Mail hanging because of overlarge attachment

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Level 1

40 points

Mail hanging because of overlarge attachment

iMac 27" 2019, MacOS Sequoia 15.5

I foolishly attached a VERY large folder (15 GB) to an outgoing Mail message, assuming Mail Drop would handle it (I have subsequently ascertained that there's a maximum of 5GB per message). My computer started choking, so I quit everything and shut down, leaving it for several minutes before restarting. Mail is now hanging on launch, and the unsent message with the overlarge attachment seems to be the problem: it is present, but it's taking forever to load any of its content or metadata. What can I do to get rid of the draft message so that Mail will launch and I can redo things properly?

iMac 27″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jun 26, 2025 11:00 AM

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Answer 1

Jeffrey Dean Author

Level 1

40 points

Jun 26, 2025 11:34 AM in response to Jeffrey Dean

Seem to have solved it myself. For the sake of anyone who makes the same mistake in future:

1) Be patient. Let Mail finish launching. THIS IS CRUCIAL.

2) Go to All Drafts in the lefthand sidebar and find the draft(s) that include(s) the excessive attachment (there may be other drafts of the same message, but they don't matter if the attachment isn't there).

3) Delete it/them.

4) Go to the menu item Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items > either In All Accounts or in the particular account for the message.

5) That should resolve the problem — it did for me.

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