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Mail unresponsive when opening preferences

Mail app consistently hangs (shows Rainbow spinning wheel, and shows as "not responding" in activity monitor) for several minutes at least when I try to open preferences. I always suspected this might have something to do with and exchange account that it could not access unless I was logged into a work VPN, but on my new laptop, I have not installed that account or that VPN, and the behavior continues. I temporarily disabled the other exchange account I use (which does not require VPN) and then disabled my other accounts one by one, and even with no accounts enabled, it still hangs way to long on opening mail preferences.


This Mac was set up with OS Big Sur out of the box as a new machine, not migrated with Random bits of programs coming along to gum things up.


Where else should I look to find out why Mail can't do this simple thing quickly and efficiently like other programs ?

MacBook Pro (2020 and later)

Posted on Oct 12, 2021 8:57 AM

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Posted on Oct 12, 2021 9:47 AM

Have you installed or run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" or anti-virus apps on your Mac?


Try the following: boot into Safe Mode according to Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.


NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files


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10 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 12, 2021 9:47 AM in response to Donot Haveone

Have you installed or run any "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up" or anti-virus apps on your Mac?


Try the following: boot into Safe Mode according to Start up your Mac in safe mode - Apple Support and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.


NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files


Oct 13, 2021 9:46 AM in response to Donot Haveone

At this point I'd Boot into the Recovery volume (boot with the Command + R keys held down), select Disk Utility and run First Aid on all volumes. If that doesn't help I'd boot again in the the Recovery volume and reinstall the system.


Here's some food for thought: unless you're using a true VPN tunnel, such as between you and your employer's or bank's servers, they are useless from a privacy standpoint.  Read these two articles: Public VPN's are anything but private and Former Malware Distributor Kape Technologies Now Owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, Zenmate, and a Collection of VPN “Review” WebsitesHowever, that being said one of the most respected contributors to these forums and a respected developer has reported favorable about NordVPN.  So it may be more secure than most of the other public VPNs.

Oct 21, 2021 10:06 AM in response to Old Toad

Old Toad wrote:

At this point I'd Boot into the Recovery volume (boot with the Command + R keys held down), select Disk Utility and run First Aid on all volumes. If that doesn't help I'd boot again in the the Recovery volume and reinstall the system.


Because this is a quite new computer, and applications were installed fresh rather than migrated, I doubt that reinstalling the system will help. Because the problem is only a several minutes delay in response, rather than a true system crash, it is not currently worth that step.


I can confirm, however, that running just first aid in recovery mode did not find any problems I did not fix the slow opening of mail preferences.


And while the musings on VPNs are very interesting, especially in light of all of the articles that recommend VPNs for nearly everybody all the time (!), the question of VPN is not relevant for this issue at this time, because I am not running a VPN at all. I used to run a campus-specific VPN only for access to the work campus, and I had previously assumed something about that VPN, or the security software they required in order for me to have access to it, was the cause of the slow down with Mail. This new machine does not have that account set up, nor have that security software installed, nor that VPN.

Oct 21, 2021 11:03 AM in response to Donot Haveone

That could be part of the problem. Mail has to reach out to those servers to get any emails on them.


I have 4 email accounts run by Mail. Two are very active and two are very inactive. I have 32 Smart Mailboxes and over 120 regular mailboxes on my Mac that I store emails in when I want to save them and nearly 100 rules to put the emails in their proper mailboxes when the arrive.

Oct 28, 2021 9:33 AM in response to Donot Haveone

The answer that was selected solved above was incorrect, and There is no way to undo an accidental tapped in the wrong place that makes this appear to have been the solution. the real solution was more complex. When I initiated iCloud, several of my email accounts showed up as duplicate accounts both in the accounts preference pane of system preferences in the mail preference pane under mail accounts. Deleting the duplicate instances of these accounts and rebooting the computer did not work the first time, but after additional reboots done in the service of other troubleshooting requests, the problem was solved. Paragraph please excuse the irregular capitalization because dictation is not perfect on the phone.

Oct 28, 2021 9:34 AM in response to Old Toad

As I wrote below, this turned out not to have been the correct answer. It was selected as the correct answer accidentally. I nevertheless appreciate old toads contributions very much, as the things that he suggested were also the first things that Apple support suggested. So he was on target but the problem was actually weirder than originally anticipated.

Mail unresponsive when opening preferences

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