Mac Mail seriously corrupted; technical advice needed

Question

Mac Mail seriously corrupted; technical advice needed

I'm trying to repair my Mum's Mac (HighSierra 10.13.6) using TeamViewer, from a Win PC, 8000 km away from the machine :-(

He mac has been unusable for past 3 weeks, until I could get someone in front of the keyboard and start in safe mode. I've done a system update/refresh to 10.13.6 to make sure there wasn't a corrupted update. Completed and rebooted fine.

The Mac now works fine, EXCEPT Mail which starts but hogs memory and disk until the Mac becomes unusable.

I went on tech websites, and following instructions I've deleted com.apple.mail.plist / com.apple.mail-shared.plist (~/Library/Preferences) and ALL the Envelope Index files in ~/Library/Mail/V5/MailData.

I deleted the Mac Icon from the taskbar, and replaced with an icon I had previously dragged from Application folder onto desktop.

I also went onto Gmail using FF, and emptied her inbox to makes sure there was no problematic emails waiting to download. Finally, I went into Mac preferences and unticked her email/address book/calendar account with Gmail, so that Max does not try to synchronize anything when I open Mail again

When I start Mail, it starts as if this was a new install, and offers to "import existing email". I must accept otherwise the procedure will not move forward. It finds 23 messages and start to import them (very odd: there should be either 0 if the deletes above worked, or several 100's if it finds email data files on disk).

Then 1) The CPU goes up to 100% within seconds, and stays there until I kill Mail.

2) Memory usage grows linearly over time, roughly 1 GB every 30 seconds. When I reach 7.5GB mac OS stops responding. 3) I have no choice but to click on CANCEL, which takes roughly one minute to eventually cancel and kill the task from within Mail. The Mac becomes responsive again..

If I do this a few times, the initial number of email found increases by 1 at each attempt (I'm now at 30 emails to import). Going back to the folder containing Envelope Index files, there is now a dozen temp files with cryptic names and numbers (all starting with Envelope Index). Some files are a few kb, other are several 100 MB and one is even 1.5 GB.

I'm running out of patience and Mac IT skills. All the mails and contacts are on Google, and can easily be re-downloaded.

I would be grateful to anyone with a great idea on what I am doing wrong (remember, I am NOT in front of keyboard and Mum is 76...), or instructions for whacking and reinstalling Mail from scratch?

Do not propose Thunderbird; I know how to do that, but I can't teach my Mum how to use another app with lots of new menus :-(

Thanks to all

Posted on Sep 22, 2019 9:43 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Virgulesystems Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 23, 2019 4:35 AM in response to Virgulesystems

Guys, thanks for all the help.

I found a way out, by resetting completely Mac Mail according to the instructions here

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5118986

I deleted the user account and re-created it, bingo, Mum is happily exchanging emails with the family!

Thank you

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

245,375 points

Sep 22, 2019 10:55 AM in response to Virgulesystems

In Mail>Windows>Connection Doctor what does that report?

System Preferences>Network, top of window>Locations>Edit Locations, little plus icon, give it a name.

System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order.

The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.

 If using Wifi, instead of joining your Network from the list, click the WiFi icon at the top, and click join other network. Fill in everything as needed.

System Preferences>Network, unlock the lock if need be, highlight the Interface you use to connect to Internet, click on the advanced button, click on the DNS tab, click on the little plus icon, then add these numbers...

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

Apply.

Can't do this via team viewer, but if disconnected from the Internet, then start Mail, what happens?

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Answer 3

Sep 22, 2019 11:41 AM in response to BDAqua

Hi. I cannot do the exact test you are proposing (Mum asleep on other side of the world, however I can give some early clues:

WiFi is very stable. I downloaded a High Sierra Combo Update (1.5GB) in 20 minutes; I can use Firefox to check Apple Support website without any issue. TeamViewer is ON for 60 minutes without disconnecting. And I can browse mail.google.com via FireFox and see all her emails very well

=> I don't believe there is any WiFi or DNS issue.

I will do the checks you suggest and report back in 24 hrs. I dare not start Mail with internet disconnected, Mum will never be able to put it back alone :-)

Thank you

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,734 points

Sep 22, 2019 12:29 PM in response to Virgulesystems

I deleted the Mac Icon from the taskbar, and replaced with an icon I had previously dragged from Application folder onto desktop.

That served absolutely no useful purpose and will likely cause you issues when you have to explain why the Icon in the Dock turned into a big "?"

Try deleting the com.apple.mail folder from the ~/Library/Containers folder.

Are you still working in Safe Mode?

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Answer 5

Sep 22, 2019 9:50 PM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks Barney.

I'm a Windows guy trying to follow instructions on Apple-related websites, and careful to not upset anyone with preconceived ideas :-) Somehow the new Mail icon actually works as expected and is not replaced with a big "?". I will be careful next time about following such advice.

I can switch in/out of safe-mode (rebooting) without issues. I am not working in safe mode at the moment.

I will try your suggestion of ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail

Is it OK if I drag this to the desktop, rather than hard delete?

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Answer 6

Sep 23, 2019 4:01 AM in response to BDAqua

Hello, closing the loop on your questions:

1) Mail>Windows>Connection Doctor what does that report

=> I cannot start Mail. Never passes the initial "import xx messages". I run out of RAM (7.5GB) before it finishes initializing after all the resets.

I am not able to load the menu or execute that function

2) System Preferences>Network, top of window>Locations>Edit Locations, little plus icon, give it a name.

=> renamed the generic WiFi name to the name of the building WiFi. Works fine, no change whatsoever

3) System Preferences>Network, click on the little gear at the bottom next to the + & - icons, (unlock lock first if locked), choose Set Service Order. The interface that connects to the Internet should be dragged to the top of the list.

=> It was already like that. There is only one active interface (WiFi). Mum has no Ethernet or Bluetooth connections (except mac mouse/keybvoard)

4)  If using Wifi, instead of joining your Network from the list, click the WiFi icon at the top, and click join other network. Fill in everything as needed.

=> I can tick this, but it is likely to cause un-necessary hassles. There is 1 x WiFi network per apartment in her building; the Mac can see at least a dozen WiFi. She is connected to her own. I don't want the Mac to try to connect to the neighbor networks and fail due to missing security code :-)

5) System Preferences>Network, unlock the lock if need be, highlight the Interface you use to connect to Internet, click on the advanced button, click on the DNS tab, click on the little plus icon, then add these numbers... 8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4

=> DHCP is assigning her a local IP and DNS server = subnet router, as it should. I've added google DNS as requested.

Doesn't change anything (and can't hurt)

Apply.

6) Can't do this via team viewer, but if disconnected from the Internet, then start Mail, what happens?

=> As I stated earlier, it would be an interesting test, but I might have to fly 8,000km to put things back after :-)

New Status: I have tried starting Mail again. No change, still ramps up to 100% CPU, 7.5GB RAM before I kill it.

I noticed that the disk activity of Mail is 750MB by the time I kill the process. This doesn't make sense: I deleted all the config, disabled the Gmail account (in Preferences), and Mail reports that it is trying to load 31 messages only.

I will now put my attention to the test suggested by Barney.

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Answer 7

Sep 23, 2019 4:11 AM in response to Barney-15E

Hi Barney,

Deleted the folder as suggested, but no unfortunately no change in my situation :-(

No, I am no working in safe mode, as I believe TeamViewer will not start in safe mode and I would loose access to the Mac to reboot it and go back to normal mode.

Is there anyway to do a brute force wipe of Mac Mail? I do not need to keep any messages or settings; it's all on Gmail/IMAP

Thank you

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