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Mail preferences not appearing

When I select MaiI Preferences the only thing that opens is blank Signatures. I saw a post from October 2018 with a similar issue but the proposed solution did not work for me. Anyone have an idea?


MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on May 3, 2019 4:29 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 3, 2019 11:44 PM

The linked discussion seems to talk about deleting plist files from two area, one is "Preferences" and the other is "Containers".




While it is generally accepted that removing plist files is safe because they will be recreated, you need to take care in not removing those that may be important to how the Application functions, I would not therefore remove the "Data" folder in the latter case (not yet anyhow).


Some have suggested "reinstalling" the OS may help in this situation, it doesn't remove user data but aims to simply reinstall only the macOS operating system itself.


http://osxdaily.com/2018/10/10/how-reinstall-macos-mojave/


You could try booting in to Safe Mode (hold down Shift key) before attempting any of the above because that process has been known to clear up glitches due to the fact it carries out some house cleaning duties along the way.


This article may also be useful and the relevant section is copied below.


https://appletoolbox.com/2018/09/mail-not-working-after-macos-mojave-upgrade-how-to-fix/



But again it talks about "messing" with files/folders other than just plist's, which personally I'm not happy about, saying that I believe the method used allows you to reverse the process.


Hope some of this helps.

8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 3, 2019 11:44 PM in response to MProtter

The linked discussion seems to talk about deleting plist files from two area, one is "Preferences" and the other is "Containers".




While it is generally accepted that removing plist files is safe because they will be recreated, you need to take care in not removing those that may be important to how the Application functions, I would not therefore remove the "Data" folder in the latter case (not yet anyhow).


Some have suggested "reinstalling" the OS may help in this situation, it doesn't remove user data but aims to simply reinstall only the macOS operating system itself.


http://osxdaily.com/2018/10/10/how-reinstall-macos-mojave/


You could try booting in to Safe Mode (hold down Shift key) before attempting any of the above because that process has been known to clear up glitches due to the fact it carries out some house cleaning duties along the way.


This article may also be useful and the relevant section is copied below.


https://appletoolbox.com/2018/09/mail-not-working-after-macos-mojave-upgrade-how-to-fix/



But again it talks about "messing" with files/folders other than just plist's, which personally I'm not happy about, saying that I believe the method used allows you to reverse the process.


Hope some of this helps.

May 6, 2019 12:03 AM in response to SiHancox

OK - i rebooted in safe mode and logged back in - Preferences did not work so that wasn't the solution.


I switched user accounts, opened Mail and the Preferences worked so i did not think it was a problem with the OS.


I then followed the process set out in https://appletoolbox.com/2018/09/mail-not-working-after-macos-mojave-upgrade-how-to-fix/ (see below) and it all seems to work now. I did not delete anything.

May 5, 2019 11:35 PM in response to MProtter

That's great news and was only too happy to help, but if you have time could you give a little more detail on what actually worked so others may benefit if going through a similar issue.


You mention login as Administrator, do you mean booting in to Safe Mode or did you switch User Accounts, also did you have to delete any files and if so from which location?

Mail preferences not appearing

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