I've tried safe mode boot. My mail is all IMAP but I can't rebuild in mailbox because the mail app doesn't hold long enough to do anything. I have an older IMac, and I know it won't upgrade, but is there anything else I can do to solve the problem?
In my experience it does appear to affect older macOS versions, exactly how old is uncertain though.
The cause is usually a malformed email message. Presumably newer versions of Mail can cope with them while older ones can't.
Press and hold a Shift key while launching the Mail app again. That will launch the Mail app with no message selected. In that manner you may be able to identify the problematic message, and delete it.
In my experience it does appear to affect older macOS versions, exactly how old is uncertain though.
The cause is usually a malformed email message. Presumably newer versions of Mail can cope with them while older ones can't.
Press and hold a Shift key while launching the Mail app again. That will launch the Mail app with no message selected. In that manner you may be able to identify the problematic message, and delete it.
This happened to me yesterday (Dec 1) afternoon. I have an old Mac but this was the first time this ever happened. I did hold down the Shift key and mail did properly launch. So far, so good. I just don't know what caused this in the first place.
That's so good to know! Thank you! Nowhere on any apple support could I find this simple tip, and it's definitely helping. Might be able to push the old Mac a bit longer. Much obliged
It's working for me! No idea what caused it, but it's a very helpful tip.
It seems to happen in waves. There must be a common element but isolating the cause to any particular email message hasn't been worth my time yet.
Mail app quits unexpectedly
