Invisible email text in Mac Mail

Question

Level 1

6 points

Invisible email text in Mac Mail

Hello. I have a late 2014 Mac Mini operating Monterey. For some time with Big Sur some of my Gmail accounts emails weren't showing text - no problem with Apple emails. Affected emails usually have pictures or links because I can see them on other Apple devices. But on Mac Mail these emails show no text or pictures - empty emails. There is something there because a cursor moving over the empty email indicates where there is text and links, and I can activate these links. The Raw Data is also shown to be there. Everything is invisible. Emails that are text-only, even with links, don't seem to be affected. I've tried various solutions suggested in these comments and found online - removing plist, restarting etc but nothing changes. Help!

Mac mini, macOS 12.6

Posted on Dec 20, 2022 6:56 AM

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Answer 1

nbotros

Community Specialist

Dec 21, 2022 2:27 PM in response to sobercounsel

Hello sobercounse,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand the importance of being able to view your emails properly on your Mac, and we'd be happy to look into this with you. Are you experiencing this behavior with a specific email account or multiple? Do you recall anything changing on your Mac around the time this issue started?

To isolate this issue further, let's try to create a new user account on your Mac , add your email account to the Mail application, and test.

You can do so by following the steps in the following links:

Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac

Add email accounts in Mail on Mac

Let us know the results, and we'll go from there. Kind regards.

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Answer 2

emde-ash

Level 2

154 points

Dec 23, 2022 8:07 AM in response to sobercounsel

In another discussion topic : Graphics not showing in emails.

i posted this response : Graphics not showing in emails - Apple Community

... appearance of problems, are similar.

you may setup Thunderbird as your email-client,

in Thunderbird, you can use HTML editor tab to remove color, background-color related HTML & CSS tags/commands,

then email's body content text will be shown with normal default color.

Some email senders override default color, override default background color etc in email ... those are very problematic,

as different user has different viewing preferences,

some likes to see things with black background,

some likes to see things with white background,

email's body content may not be visible in some combination situations.

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Answer 3

sobercounsel Author

Level 1

6 points

Dec 22, 2022 5:45 AM in response to nbotros

It doesn't happen so much with my Icloud emails - I have one from Trainline that has invisible text, I try no to use my mac address as a contact point for people selling stuff. It is much more common with my two gmail accounts. Unless the email has only text content, everything is invisible.

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Answer 4

amandal80

Community Specialist

Dec 22, 2022 7:25 AM in response to sobercounsel

Hello sobercounsel,

We understand this is happening on your Mac with your Gmail accounts. We'd still recommend creating a new user account on your Mac and then adding your Gmail accounts to Mail while logged into the new user account. These steps will help isolate the issue so we can determine the best way to proceed.

Cheers.

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Answer 5

sobercounsel Author

Level 1

6 points

Dec 23, 2022 3:43 AM in response to amandal80

Well, I've created a new user account and tried adding one of my gmail accounts to macmail. It spent some time downloading 1240 emails, and then nothing... no gmail account shown in the left-hand tab, no emails showing. But if I go into Preferences, the account is recorded there. I can't win. And now my Fatmap emails are being emptied of text, despite them being "privaterelayed" by Monterey. Whatever happened to "it just works"?

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Answer 6

sobercounsel Author

Level 1

6 points

Dec 24, 2022 3:20 AM in response to emde-ash

Thanks but it's not the graphics that I'm concerned about. If the system was just hiding these then I wouldn't be worried. The text of emails is invisible. It's still there because I can, for example, spell check a word if I move the cursor and find a word or link. And the links still work, if I can find them.

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Answer 7

emde-ash

Level 2

154 points

Dec 24, 2022 12:53 PM in response to sobercounsel

.. in other discussion , msg-poster could not see graphics/images etc ..

.. in your case , you cannot see text , etc ..

if possible kindly try the "Thunderbird" email client,

setup it with your email-address access.

it should not have any such problem, unless a company/person is deliberately changing default-text-color, & default-background-color.

and if a company/person does this, then only that company's email or that person's email will be invisible,

not other emails from other senders.

Apple is aware of type of problem that you are facing, exists in "Apple Mail" email-client,

once they fix it, they will send the fix as update in Monterey.

Why will you wait, for that unknown time period, that, apple will take to fix it ?!

why not just use a better email-client for now ? (such as, Thunderbird)

Often check back, if the problem still exist in Apple Mail or not.

When apple fixed it, then delete/disable Thunderbird.

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Invisible email text in Mac Mail

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