'Mail' in Big Sur, simply not working after trying online solutions?

TidBITS Talk
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Hello, from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada!

In our local news last summer, I learned of security warnings regarding Mac OS Mojave. Having learned of this some time ago ago, as well; I decided to finally upgrade my OS.

Months since making the upgrade to: Big Sur, Catalina, Monterey and Ventura on three difference machines; my email fails to function?

I’ve been trying various, any and all solutions I can find online, but so far, Mail fails to get past the launch stage? It loads, appears on my screens, but that’s about as far as it gets. More often than not, I have to force quit it, in the hope that by re-launching it, it may work, as it sometimes does.

My three main Macs consist of: M1 Mini, with 16 GB of RAM, a 21.5 iMac also with 16 GB of Ram and was soon discontinued by Apple not long after I got it, and, a 27" retina iMac, specifically a late 2014 model with 32 GB of RAM.

I find Mail fails to work reliably on all three of these machines. My three machines have two or three boot partitions having reformatted the internal, boot drive so that I can get into Big Sur, Catalina, and Mojave on this 21.5" iMac, for example.

I thought my problems with Mail were due to running CleanMyMac; which has since been deleted, yet, Mail still fails to work?

Does anyone have any suggestions for ways to get Mail working?

… I confess, I’m still stymied as to why Mail works sometimes, but more often than not, it seems to freeze after launching?

I run Little Snitch firewall software on all machines. Even after this firewall is turned off, Mal still fails get beyond simply launching?

… the only way I’m able to get this plea for help out to you, is via the web portal for this wonderful, TidBIts.

… frustrated now, beyond belief that has me wondering if it’s finally time to give up open Apple, and try Windoz or other Linux OS options?

Stay healthy, everyone!

Bill Taylor

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Suggestion- had similar with Monterey and Ventura on 2018 mac mini
had been using Nord vpn-
short version- go into recovery and turn off ALL apple software security issues, along with deleting ALL network or similar virus- malware software.
possibly remove all vpn- but perhaps- just perhaps you might need to install such but do NOT activate. My issues were with gmail refusing to work with applemail- after doing all of the above- got things working and then one step at a a time re installing or activating. Also check keyboard settings. Close or delete all you do not use/need

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Many thanks for your suggestions, Bartdog.

While I’ve booted into Recovery, and am running Disk Utility; I can’t seem to find where within it I can address Apple security issues.

Regardless, your suggestions have me wondering if I simply need to re-install the O.S.?

I tried this before, and while it did work for a week or so, which had Mail working correctly for me, my inability to simply access email seems to have reemerged.

So I’m now wondering if my Mail problem is somehow related to the fact that the drive has been partitioned 3 ways, for different versions of the OS?

I’ll try reformatting the internal drive and installing just Big Sur in the hope that my email access is restored.

Regardless, this entire experience has me seriously questioning the credibility of Apple, as problems with Mail are well documented on their site; their solutions to which have all failed me so far.

… considerably and surprisingly, disappointed in Apple.

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I don’t really use Mail, @Bill_Taylor, but it certainly shouldn’t be crashing on launch. You might try a complete rebuild:

https://c-command.com/spamsieve/help/how-can-i-rebuild-apple

I believe you’re using Gmail, so you can always use the Gmail Web interface, or I would strongly recommend Mimestream, which is what I’ve been using for quite some time now. I prefer it to Mail by a long shot.