAutoDiscovery

iCloud Quota: 10.51 GB available


Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 5000 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 1366 x 768


Disk Information:

APPLE SSD SD0128F disk0: (121.33 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB

(disk0s2) <not mounted> [APFS Container]: 120.47 GB


USB Information:

USB30Bus

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. iPad


Thunderbolt Information:

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus


Virtual disks:

HD (disk1s1 - APFS) / [Startup]: 120.47 GB (17.97 GB free)

Encrypted: Yes (Unlocked)

Physical disk: disk0s2 120.47 GB (17.97 GB free)

(disk1s2) <not mounted> [Preboot]: 120.47 GB

Physical disk: disk0s2 120.47 GB

(disk1s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 120.47 GB

Physical disk: disk0s2 120.47 GB

(disk1s4) /private/var/vm [VM]: 120.47 GB

Physical disk: disk0s2 120.47 GB


System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 (17C205) - Time since boot: about one hour


Gatekeeper:

Mac App Store and identified developers


System Launch Agents:

[not loaded] 9 Apple tasks

[loaded] 172 Apple tasks

[running] 109 Apple tasks


System Launch Daemons:

[not loaded] 37 Apple tasks

[loaded] 187 Apple tasks

[running] 108 Apple tasks


Launch Agents:

[failed] com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a2 3d420d.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-12) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist (? 9b4453cf be93c7fb - installed 2017-07-20) [Lookup]


Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-12) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-01-12) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2017-12-15) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-03-28) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-03-10) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist (Shell Script e3fefdd2 - installed 2017-07-12) [Lookup]

[loaded] net.sourceforge.MonolingualHelper.plist (ti und m AG - installed 2015-07-25) [Lookup]


User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2017-08-11) [Lookup]

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-09-28) [Lookup]


Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: 28.0.0.137 (installed 2018-01-10) [Lookup]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-12-22)

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 15.010.20060 (installed 2016-03-09) [Lookup]

AdobePDFViewer: 15.010.20060 (installed 2016-03-09) [Lookup]

o1dbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 (installed 2015-12-12) [Lookup]

Flash Player: 28.0.0.137 (installed 2018-01-10) [Lookup]

googletalkbrowserplugin: 5.41.3.0 (installed 2015-12-12) [Lookup]

JavaAppletPlugin: Java 8 Update 141 build 15 (installed 2018-01-17) Check version


User internet Plug-ins:

Picasa: 1.0 (installed 2009-01-07) [Lookup]


Safari Extensions:

[enabled] Invisible Status Bar - Daniel Bergey - http://danielbergey.com/software/invisiblestatusbar/ (installed 2010-07-29)


3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player (installed 2017-12-15) [Lookup]

Java (installed 2017-07-20) [Lookup]


Time Machine:

Skip System Files: NO

Mobile backups: ON

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

HD: Disk size: 120.47 GB Disk used: 102.50 GB

Destinations:

Captain 2 [Local]

Total size: 999.86 GB

Total number of backups: 55

Oldest backup: 14 Apr 15, 4:43 pm

Last backup: 20 Nov 17, 8:01 pm

Size of backup disk: Excellent

Backup size 999.86 GB > (Disk size 120.47 GB X 3)


Top Processes by CPU:

28% kernel_task

23% com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

19% com.apple.WebKit.Networking

13% Safari

11% WindowServer


Top Processes by Memory:

703 MB kernel_task

389 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

247 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

180 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

168 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent


Top Processes by Network Use:

Input Output Process name

20 MB 494 KB com.apple.WebKit.Networking

377 KB 6 KB Mail

83 KB 267 KB apsd

72 KB 35 KB mDNSResponder

15 KB 3 KB cloudd


Top Processes by Energy Use:

16.62 WindowServer

16.58 com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

5.36 VTDecoderXPCService

2.74 Safari

1.88 com.apple.WebKit.WebContent


Virtual Memory Information:

570 MB Available RAM

18 MB Free RAM

3.44 GB Used RAM

552 MB Cached files

310 MB Swap Used


Software installs (last 30 days):

Bear: 1.4 (installed 2017-12-20)

Cardhop: 1.0.5 (installed 2017-12-23)

Adobe Flash Player: (installed 2018-01-10)


Install information may not be complete.


Diagnostics Events (last 3 days for minor events):

2018-01-17 11:22:12 Last shutdown cause: -60 - Corrupt filesystem

2018-01-17 11:12:37 com.apple.WebKit.Databases High CPU use [Open] [Details]

2018-01-16 18:59:47 com.apple.WebKit.WebContent High CPU use [Open] [Details]

2018-01-16 16:51:50 com.apple.iCloudHelper Crash [Open]

2018-01-16 11:23:43 CalendarAgent Crash [Open]

Dec 16, 2017 11:00 AM in response to xmetienne

When you write 'mailbox menu' -- are you referring to opening MacMail? I updated to 10.3.2 via app store and the whole thing is absolute *****. I've restarted, crashed, restarted, etc, more than 10 times.


Super frustrated with Apple. They are going downhill fast. Apple updates [both Mac and iPhone] suck. It seems apple is in a panicked rush to provide a updates when the developers have not fully tested them.


All told, these 'fixes' cause crashes and other glitches.


I've read almost every thread on this forum. None of the suggestions have helped stop mac mail from crashing.


I am by no means a Mac Luddite, but customers should not have to be in developer mode to troubleshoot the myriad of hassles with updated OS's. I am seriously rethinking my 20+ years of apple loyalty.


Could you please kindly explain what you mean by 'rebuilding?'

*End of Rant* Thanks and cheers!

Mail won't stop crashing. Help?

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