Mail application Not Responding (at all!)

[darkvineyard]

I'm having problems with my Mac mail. This is the first time I've ever had trouble with this amazing application.

I open up Mail, and only after a few moments, it freezes up. I'll see the spinning rainbow cursor that tells me I can't do anything.

What's up with that?

And when I open the application, I can't see anything in my inbox, even though I know there is mail in my inbox. I will post a screenshot in just a few moments.

And I forgot to mention that I have to press apple + 1, because when I first open Mail, it doesn't show the window.

Click for full size
This may seem like nothing to you, but I don't have that many columns in my Mail application, so I don't know why it's like that. I assume it's part of the problem.

I use Gmail, so I don't have to worry about losing my mail, but I rather not lose the mail stored on my Mac all the same. ^^;;

 

[soupastar]

a similar problem has happened to my lapbook as of this morning.

i checked around on the net to see if there were any online solutions.

so far i have repaired permissions which did nothing. Also rebooted the airport etc but still the problem remains.

i did try and remove the com.apple.mail.plist from the preferences folder and i put this onto the desktop and the problem ceased for my other non .mac account which also i running through Mail.

So i am guessing its something to do with the com.apple.mail.plist but when i put it back in preferences the problem starts again. I have to keep it in preferences to see my .mac emails.

What do i do?

 

[darkvineyard]

.plist

I forget, what purpose does a .plist serve? What does that plist do for your mac application, in particular? What happened if you deleted it?

edit1: I moved the .com.apple.plist to my desktop, and the Welcome to Mail window came up.
edit2: But hey! All my mail is still there! So, is it safe to delete the .plist?
Because I agree that it is apparently the problem.

 

[GGJstudios]

I forget, what purpose does a .plist serve? What does that plist do for your mac application, in particular? What happened if you deleted it?

I moved the .com.apple.plist to my desktop, and the Welcome to Mail window came up.

Try Google. It works! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.plist

 

[soupastar]

i also removed the plist and the problem seems to be resolved now.

i got the tip from looking around the net. However i would be interested to know what effect my deleting it would have.

i had to re set up both my accounts in mail and seem to have lost a bulk of emails from one account. They are still accessible via the web just not through my Mail browser.

Also and slightly more bizarre some emails that i had received from someone had changed identity. For example if "bill" had sent me an email when i opened it it was actually an email from "simon" though when it sat in the inbox it said it was from "bill"

this only happened to a couple of mails received during the problem time yesterday. I just deleted them and it seems to have stopped but i am not sure why this happened.