Apple Mail hangs

After sending an huge .zip e-mail attachment with Apple Mail (I know, it's my fault!) and trying to suddenly stop the process, the application continuously sends packets of data over the internet. Even after deleting the e-mail message, Apple Mail continues to hang, and I'm unable to get Apple Mail working properly. I had to disconnect my account for sending messages in the cue. How can I solve this problem? Do I have to delete my IMAP account?
My current configuration: iMac i5 with 8 GB of RAM / Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2.
Apple Mail version 5.1 (1251/1251.1).
Thanks for your support,
-- David

What type of account is this (POP, IMAP, .Mac)?

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Apple Mail Hangs Up In Outbox

Ok Apple, please address this issue. We use Mac's in a corporate setting and had to fight hard to get to use them instead of PC's. If our Corporate email is not going to work reliably, our geekie, stuck in the dark ages IT guys are going to try and force us back on PC's. Please address this issue.

Here are some suggestions for getting the best results from this site.
First, apart from the "Community Specialists," you're not talking to Apple representatives here. You're asking other users of Apple products to volunteer to help you. Please keep that in mind.
Give details of the problem. Don't just state your conclusion as to what's causing it or how it should be solved. A remark such as "I think I have a virus," or "How do I reinstall," or "X doesn't work" conveys no useful information. If X did work, you wouldn't be here. Instead, you should post something like this: "I did A; I was expecting B; but I got C instead." Include the complete, verbatim text of any error messages you saw, and specify where you saw them: in an application window, a CrashReporter window, a log, or whatever.
Also describe the steps you’ve taken yourself, if any, to try to resolve the issue. If the problem is of recent origin, did you make any changes to your setup just before you first noticed it? Is the problem reproducible or intermittent? That is, does it always manifest itself when you take a certain action, or only at unpredictable times?
Before posting, ask yourself whether it’s likely that you are the the only person ever to have had this problem. If not, search the discussions for answered questions similar to yours. If you found any pertinent information, but it didn't help, give details.

10.10.3 Apple Mail Hang - Gmail maybe causing it

I had to go into system preferences and internet accounts and click on each gmail account I had. Gmail wanted the main password and not an app password. It also gave me an accept screen.
After that it opened.
Good Luck and Hope this helps

davidh wrote:
If you make manual edits, then it's key to back them up prior to an update.
It turns out that this is not the problem with either of the issues I encountered.
It's also advisable, to test any update in advance using a non-production server/box
prior to installing it on a production server.
Good advice, but in the two problems I identified in master.cf, a backup would not have helped.
One claim is that the 10.5.3 update makes a change to /etc/services - however:
Not from me. 10.5.3 does cause a situation, however, where on needs to adjust that file to remove error messages in the log.
having a brief look at the contents of the Combo updater (which should include all updated items in/of any 10.5.x update thus far), I don't see anything that changes /etc/services.
This file did not change on my box. It was still dated in Sept., 2007, but the entry for port 465 had to be changed from urb to smtps to make the errors go away.
Maybe it's incredibly well-hidden or I've looked right past it many times, but it doesn't show itself.
Given that services did not change, and master.cf works (after a fashion) in 10.5.3, it seems that the change was made elsewhere during the update. There have been hints by some that they know what the problem is, but they have yet to 'share.'
but again, I'm looking at the comb updater right now.
Which is what I used, all 633 MB of it.

Emailing Photos Hangs at "Resizing" in Apple Mail

I noticed this morning that, if I try to email a group of photos from Aperture (using Share --> Email) with Apple Mail as my email client, Mail will hang and show "Resizing ####.jpg" in the status bar (with ### representing the file name). If I mail the photos individually, or in smaller groups, I don't get this message and Mail functions normally. I first noticed this when I tried to send 10 photos in the same email. When Apple Mail hangs with the "...resizing..." status, it's really hung...I have to Force Quit the Mail application.
I never saw this behavior in iPhoto (I've just started using Aperture) and am wondering if this is an Aperture problem.
I'm running the latest version of Aperture on a brand new iMac 27" with 16GB of RAM. The photos I'm sending were taken with my camera set to Raw, and I'm sending processed versions of them.
Has anyone seen this behavior?

I don't normally reply to my own posts, but thought I should in this case....
I missed this when I searched before, but this problem has been around for a while, I guess. The newest thread in this linked discussion is November:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4153083?start=0&tstart=0
I've submitted a bug report to Apple.

APPLE PLEASE HELP! Mail hangs after start, address book never launches!

I've been reviewing postings since friday last week about issues with mail/address book after 10.5.2 and here's a summary:
• Symptom 1: Mail launches slow
• symptom 2: mail hangs while downloading new mail (in my case from 1 particular account according to the activity viewer, while downloading the last, most recent msg, the msg does not have attachments but it stays downloading forever, force quit required)
• symptom 3: mail does not send msgs (in my case it sends one-by-one after each force quit/relaunch)
• symptom 4: duplicate msgs appear, particularly msgs received after 10.5.2
• symptom 5: mail does not quit,, force quit necessary. in my case after i force quit/ relaunch several times mail launches somewhat "normal" but after a reboot or relaunch, problems appear again. (duplicates never go away)
• issues with mail after 10.5.2 are not ISP/email host related, we all have different ISPs and hosts and we all have the same symptoms.
• i also experienced problems with address book, it starts but the window never opens or if it does is completely empty, no functions are possible. this also affected ichat as the info for the contacts cant be retrieved from address book.
thanks for reading and please contribute to the thread if you agree with the summary, APPLE NEEDS TO HELP US!!!

Hi everybody,
I have received an update from my friend who suffered from the Mail problem. In fact, the errors occurring AFTER the restore from Time Machine were due to an ISP's problem. So the restore really worked after all.
So to put it in a nutshell, I would recommend the following process:
1. Quit (or force-quit iff necessary) Mail asap when the application gets stuck. Do not open Mail again.
2. Restore ~/Library/Mail folder from the youngest Time Machine Backup you know Mail was behaving properly.
3. Run the 10.5.2 Combo Updater while all applications are shut down (just to be on the safe side).
4. After the inevitable Restart, check Software Update for more updates and install if necessary.
5. Run Mail and let it rebuild all the Mailboxes.
This should work fine to solve the problem. With the AddressBook case, I should try a similar workflow to get it fixed, yet I haven't tried that one so far.
BTW: I can only encourage you to really get an external drive and use Time Machine frequently. Even if it seems to be expensive in the first place, imho TM is the best piece of software Apple has been inventing for ages. In my case, I also tried to save money and took a leftover 40 gig HD from an old server and got myself a usb-2.0 external box for around 10 euros. Although space is limited, i have been backing up hourly since 1 February and there's still 12 gig to go. I only back um my home directory, as all my personal data, settings and mail are stored there.

Applescript Apple Mail - message hanging around, please help!

I have the following applescript which I am sending mail messages with in Apple Mail. 10.7.2
tell application "Mail"
activate
          set DMF to default message format
          set newMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:"emailSubject", visible:true}
          tell newMessage
                    set visible to false
make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {address:"[email protected]"}
                    set html content to "content"
          end tell
send newMessage
save newMessage
          set default message format to DMF
end tell
The problem is that once the message sends, it hangs around invisibly. How I know? When I close my message viewer in Mail or try to quit mail, the message window of the message I send with Applescript is still there and I have to manually close the window. It is in my sent items but the window does not close in Mail once it is sent? This happens on multiple computers but only in Lion 10.7? Any suggestions?

Well, the most obvious solution is to not make it visible in the first place:
          set newMessage to make new outgoing message with properties{subject:"emailSubject", visible:false}
There's no need to see a message if you're automating its creation and delivery, so just set visible to false and you're set.

My Apple Mail program keeps hanging and crashing!

I would sincerely appreciate help in trying to determine the continuing problem I face with my Apple Mail program hanging up and crashing over and over again. I have deleted the preference file located in the Library Preferences section. I have deleted the entire program and reinstalled it. I have deleted the preference file and re-created all of my accounts. I have even created a new user and started from scratch in creating a new mail account.
Each time I have used the any one of the following methods, the mail program would run okay for a few hours and then it will start to hang or crash and the only way that I can restart the program is by using the "Force Quit" function. I am growing extremely frustrated after 6 months of trying to resolve this problem. I am tired of going to see these so-called "Genius" professionals who have not given me any potential solutions other than the reinstall the entire Tiger software. Please help!

Depending on what did you do to reinstall Mail, you may very well have made things worse. Verify/repair your disk first (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
After having fixed all filesystem issues, if any, reinstall the Mail application as described here:
Custom installs in Mac OS X 10.4
If the version of the system software on your installation disks is earlier than what you're using now, then you must also reinstall the corresponding Combo Update afterwards, to bring the Mail application back in sync with the rest of the system:
Mac OS X 10.4.7 Combo Update for PPC
Mac OS X 10.4.7 Combo Update for Intel
You may also want to read the following articles for guidelines on how to properly install system updates:
Troubleshooting installation and software updates
Installing software updates
Basically, you should verify/repair the startup disk before installing the update, and no applications should be running while installing it.
Your problems probably won't disappear after doing the above, but we cannot proceed any further until you've done it. Post back with your observations.

Apple Mail takes a very long time to send messages.

A few weeks ago, Apple Mail started to act up.
Even small email messages without images now take 30 seconds to send.
They sit forever in the outbox.
What can be the reason of this?

Window menu -> Activity menuitem will give you all the background processes of Mail, and should give you an idea what is hanging its processes.
Mail can especially get tied up if Spotlight or Time Machine are trying to redo their indices.

Mail hangs whenever I try to open it.

I've been using Mail for a couple of years with no trouble, but now I can't launch it. When I try to launch, my most recent e-mails start popping up. After about 20 of them open, the program hangs and I have to force quit.
Has anyone experienced this? Does anyone know what I need to do?
Thanks in advance!

You're welcome.
If that didn't work, you'll have to re-create the preferences file.
Verify/repair your disk first (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
After having fixed all filesystem issues, if any, try this:
1. Quit Mail if it's running.
2. Make a backup copy of the ~/Library/Mail folder, just in case something goes wrong. You can do this in the Finder by dragging the folder to the Desktop while holding the Option (Alt) key down, for example. This is where all your mail is stored.
3. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Preferences/. Locate com.apple.mail.plist and move it to the Desktop (to be deleted if this fixes the problem).
You'll have to set up your non-Mac accounts from scratch all over again. If given the option to import existing mailboxes or something like that, don't. Just enter the account information and Mail will automagically rediscover the data in ~/Library/Mail/ when done.
You'll also have to re-configure most of your settings in Mail > Preferences. For spam-related security reasons, the first thing you should do is go to Preferences > Viewing and disable Display remote images in HTML messages if it's enabled.
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user's home folder. You can easily locate any of the folders referred to in this post by copying the file path here, doing Go > Go to Folder in the Finder, and pasting the file path there.

Mail hang with multiple pop accounts and invalid new mail counter

All
More than a year ago, I migrated all email accounts from Outlook to Apple Mail using O2M application. I have 2 pop accounts and gmail account. Everything worked fine for a few month but then Mail started to hang during message receiving. It did so very often (4/5 times). When it does, nothing will revive it except a "force quit".
I tried to fetch email from each account individually, that worked well every time. After I was sure that it has to do with getting new mail simultaneously, I tried everything to fix it. I tried to reconstruct all the mail boxes, I tried using only 2 boxes with all combinations (1 pop 1 gmail, 2 pop, etc) but nothing worked.
I even tried to export all my mail boxes, then delete everything from Mail then reimport them with no luck.
In addition, a couple of months later, my "Inbox" new mail counter started to sometimes displaying the wrong new mail count. It displays 2-4 new messages while there is none. In order to be sure, I created a smart mail box to have only new mail and it had none. By simply switching to any other folder then returning back to Inbox solves the problem.
Can any one help?

Make absolutely sure that your email addresses and configuration are correct. In nearly every case I've encountered, this is the problem.
If you've confirmed this, make sure you're configured properly on your webmail account, if you have one. Webmail is something like ATT, the source of your internet.
If you're still flummoxed, play hardball. Make sure you have all your current account info and passwords, and delete them in Mail/Preferences/Accounts. Then, reenter them one by one until they're perfect. This makes sure your settings are consistent and correct.

Mail hangs when it receives a report that an e-mail could not be delivered.

Hi Guys :o),
One bug which is really bugging me is that every time I receive a bounced e-mail report, with a subject line containing words to the effect of:
"Undeliverable. Return to sender."
or:
"The message could not be delivered."
Mail is unable to pull any subsequent e-mails down from the POP server.
So I junk the report, and then I delete it.
However, lo and behold, the errant e-mail is INSTANTLY back in my Inbox, plus there's now AT LEAST one copy in my Mail Junk, and also AT LEAST one copy in my Mail Trash.
Round and round I go, junk, delete, junk, delete, but the errant e-mail refuses to go away, and Mail continues to be unable to pull any new e-mails down from the POP server.
Eventually, Mail just hangs, with a spinning disk.
Even a force quit and relaunch of Mail doesn't resolve the spinning disk.
The errant message just sits there, REFUSING to be deleted.
The only way to get round this bug is for me to go up to my POP server, delete the report, and then PURGE DELETE the report - on the POP server !
I then have to go in to my Mac, and go:
--> Users --> Home --> Library --> Mail --> Account --> Inbox, Junk, and Deleted
and then manually drag ALL copies of the report into the trash on the Desktop.
It happens so often (pretty much every day) that I've had to create a shortcut in my Dock which leads straight to the Account folder.
Mail has always been buggy under ALL versions of OS X, but this ongoing bug drives me crazy, mainly because there's NO logical reason for it.
Just because I receive an e-mail message from the Hotmail server, for example, which says that my e-mail could not be delivered, usually because the recipient's inbox is full, or because no such address exists, on paper, that's just another e-mail which Mail is pulling down from the POP server.
However, EVERY TIME I receive such a report, Mail hangs.
I'm reluctant to rebuild my Mailboxes, in case I lose any messages, but I will if you advise it.
Any workaround would be gratefully received.
With best wishes to everyone in the Apple community, especially those on the Infinity Loop.
In particular, I wish Mr Jobs a very speedy recovery.
Cool,
Michael T
London, England

Quit Mail, Right click on that Mail folder, choose archive, you'll get everything in the folder, and the folder itself in a file called Mail.zip, move it to a safe place, same for the Mail Downloads folder... only the plist is separate.
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
Not certain, but this can fix myriad Mail problems...
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), it will try to repair your Disk Directory while the spinning radian is happening, so let it go, run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, then move these folder & file to the Desktop.
Move this Folder to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Caches/Mail/
Move this file to the Desktop...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/Envelope Index
Reboot.
If that doesn't do it and you can afford to redo all your Rules, try these & reboot...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist.backup

Apple Mail and Godaddy Fix

FINALLY! So after a couple years of coaching clients through the Godaddy/Apple Mail situation and lately a couple months of not using Apple Mail and using Postbox instead... I decided to give Apple Mail one more try. I like the interface of it and am just used to it.
Tried the normal stuff that every one says to do... remove and add the email account, rebuild the mailbox, turn Mail offline/online, made sure I didn't have 25k emails in the inbox. (Sidenote: Your inbox will stop syncing new emails if you have over 25k emails. It will only sync the oldest 25k, so as you delete them the newer emails begin to show.
To the part you all are waiting for! I am hoping this works for every one, like it did for me.
Log into Godaddy webmail
Create a new folder (top level, no parent)
Move all emails from the inbox into the new folder
In Apple Mail, click "Get Mail" and wait for it to complete
Synchronize the mailbox in Apple Mail. You may want to rebuild the box too (I was trying everything as usual)
Give Apple Mail a little time until your inbox becomes empty
Send yourself a few test emails and you should see the new emails start showing up
This worked for me and I really hope you get the same success. An additional note... I went back into Godaddy Webmail and started moving 500 emails at a time back into my inbox from the folder I created. Apple Mail is syncing them back in. When you do this just make sure you do 500 at a time and wait for Apple Mail to see the new 500 before you do more.
Apple Mail is still hanging on the "trash" folder though.
The one thing I do not understand though is that I have 3 different Godaddy email accounts. The other two work fine and one of them actually has over 35,000 total emails (not in the inbox).
I have had this problem with Snow Leopard, then upgraded to Mavericks, and then Yosemite.... both times hoping it would solve the problem. It never did.

FINALLY! So after a couple years of coaching clients through the Godaddy/Apple Mail situation and lately a couple months of not using Apple Mail and using Postbox instead... I decided to give Apple Mail one more try. I like the interface of it and am just used to it.
Tried the normal stuff that every one says to do... remove and add the email account, rebuild the mailbox, turn Mail offline/online, made sure I didn't have 25k emails in the inbox. (Sidenote: Your inbox will stop syncing new emails if you have over 25k emails. It will only sync the oldest 25k, so as you delete them the newer emails begin to show.
To the part you all are waiting for! I am hoping this works for every one, like it did for me.
Log into Godaddy webmail
Create a new folder (top level, no parent)
Move all emails from the inbox into the new folder
In Apple Mail, click "Get Mail" and wait for it to complete
Synchronize the mailbox in Apple Mail. You may want to rebuild the box too (I was trying everything as usual)
Give Apple Mail a little time until your inbox becomes empty
Send yourself a few test emails and you should see the new emails start showing up
This worked for me and I really hope you get the same success. An additional note... I went back into Godaddy Webmail and started moving 500 emails at a time back into my inbox from the folder I created. Apple Mail is syncing them back in. When you do this just make sure you do 500 at a time and wait for Apple Mail to see the new 500 before you do more.
Apple Mail is still hanging on the "trash" folder though.
The one thing I do not understand though is that I have 3 different Godaddy email accounts. The other two work fine and one of them actually has over 35,000 total emails (not in the inbox).
I have had this problem with Snow Leopard, then upgraded to Mavericks, and then Yosemite.... both times hoping it would solve the problem. It never did.

Apple Mail still not working

Since downloading the OS X Yosemite upgrade Apple Mail isn't working. I think there's a major bug.
It hangs and won't respond. Can't access the Mail menu bar commands to make any changes. It crashes. It isn't displaying email content. And, quite oddly, the message viewer window is doing a "punch through" and revealing what's displayed on the desktop behind it.
I see many similar complaints about Apple Mail in these forums. I contacted Apple to see if the issues could be resolved - They acted like they haven't heard anything about Apple Mail problems. They had me re-install Yosemite. Same Apple Mail issues still exists. This is a disaster for those of us who use Apple MAil in our business communications. APPLE HELP!
Does anyone know of a solid work-around, a patch or alternate?
I'm on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014; 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3)

Seniro product support does not know how to fiux almost 2 months later stiil have problem. No customer service
From: Ryan Kirk Hansen <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Case-527123847
Date: December 12, 2013 at 1:35:01 PM EST
To: Mark Miller <[email protected]>
Mark, Was waiting on a response from engineering for status update. As of right now there is still no fix for the syncing issue you and your wife are experiencing with Gmail. There is still no eta on a fix. I have been checking daily and communicating with my team for a resolution.
Ryan
ACMT Senior Product Specialist
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 877-416-4271 EXT 61119
Scheduled In-Office:
Monday-Friday

How do I restore just Apple Mail (and all its folders & settings) with TM?

Hi folks,
I was trying to set up an e-mail client on a PC, clicked and unclicked my gmail pop & imap on and off, and when I got home to my Apple MacBook, I had inadvertently reloaded (twice!) every e-mail that I've ever gotten in g-mail to Apple Mail which I use happily at home! No matter what I do, Apple Mail just won't delete the 29,000+ emails. And Mail is hanging, I suspect it just can't handle the massive numbers of e-mails and all the attachments, images, etc.
So I figure I must start from where I was at last Time Machine backup. I want to restore everything about Apple Mail as of my last backup -- all the same folders, saved mail, preferences, etc. How do I restore just Apple Mail but nothing else? Thanks!
-- Josh

I've never done that, and don't think I've seen any similar posts here. You might want to look in the Mail and Address Book forum at: http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1223
Take a look on your system at +<your home folder>/Library/Mail.+ (List view is probably best for this).
You'll see a number of folders for accounts and mailboxes. There are separate folders for each account, and within them for various mailboxes, plus folders for "on my Mac" mailboxes.
With Mail off, of course, I think you should be able to restore either the entire Mail folder, or selected sub-folders within it, via Finder > Time Machine.
After you do that, you may need to use the +Mail > Mailboxes > Rebuild+ option in Mail.
(Do not use the specialized Mail > Time Machine +Recover your <named> Mailbox+ option there, as it will leave the current contents alone, and restore the messages to a new "restored" mailbox.)
Let us know if this helps or hurts.

Apple Mail: What's the best way to repair existing install?

I have a new G5 Intel iMac 24". Just recently (within the last couple of days) Mail has been freezing and not doing any of the most basic things (reply, etc).
The only thing I've done to the computer is run the latest version of OnyX.
So I'm wondering: can I "repair" the current install of Mail by using Pacifist and re-installing Mail? And if I do that, will I lose all my preferences, accounts, emails, etc.?
Or have I just stuffed things up with OnyX, and should I hit the "go back to default settings" and see if that fixes it?
I'm currently using Entourage for my email and it works flawlessly - I switched to that yesterday and imported all the settings and accounts, etc., from Apple Mail.

Hi Dexter.
The exact problem is Apple Mail freezes or "hangs" from
the moment it's launched.
Verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Network, choose Network Port Configurations from the Show popup menu, and make sure that the configuration used to connect to Internet appears at the top of the list.
Finally, try launching Mail under the following conditions (you may need to force quit it first if it’s running) and post back with your observations:
1. Holding the Shift key down until the main window appears.
2. With no Internet connection.

Apple Mail hangs

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