Mail program became unusable

One day my Mail program said I couldn't use it. I tried reinstalling the system program, and the security update as per instructions, but this made no difference . I have a new mail program in my applications folder, but it flashes and will not open. I am using os 10.6.8. Help! the same program works on my ipad.

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Mail version 1.3.11 takes an hour to open mail program

I'm running MAIL version 1.3.11 on MAC version 10.3.9, my processor is 1.25 GHz, Power PC G4 and memory is 256 MB DDR SDRAM.
I attached a file to an email and sent it. My mail program became unresponsive after sending this email. It had the spinning wheel that shows the mac is "thinking/doing" something. I finally shut down my computer with the power switch b/c I was not aware of the FORCE QUIT option at that time. The email that I sent was received by the recipient. The Mail program continues to be VERY slow and will receive emails, but not send emails. If I try to send an email the Mail program locks up and I have to force quit. When I start the program, it takes approximately one hour to open the Mail program! It is so bad that I use my ISP website to check, send and receive emails, which is a pain b/c none of my email addresses are in this address book.
Is there a way to uninstall the mail program and reinstall it? Please help! Thanks so much!

Hi teamstamper. Sorry you post has been hanging fire.
How large are your Mailboxes, as too large can cause problems in general? Click on the *In box* and read the size below the Mail toolbar. If it is several hundred megabytes that could be a concern.
A shortcut you could try is, with Mail closed, in Finder, in your Home account, go to
~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes
where you will see the Outbox.mbox
and drag that to the trash.
Then see if Mail is more responsive.
Message was edited by: roam

HELP: My mail program is running at a snail's pace...

My Mail program has slowed to a crawl. Everything else on my computer is running fine, but even with nothing else running, every single function takes forever. Things that should be instantaneous (selecting text, positioning the cursor, changing font, etc.) takes several minutes. It's almost unusable.
I've looked online, and followed the instructions:
(from: http://danwarne.com/is-apple-mail-running-slow-speed-it-up/)
"You can check your current 'envelope archive' size by entering this in the terminal:
ls -lah ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index
Then to optimise it (cleans out stuff that has been marked for deletion but not actually deleted, defragments the structure, etc):
sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
Then check your envelope archive size again to see the results…
ls -lah ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index
It compacted my envelope archive down from 55MB to 50MB — not a huge increase, but the speed difference was dramatic.
In particular, my 'sent mail' folder which had been taking 10 – 15 seconds to open (8,000 items) now only takes two or three seconds."
That didn't work, so I tried this:
(from: http://www.macworld.com/article/56673/2007/03/mailfix.html)
"The Brute Force solution
This solution forces Mail to build a completely new Envelope Index from scratch. It’s not my preferred solution, but it will ensure that you’re starting with a completely clean index file.
Quit Mail, and in the Finder, navigate to your user’s Libary -> Mail folder, and then move the file named Envelope Index out to the desktop. When you relaunch Mail, it will tell you it needs to import your messages. Click Continue and then just wait—it took about a minute to import 9,900 messages on my MacBook Pro. When the import is done, you should be looking at Mail just as it was before—but with any luck it will be running more quickly, and any odd message-related issues you were having should be resolved."
That didn't work either.
I check my Activity Monitor and have at least 80% of my cpu idle, and about 960 mb free system memory, so there doesn't seem to be anything hogging up the processors.
My livelihood is dependent upon access to email. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know ASAP.
Thanks very much!
TRUE
TRUE(at)TRUEart(dot)biz

My Mail program has slowed to a crawl. Everything else on my computer is running fine, but even with nothing else running, every single function takes forever. Things that should be instantaneous (selecting text, positioning the cursor, changing font, etc.) takes several minutes. It's almost unusable.
I've looked online, and followed the instructions:
(from: http://danwarne.com/is-apple-mail-running-slow-speed-it-up/)
"You can check your current 'envelope archive' size by entering this in the terminal:
ls -lah ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index
Then to optimise it (cleans out stuff that has been marked for deletion but not actually deleted, defragments the structure, etc):
sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
Then check your envelope archive size again to see the results…
ls -lah ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index
It compacted my envelope archive down from 55MB to 50MB — not a huge increase, but the speed difference was dramatic.
In particular, my 'sent mail' folder which had been taking 10 – 15 seconds to open (8,000 items) now only takes two or three seconds."
That didn't work, so I tried this:
(from: http://www.macworld.com/article/56673/2007/03/mailfix.html)
"The Brute Force solution
This solution forces Mail to build a completely new Envelope Index from scratch. It’s not my preferred solution, but it will ensure that you’re starting with a completely clean index file.
Quit Mail, and in the Finder, navigate to your user’s Libary -> Mail folder, and then move the file named Envelope Index out to the desktop. When you relaunch Mail, it will tell you it needs to import your messages. Click Continue and then just wait—it took about a minute to import 9,900 messages on my MacBook Pro. When the import is done, you should be looking at Mail just as it was before—but with any luck it will be running more quickly, and any odd message-related issues you were having should be resolved."
That didn't work either.
I check my Activity Monitor and have at least 80% of my cpu idle, and about 960 mb free system memory, so there doesn't seem to be anything hogging up the processors.
My livelihood is dependent upon access to email. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know ASAP.
Thanks very much!
TRUE
TRUE(at)TRUEart(dot)biz

Large Mail Attachment Affecting Mail Program

I have an IMac G5 and use the mail program that came with OS X. The other day I attached a very large movie file to an email I wanted to send to my sister but stupidly, I forgot to compress the movie. I sent the email message but it is now suspended in the "OUT" box and completely slows down my computer and renders the mail program unusable due to its size.
I've tried deleting the file and email, and even though it says I have, every time I force quit and come back, the file is right back in the "out" box. The little circle keeps spinning indicating that it's working but nothing happens. HOW DO I EXPONGE THIS MISTAKE FROM MY MAIL AND GET MY COMPUTER AND MAIL PROGRAM WORKING REGULARLY AGAIN?
Please help!
G5 Imac Mac OS X (10.4)

With the Mail.app quit and using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Mail > Mailboxes > Outbox.mbox.
Delete the Outbox.mbox folder and empty the Trash.
Launch Mail and a new Outbox.mbox folder will be created automatically within the Mailboxes folder and this should resolve the problem.
Depending on the size of the pre-encoded file, the Mail.app uses MIME 1.0 for attachment encoding which is the internet standard. The encoding process increases the size of the pre-encoded file by 50% or so. A 5MB file (pre-encoded) will be roughly 7.5MB after the encoding process.
Most ISPs and email account providers have limits on the overall size of incoming and sent messages. As an example, a .Mac account has a 10MB overall message size limit for incoming and sent messages and most ISPs and email account providers have similar limits so you need to check on this limit with your ISP or email account provider and the same with the recipient's ISP or email account provider before sending such a large file via email.
Something else to consider which I'm sure you are aware but just in case, if you can send a 20MB file (encoded size) and the recipient's incoming mail server accepts a message this large for example (which isn't likely) but the recipient has a limited amount of available incoming mail server storage space and the 20MB message exceeds the recipient's server storage space limit, the message will be rejected by the server.

Default Mail Program and Mail

Rather than Mail.app that came with my iMac, I want to use Thunderbird as my default mail program which I have set as such in Preferences in both Mail and Thunderbird.
However, I keep receiving an occasional email in the Mail.app rather than in Thunderbird - and it doesn't even appear in Thunderbird but only in Mail.
I would like to receive all of my email in Thunderbird rather than Mail. How can I make sure this will happen? Should I rename Mail.app to something else?
I would appreciate any suggestions you may have; and also, if you have good reasons for this not to be done, please let me know in a kindly manner. Because I became use to using Thunderbird in my PC, I feel more comfortable with it and would like to continue using it.
Thanks for your help.

This doesn’t make sense. What you’ve chosen as the default mail program is irrelevant here.
If Mail receives any messages, it has to be because (1) it’s running AND (2) it’s configured to automatically check for new mail AND (3) the accounts are configured to be included when automatically checking for new mail. It looks like you’re making it really hard for Mail to not download any messages...
And except in the case of a Gmail account (which allows messages to be downloaded only once by POP mail clients), receiving a message in Mail should have no bearing on you being able to receive that message in any other mail client as well if Mail is configured with the default account settings...
More info, please.

Puzzled by the Mail program...

Hello everyone,
I just got the new iPod touch and am kind of baffled at how the mail program works. I am hoping someone can enlighten me.
First puzzling thing is, I have the mail preference set to manual but the mail continues to download automatically. Finally to make it stop I turned off my WiFi connection. I manually deleted the mail in the inbox, and now it shows a message to give me the option of loading 25 more messages out of a total of over 2 billion unread messages! What in the world is going on? I know I do not have 2 billion messages on my server.
As far as I can tell, when I select manual it is downloading new mail every time I access the program. Is this correct?
Second thing that would be great is if I could tell the iPod mail program to only download recent messages. I do not want it downloading messages more than one day old. There does not seem to be any preference available for this and it is currently downloading all messages remaining on the server. Not what I need from a mobile device.
I would be interested in hearing what others have done that works conveniently for them when using Mail on the iPod touch or iPhone...
One item of note regarding SPAM, I found that Spam Sieve can manage spam on the iPod touch if I make my mail accounts IMAP and set mail to automatically update on my computer. The e-mail that Spam Sieve moves to the spam folder on my computer gets deleted from the IMAP server because it is moved out of the main account folder. Then when I check mail with the iPod the spam has already been eliminated. iPod e-mail would be unusable for me otherwise since I get hundreds of spams a day.
Thanks all!

For the recent messages part, the program should automatically receive only the most recent messages, up to the number specified in settings (the options are 25, 50, 75, 100, and 200 most recent messages).
If the option to "Show next 25 messages" is there in the mail program, those technically aren't downloaded yet; by clicking the button, then the messages are moved to the phone as well. The 2 Billion messages might just be an error. I've personally never seen it. You could try deleting the account on your phone and re-entering it if you feel like it, that might correct the problem (it could right itself after a while too).

OS 10.3.9 Mail Program Oddity

Realizing there are weird occurrences with Mail but one that I can't figure is how previously "opened" mail returns to "unopened" on their own in large numbers within a saved folder. On Thursday, I had over 800 emails that "became" unopened and when I tried to open ten to convert them back to "opened" they frooze my system and the pinwheel has taken over. I can access my email thru Safari off the mail server, but the use of my mail program is crippled. Ever happen to you? Solutions? I think this has convinced me it's time for a new Mac and to upgrade my operating system. Thanks.
G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hello. You might look for help in the Mail for Panther discussion since this is the Mail for Tiger discussion.

Using iPad mail program I have a draft of an email. I attempted to "cancel" and "delete draft" but it is still on my screen even after shutting down and restarting. How do I exit so that I can use other mail functions?

Using iPad mail program I have a draft of an email. I have attempted to "cancel" this and "delete draft" but the email stays on my screen. How can I exit this so that I can use other email functions?

Try closing the Mail app completely and see if it works properly when you re-open the app : from the home screen (i.e. not with the Mail app 'open' on-screen) double-click the home button to bring up the taskbar, then press and hold any of the apps on the taskbar for a couple of seconds or so until they start shaking, then press the '-' in the top left of the Mail app to close it, and touch any part of the screen above the taskbar so as to stop the shaking and close the taskbar.
If that doesn't work also do a reset : press and hold both the sleep and home buttons for about 10 to 15 seconds (ignore the red slider), after which the Apple logo should appear - you won't lose any content, it's the iPad equivalent of a reboot.

How to I get a link with a "Mail to" address to open up a Compose window in my Yahoo mail, rather than in the Mail progrom on my Mac. I do not use the Mac Mail program.

How to I get a link with a "Mail to" address to open up a Compose window in my Yahoo mail, rather than in the Mail progrom on my Mac. I do not use the Mac Mail program.
== This happened ==
Not sure how often
== always

Thank you, "the-edmeister" -- You render a great service, one that lifts my spirits.
Your answer also taught me to be a little more persistent, as I had started looking at Preferences, and just didn't notice the icons (including Applications) at the top of that window that would have led me to my answer.
Dave

For no apparent reason, my email will not autofill addresses. I have no problem on IE, Chrome or Opera. This problem just started with firefox within the last 24 hours. My mail server is AT&T/Yahoo, and I use webmail - not a mail program.

With all other browsers, when I compose an email, once I start to put the recipient's name in the To box, it will autofill the name if it is in my Contacts. This has been the case with firefox until the last 24 hours. Now, firefox does not automatically recognize any of my contacts. This problem is not happening on IE, Chrome, or Opera. I access my email through my AT&T/Yahoo account on the web, not through a mail program.

please try to uninstall the adobe flash plugin from the windows control panel. afterwards manually delete any leftover files in ''C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash'' and download & install the plugin again (uncheck the option to install the bundled security software): www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer

How can I update my Mail program in 10.6.8 to iCloud Mail?

I am running 10.6.8 on my iMac, which is my work "workhorse." I can't update it to Lion because I can't afford to update Quark/Photoshop et al that I'd need. And it works fine.
I also have a Macbook Air running the latest Lion, as well as an iPod 5 running IOS7. Both access my iCloud mail address and folders/filtering set up on iCloud.
However, the Mail program on my iMac is still showing my MobileMe mailbox (and MobileMe is in my system preferences). I had an elaborate filtering-to-folders set up in Mail for my MobileMe account (not in the online MobileMe). I've disabled all the filtering in my Mail program, but iCloud still sends some mail to the older folders I had set up in the program, overriding the new folder-filtering I have set up on iCloud.
So, sometimes I'll get an email sent to my .me email address from a client which I cannot see on my Macbook Air (or iPod) because it's sent to a folder on my iMac. I'm semi-retired so don't do much work anymore so I'd rather not "fire up" the iMac unless I've work to do. But as it is with the Mail situation, I have to leave it on all the time or I can miss client email.
My question is, can I get delete my "mobileme" account in my iMac Mail program and then add my iCloud account to it? I assume the MobileMe in the iMac's system preferences is there for good, because I can't update to Lion. Will that fix my problem, or is that even do-able?
I'm not sure I've stated this clearly. I'm trying to get total coordination between my iMac, MB Air, and iPod mail accounts in the Mail programs of each device without having to resort to using iCloud mail online on my iMac. Perhaps that's unavoidable?
Any help appreciated. If clarification needed, I'll try to explain this better... Thanks all!
Nicol K

You can perfectly well access email in 10.6.8 - I'm doing it myself - and if you are receiving @me.com mail you are already doing so. the @icloud.com version of the address is exactly the same thing, and messages to it will arrive in the inbox alongside those to @me.com.
However if you have set up Rules to act on incoming @me.com mail it obviously won't act on @icloud.com messages, so you will have to duplicate the Rules if you want to keep them.
If you want to try starting over you can delete the account and set it up again, using the method described here:
Entering iCloud email settings manually in Snow Leopard or Leopard
You can't access other iCloud facilities in Snow Leopard but if all you are interested in is the email you have no need to upgrade to Mountain Lion.

Mail won't display the viewer window, and it will not close (force quit does not show in menu bar). Can't shut down to reboot because the open mail program prevents it. Any advice?

Mail does not show the viewer window even when new viewer window is cliced. I tried to close mail and reopen, but it will not close, and force quit option does not appear in window bar. I tried to shut down the computer and reboot, but it cannot close because of open mail program it says. Help!

Many thanks. Once I was able to close mail, it reopened and behaved quite normally. Thank you. I'll remember the option quit for force quite!

Mail program wont open

Hi all
I have recently reinstalled OSX 10.4.7 after a HD crash and found that although everything is as it was before....the Mail program crashes upon opening. Every 3rd attempt at opening, it takes me through the POP/SMTP setup, but then crashes when it gets to the end. The next 2-3 times it crashes a few seconds after clicking on the icon.
I am a bit bamboozled to be honest??? In the old days of OS 8 and 9 this sort of think often pointed to memory problems...but whole system is running perfectly otherwise (and has 1GB of RAM installed).
Is it possible to reinstall just the Mail application?? I dont wanna have to transfer to a different application (like Outlook etc..) as the Apple Mail is pretty good/easy to use.
Any advice would be appreciated...
Thanks
Steve
PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7)
PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

CX9, your problem isn't really the same, so it should be no surprise that what you've tried so far didn't work.
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 (and only in that case), 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.
If you continue experiencing problems after doing all the above, please start a new topic describing them, unless you really believe your problem is the same as the one being discussed in this thread.

I have os 10.8.5. my mail program is horribly slow, though the rest of my functions are all good. ?solutions

I have OS X 10.8.5. All is well, but my mail program is very slow. It takes way too long to open/close/delete an email. ??any thoughts on how to fix?

Quit Mail if it's running. This procedure will have no effect unless you quit Mail when you begin.
Back up all data.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
sqlite3 L*/C*/*.mail/*/L*/*/*/C*.db vacuum; sqlite3 L*/M*/*/*/E*ex vacuum
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
You should see a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) appear below what you entered. If not, press return. You can then quit Terminal and relaunch Mail. Test.

Mail program won't open after restore

My Mail program wont open after restoring my phone. It goes to the blank main screen then closes. I have restored it 4 times and still no luck. Any Ideas?

Reboot (not turn off and on).
Press and hold BOTH the home and lock buttons. Keep holding. Don't let go when it says slide to unlock. Don't let go until you see the Apple Logo.
Turning off or on just puts to hibernation and back. Any issues remain. Not sure why a restore didn't fix it, but you should always do a reboot before trying a restore. Far easier and fixes just about all glitches.

Mail program became unusable

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