Mail completely frozen, Looks like new problem?

Question

Hi All,
Mail app is frozen, here is the skinny:
-I see mailboxes on the left
-I see the (4) indicating new messages, but I don't see actual messages in the right hand window
- I can't select mailboxes or scroll or use any Mail features
-I have to force shut down my iMac because 'quitting' mail doesn't work
-I repaired my disk
- I tried holding down the SHIFT key before launching Mail, but I'll try again.
Help! Good thing is, my powerbook is backed up, but I delete most messages from the powerbook and use the iMac as main storage...I do have everything backed up on the LaCie, too.
iMac   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  
iMac   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Answer 1

Hi blahgeetsa.
If what you’ve tried so far hasn’t worked, try this now:
1. If you have a .Mac account and .Mac synchronization of Mail data is enabled either in Mail > Preferences > General or in System Preferences > .Mac, disable it before proceeding.
2. Quit Mail if it’s running.
3. Make a backup copy of the ~/Library/Mail folder, just in case something goes wrong while trying to solve the problem. 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 locally stored.
4. 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).
5. Open Mail. 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.
6. You’ll 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.
7. You may also need to re-install or re-enable any Mail plug-ins you have installed for Mail to recognize them.
8. As a side effect of re-creating com.apple.mail.plist, Mail might rename Outbox (which is where messages waiting to be sent are stored) to Delivered. The name of that mailbox is actually a misnomer, as it would contain messages (if any) that couldn’t be delivered for some reason. You can delete that mailbox if you wish.
9. If the problem is fixed now and .Mac synchronization of Mail data was enabled at the beginning, enable it again, go to System Preferences > .Mac > Advanced, click Reset Sync Data, and choose the appropriate options to reset the Mail data stored on the .Mac server with the data locally stored on the computer, i.e. sync data must flow from the computer to the .Mac server.
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 folder path here, doing Go > Go to Folder in the Finder, and pasting the folder path there.