Mail.app stopped word-wrapping

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Gil Dawson Author

Level 1

134 points

Mail.app stopped word-wrapping

Mail.app* used to word-wrap both outgoing and incoming mail.

Lately, at least with with one correspondent, it does not.

Both incoming messages and my replies contain sentences that run off beyond the edge of Mail's Image Viewer window.

Opening the message into a new Mail window (by double-clicking) does not help.

Selecting all (⌘A), then copying (⌘C), then pasting (⌘V) into a new (⌘N) Mail Window's message area fixes the problem.

It's not a bad workaround, but Is there any way to control Mail's word-wrapping feature?

--Gil

- Mail.app Version 12.4 running under macOS Mojave Version 10.14.6

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Nov 19, 2022 10:45 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BDAqua

Level 10

245,483 points

Nov 19, 2022 12:46 PM in response to Gil Dawson

Start with this...

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes or more.

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

In Mail>Preferences>Composing>Mesage format, is it Plain text or RTF, in Responding is the top box checked?

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Answer 2

Gil Dawson Author

Level 1

134 points

Nov 19, 2022 2:07 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi, BDAqua--

Thank you for your suggestions.

After rebooting into Safe Mode, the particular messages in my Inbox, which were previously not word-wrapped, are still not word-wrapped. However, If I reply to the message, the sender's copied text becomes word-wrapped, and also my replying text is now word-wrapped. This is a big improvement! Thanks!

W.R.T. your question, Mail>Preferences>Composing>Composing>Message Format is set to "Rich Text".

and Mail>Preferences>Composing>Responding> the top checkbox ("use the same message format...") is not checked.

I shall now reboot (into UnSafe mode) and report back.

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Answer 3

Gil Dawson Author

Level 1

134 points

Nov 19, 2022 2:18 PM in response to Gil Dawson

Hi, BDAqua--

My computer is now in UnSafe (regular) mode. When I initiate a reply, my reply is word-wrapped!

I consider this problem fixed!

Mail Preferences as described above have not changed.

Thanks, BDAqua!

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Answer 4

Nov 20, 2022 5:34 PM in response to Gil Dawson

This issue happens every few years with Apple Mail. It seems to get fixed in one OS update but then gets broken in a later update. It seems to have something to do with some formatting characters in the received email. As you have found, hitting Reply should give you a word-wrapped view but, in this case, it is best to immediately delete the To addresses to ensure you don't accidentally send a nonsense reply.

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Answer 5

Gil Dawson Author

Level 1

134 points

Nov 22, 2022 7:00 AM in response to Michael Paine

Thank you for your remarks, Michael.

Indeed, in this case, the problem may well have been triggered by a particular email message from a particular correspondent. Fortunately, I now have a reasonable workaround should the same problem recur.

--Gil

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Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

245,483 points

Nov 19, 2022 2:22 PM in response to Gil Dawson

Great news Gil, take care my friend! :)

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Mail.app stopped word-wrapping

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