Apple's Mail app for iOS is a go-to app for many iPhone users, but some have recently encountered a number of bugs and glitches that render the Mail app useless. We list the most common Mail app. However, you can save some space by telling Mail not to automatically download attachments. Open the Mail app, click the Mail menu, and select Preferences. Click the Accounts icon and select the account you want to change settings for. Click the Advanced tab and uncheck the “Automatically download all attachments” option. Basic Recipes to Try If Mac OS X Mail Keeps Crashing A spinning wheel is the first indicator of the problem, but it may get worse. Trying to relaunch the Mail app usually moves the user back to where he or she left off, showing up the crashed e-mail. Mar 14, 2020 Wow! Thank you so much!!! Worked on the first try. Spent all day trying every other fix recommended by every other person in the world. I could not even keep mail open long enough to delete any mail. Mail app Inbox kept growing; meanwhile gmail showed 7,000 emails but Mac mail app showed 21,000 emails. It was a disaster. Now it is perfect.
- Why Does Mail App Randomly Open On Mac Os
- Why Does Mail App Randomly Open On Macbook Air
- Why Does Mail App Randomly Open On Mac Windows 10
(Updated on 11/6/2017)So, here’s a quick question: how long does it take for your Mac to start up? A minute? Two minutes? Five? Or just too long? One possible reason your Mac may be slow out of the blocks is that it’s trying to launch a slew of programs all at the same time.
Now, some of these programs might be actually be ones that you do want to launch automatically, such as the Safari web browser, or Apple Mail. But other, not-so-necessary programs may be piling up in your Mac’s “login items” list, too—ones that set themselves to launch automatically without asking first.
Another factor that may be slowing down your system is the Mac’s “Resume” feature, which re-opens any and all apps you had running when you shut down your Mac. That could lead to a crush of apps all trying to launch themselves at startup.
Last but not least, you may have specific programs on your Mac with “Launch at Startup” settings that you’ll need to find and disable.
Now, if you’re the patient type, waiting a little longer for your Mac to boot up so that your programs appear just as you left them might be a fair trade-off.
But if you’d rather shave a few seconds—or even minutes—off the time it takes for your Mac to settle down after hitting the power button, read on.
1. Cross items off your Mac’s “Login Items” list
Your Mac launches a series of programs each and every time it starts up. Some of these programs are critical for the smooth operation of your system; others, not so much.
To see a list of all the programs your Mac opens automatically, click the Apple menu in the top-left corner of the screen, select System Preferences, click the “User & Groups” icon (it’s under the “System” heading), pick a user (you, most likely), and finally click the “Login Items” tab.
You should now see a list of everything your Mac is launching (or trying to launch, anyway) whenever it starts up.
Some of the items will be easy to identify—in my case, I’ve got Dropbox and Google Drive (the handy file-sharing apps) listed, as well as something called an “Eye-Fi Helper” (an app that lets my Mac receive wireless images from my digital camera) and “AirPort Base Station Agent” (which keeps tabs on my AirPort Wi-Fi base station).
To delete these or other startup items from the list (but not from your Mac, mind you), just select them and click the “-” button at the bottom of the list.
2. Keep “Resume” from re-launching previously open apps
Don’t get me wrong—”Resume” is one of the handiest Mac features, especially for those of us who like to pick up in Safari or the Calendar app right where we left off.
But if you don’t want Resume relentlessly re-launching all the apps you had open when you last shut down your Mac, you can stop it from doing so.
Why Does Mail App Randomly Open On Mac Os
The next time you select Shut Down or Restart from the Apple menu, take a closer look at the window that pops up; in addition to the “Cancel” and “Shut Down” or “Restart” buttons, you’ll also see a checkbox labeled “Reopen windows when logging back in.”
Click the box to clear out the checkmark, and the only apps that’ll re-launch the next time your power on your Mac are those listed in the Login Items menu.
3. Check for program-specific “Launch at Startup” settings
So, you emptied the “Login Items” list and turned off the Resume feature, but there’s still a program that’s launching itself at startup. What gives? Well, it could be that the stubborn program has its own “Launch at Startup” setting.
Open the program, make sure it’s the active app on your desktop (just click its window if it isn’t), then find its Preferences menu; generally speaking, you’ll find it under its main menu in the Mac menu bar (like “Spotify” in the case of Spotify).
Once you’ve opened the program’s Preferences menu, look around for a “Launch at Startup” setting. If there are lots of different Preferences categories, start with “General,” then try “Advanced.” (In Spotify’s case, I found a “Open Spotify automatically after you log into the computer” setting under its “Advanced” settings.)
Found the “Launch at Startup” (or the equivalent) setting? Go ahead and disable it, then rinse and repeat for any other programs that are still launching themselves when you turn on your Mac.
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Even by keeping OS X updated to the latest version all the time does not guarantee you will not face a problem with the work of Mail.app. The initial symptom of the Mail crash is the spinner. It always identifies a waiting time, which makes many users go mad. Issues like loading an unusual e-mail and other specific actions may also identify the problem in this application’s work. In some cases, it is impossible to resolve the problem directly within the program itself.
This article moves from the hardest solutions to the easiest for you to compare and see the difference. If you are an advanced Mac user, you may find it okay to remove Mail.app’s “envelope” index to overcome the described problems.
Perhaps, it is a malformed message, which makes the application fail. In many cases, simply choosing the faulty e-mail may lead to a crash. One of the checked measures to fix that bug is to quit Mail (Force Quit often helps). Pick the Terminal app to type the given command the way it appears:
cd ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData
rm -rf Envelope Index*
rm -rf ExternalUpdates.storedata*
After that, relaunch the Mail application to see a dialog box. Rebuilding the “envelope” index frequently assists in solving the issues with the Mail performance.
Barely, this advanced option does not improve the situation. Do not worry – there is one more thing advanced Mac owners should implement! First, quit mail and remove the locally saved messages. Do it by eliminating the IMAP folders. You can find them in ~/Library/Mail/V2, and reboot Mail. The app will download the content in those accounts. Next, delete and restore the target accounts. Finally, in order to get rid of the IMAP folders and Downloads, enter the following line:
cd ~/Library/Mail/V2
rm -rf IMAP*
Basic Recipes to Try If Mac OS X Mail Keeps Crashing
A spinning wheel is the first indicator of the problem, but it may get worse. Trying to relaunch the Mail app usually moves the user back to where he or she left off, showing up the crashed e-mail. Before you even try to choose something, the situation will repeat. It looks like a vicious circle.
Before moving to the advanced measures or asking for help, try to rebuild the application. It is a three-step quick solution, so start with this one:
1. Go to the target application
2. Choose Mailbox.
3. Find the Rebuild option.
It often works after updating to macOS Sierra or High Sierra.
There is one more method to implement before going into details.
Push the Shift button and keep holding while opening the Mail application. It usually makes the software launch without showing the damaged message.
Second, the user has to place the horizontal divider in the app’s window to let his or her no longer view the zone where the messages are displayed. It is possible to make a choice in the left-hand column. Make sure just the listing of email titles are presented.
At last, click on the email that was enabled at the moment of the crash. Choose to remove it. If the erased message was the core problem, the app should recover.
Now, have a look at the ways to solve problems with Mail on different versions of Mac operating system.
One more thing to think about is changing the content of Address Book as it might be the cause of the problem too. Just open the contacts and involve tiny changes into the entries. For instance, a user may add or delete space characters in the Address Book window. The database will allow the refresh, and I may help to revive the Mail app. If you need to rebuild the Book, pick “All Contacts” and “Address Book Archive” to store all contacts elsewhere. This way, you will not lose any important information.
After the backup process, escape the Book. Move to the /username/Library/Application Support/Address Book/ folder. Replace the folder’s items to the Desktop. Launch the Address Book once more.
The first scenario would be El Capitan as these steps work on all versions of Mac OS X. So, the Mail app fails at the beginning. Have you tried to handle this situation by managing your accounts and forcing them to switch on one-by-one rather than having all personal accounts launch at one time? You should probably do that to see if it helps!
On El Capital, consider taking the steps offered below:
1) Switch on Wi-Fi. Do it before opening the application. Make sure your Apple computer is not connected to the Internet. It will prevent Mail from downloading various messages while starting.
2) Start your Mail app.
3) After it opens, move to Mail -> Preferences. You will need Accounts over there.
4) Pick every personal Mail account and deactivate it one-by-one with the help of checkbox. Every account has one next to it. Simply remove the ticks.
5) Quite the application.
6) Restart Mail. Connect to the wireless network again.
7) Activate every personal account in its turn. Every separate account should be given some time to download the emails before activating the next one on the line.
Extensions may also slow down the work of Mail. Perhaps, it is worth disabling some of the third-party extensions, especially those dealing with VPN and DNS, and watch the application working speedily again. It often helps. Once you remove the useless extensions, make sure to reboot Mail. It is important to identify the failing extension first by activating and deactivating each one-by-one. Sometimes, contacting the developer may help to solve the issue.
Another deal may be a particular user account. To revive it, consider doing the following:
Launch the Mail Preferences menu. Choose the account on the Accounts Tab. Pick Advanced.
Mind the displayed list. There you will notice the ‘Automatically detect and maintain account settings’
Make sure it does not have a tick in it. Escape in order to restart the app. After activating it again, exit and relaunch the application once more.
The last thing to fix is an iCloud account in case a Mac owner prefers this one to send and receive e-mail messages. In case the system refuses to deliver your messages with the help of iCloud, several simple steps may solve the issue.
1. Launch System Preferences -> iCloud. Remove the tick from the box behind Mail.
2. After the process is over, switch on Mail in the same way. Then, quit the System Preferences menu.
3. Open Mail along with the Accounts tab in Preferences. Select iCloud.
4. Pick the ‘Outgoing Mail Server’ tab
5. Quit the menu. Start the Mail app again
When Mail Keeps Crashing after Sierra Update: Effective Troubleshoot
Why Does Mail App Randomly Open On Macbook Air
Once you install the latest version of macOS Sierra or High Sierra, the problems with mail may occur. It does not mean there is something wrong with this version of OS. Often, a re-launch is enough to prevent Mail from getting stuck. To make the procedure safe for your entire information, do the backup first. The initial stage is to shut down the Mail app just like in most of the cases. Then, take the recommended steps:
1. Move to Finder. Pick user or home folder.
2. Choose one of the offered: Finder -> View -> Show or Command + J. The View menu should pop up.
3. Select “Show Library Folder”
4. Surf to Library/Containers/com.apple.mail then. You will need com.apple.mail replaced on the desktop.
Why Does Mail App Randomly Open On Mac Windows 10
5. Reboot Mail and check it out; in case of the success, redevelop any necessary settings to transfer any messages you wish to store form the target folder on the desktop.
6. Remove the folder from the Trash bin.
Another available workaround is switching off “Auto Proxy Discovery.” Just move to the System Preferences menu and launch Network. Select Advanced à Proxies. Make sure “Automatic Proxy Configuration” is active.
Are the issues you face associated with the work of popular Outlook messenger? Try getting the most recent software update available at Microsoft website. That’s it – no other solutions to this type of issue are known today.