Apple mail crashes when selecting an inbox

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Apple mail crashes when selecting an inbox

Apple Mail is crashing, for certain inboxes, at specific points in the file. So when I scroll to a certain date, it will crash. So I deleted all messages of that date, and now it crashes on a different date.

So I cannot identify a particular bad email it does not like. It is as if it is crashing because it reaches a certain point in the file.

If I stay with latest emails it is ok. But of course as soon as I do a search function, it hits the place it does not like, and crashes. How do I find out what it does not like.

I tried a rebuild, to no avail.

(All the messages work fine on my iPad.)

OSX 10.11.6

(cannot change computer, otherwise all my software will stop working...)

Thanks,

RE

iMac 21.5″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Feb 16, 2023 04:47 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,025 points

Mar 2, 2023 10:21 AM in response to ralphy

OK, thanks.

Some Linkedin peculiarity that I can't check, but I'd expect see 100s or 1,000s of such reports if it were them.
Corrupt OS.
Corruption in some user file or cache...

To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...

Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.

Does it work in the new account?

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Answer 2

ralphy Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 2, 2023 09:02 AM in response to ralphy

Ok, this happened again.

This time I was able to trace it to a Linkedin notification.

It comes from: notifications-noreply@linkedin.com

I cannot see anything odd with this email, but I cannot expand headers with Apple Webmail.

Ralphy

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,025 points

Feb 16, 2023 05:11 PM in response to ralphy

Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

If still no good Disconnect from the Internet, then start Mail, look for the last rec'd eMail.

Does Mail crash if no internet?

Quit Mail & login to your WebMail in a Browser, if possible delete any later eMails there after the last rec'd one on the Mac.

If you have no POP accounts & they’re all IMAP accounts then in Mail’s Mailbox menu choose Rebuild.

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Answer 4

ralphy Author

Level 1

20 points

Feb 17, 2023 12:08 AM in response to BDAqua

In answer to your Qs…

Mail is fine, if I disconnect the troublesome account. But this problem has migrated from one account, to another one, over three months. The original troublesome account now seems fine.

It is not the recent emails that are the problem, it is something from early January. So it is odd that the problem only surfaces now.

I did a rebuild, to no effect.

I deleted emails around the troublesome time (using webmail), but the problem migrated to another date.

The account is fine, until I scroll down to a certain date, and then is crashes. Or if I do a search (which will need to access that time) and it crashes.

Webmail and the iPad seem untroubled by this problem.

Not done a safe-mode restart as yet, will try that later. Not familiar with that procedure.

Would a disk-repair help? I have done that before.

R

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Answer 5

ralphy Author

Level 1

20 points

Feb 17, 2023 02:13 PM in response to BDAqua

.

I did a safe-boot of the computer, and that made no difference.

Likewise turning off internet, and doing a disk-repair.

I also ran Clean My Mac. I just bought it, just in case. It says it 'cleaned' many things, but Mail still crashes.

It was crashing on a particular email on the 20th Jan. So I deleted that in webmail, and it crashed on an email on 21st Jan. So I deleted that in webmail, and it crashed on an email on 22nd Jan.

It is most annoying - I can use email, but cannot do any searches.

Does Mail load email in batches, rather than on-by-one. So could the offending email be somewhere in the entire batch? If so, how do I find it? Searching from 'below', it crashes on Dec 5th - so there may be an entire month in the batch.

RE

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Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

250,025 points

Feb 17, 2023 03:47 PM in response to ralphy

You may want to remove CMM.

If still need be…

Open Terminal and run each of these one at a time

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -lint -r -f -v -dump -domain local -domain system -domain user -domain network

killall Dock

sudo mdutil -E /

sudo mdutil -i on /

Rebuilding a drive index can take a long time, so be prepared to wait whether you do it through the System Preference panel or the command line.

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Answer 7

ralphy Author

Level 1

20 points

Feb 17, 2023 05:00 PM in response to ralphy

P.S. ....

Ok, we might have a resolution here.

When scanning through emails, it obviously uploads batches. So just because it crashes on an email, does not mean that is the corrupted email.

The resolution was to find the top of the batch, by scanning downwards until it crashes. Say 30th Jan.

Then rapid move to the bottom of the email list, and scan upwards until it crashes. Say 1st Jan.

Then in webmail, empty the trash, and then move that entire month to trash. After reloading Mail on the computer, you may well find that it now works. So then there is a slow process of moving trash to inbox (on webmail), to see if the computer Mail crashes. The computer Mail load immediately you move to inbox, so you can see pretty quickly if it crashes.

I never did find which individual email was causing the problem, as I got bored - I just deleted three days of emails. But is seems to work now.

RE

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Answer 8

ralphy Author

Level 1

20 points

Mar 6, 2023 02:50 AM in response to BDAqua

.

I think it is a Linkedin problem.

I received a similar Linkedin email on the 3rd, to a different email box, and it again crashed my system.

I am in touch with Linkedin Support, and they are looking into it.

I have had three Linkedin emails that have crashed Apple Mail (but not Webmail or iPad), and they were all the same "You have 2 new invitations" variety.

RE

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