Mail App On Mac Keeps Freezing Rating: 8,2/10 7533 reviews

Jul 07, 2019  Learn how to keep in touch and stay productive with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365, even when you’re working remotely. Close your Mail app by clicking Mail Quit Mail. Use a Mac repair tool to delete cache files and perform routine maintenance cleanup, then restart your computer. Launch Mail again to check if you are able to load the app successfully. If it still crashes, follow the solutions we listed below. Sep 26, 2017  If your Mac freezes on startup than it's probably one of the startup items, apps that launch when your Mac turns on. You'll need to check on them and remove the extras. FIX: Stop programs from running at startup on Mac: go to Settings Users and Groups Login items and uncheck any app that you don't want to launch when switching your Mac on. Melt This Ice in Several Effective Steps! Even by keeping OS X updated to the latest version all the time does not guarantee you will not face a problem with the work of Mail.app. The initial symptom of the Mail crash is the spinner. It always identifies a waiting time, which makes many users go mad.

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities staylorinoz,
If I'm understanding your post right, the Mail app freezes on your Mac when you create a new message and address it to a recipient that isn't in your contacts. I know how disruptive it can be to experience complications with apps on your Mac, and I'm happy to help you with a solution.
Let's start with a full restart of your Mac if you haven't done so already. This is a pretty basic step, but it can be really helpful for resolving various issues. Next, reset the NVRAM using the steps here:Do you have multiple email accounts set up in Mail? If so, let’s try seeing if we can narrow this down to a particular email account. Go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts. Select one of your email accounts from the left side and uncheck the box next to Mail and then test out composing a message in the Mail app. Do this for each one of your email accounts. If the issue is resolved with Mail disabled for one of those accounts, try removing and readding that particular email account next using the steps here:
Set up Mail with your email accounts
If the issue persists, see if you experience the same thing when using Mail while booted in safe mode: macOS Sierra: Start up in safe mode After that, test out Mail in a brand-new user account: macOS Sierra: Set up users, guests, and groups on your Mac. Also, let me know at what point does Mail freeze, for example, does it freeze after you type in the email address or does it not freeze until you try to send the email message?
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Take care.

Nov 24, 2017 2:15 PM

Imagine this: you’re working happily on your Mac when the dreaded beach ball of death appears. A program stops responding or worse, the macOS (or OS X) itself refuses to do anything but stare at you, blankly. You have a frozen Mac app or an OS X freeze. Mac OS not responding can lead to lost productivity or even lost work. Let's go over why it happens, what to do when your Mac freezes or when an Mac OS app stops responding, as well as some tips for preventative maintenance.

We’ll go over frozen apps first, so if your whole Mac freezes, you can jump to the part about fixing a frozen Mac.

Fixing a frozen app: Why Mac OS apps freeze

There can be a few reasons why apps freeze on Mac. First, sometimes an app freezes on its own, and sometimes it takes down the whole Mac with it. Here's what could be happening:

Mail App On Mac Keeps Freezing Iphone

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  1. Apps freeze in the background.
    This could mean there are some apps running that you didn't open, they opened themselves. Probably, they're featured in your startup items, so they automatically launch when you start your Mac. If this happens repeatedly, you need to check what apps are running in the background and launch with the startup.
  2. Processes freeze in the background.
    This one is different from apps. One app may be running multiple processes, also system processes can be running on their own.
  3. Too many apps and processes running.
    Same logic as with the previous issue. But the question here is how many is too many? There is no definite answer to this, it very much depends on the hardware capacity of your Mac. You can read how to check it and fix it below.
  4. Mac system is too cluttered with junk to run even simple tasks.
    This is fixable, you can get a Mac optimizing app like CleanMyMac X for the job. Run a scan to find and remove the stuff you don't need, and there's a high change your apps will stop freezing after that.

What to do if an app freezes on your Mac

A frozen app becomes unresponsive and brings your work to a halt. In the worst case scenario, it can lead to lost work or a corrupted file. Fortunately, there are several options to try, and most are quite simple. Here’s what you can do when a program freezes on your Mac. First, you need to quit it. Then, if the app keeps freezing when you launch it, try the next options.

How to quit a frozen or unresponsive program

Quitting and then re-starting an app is a good way for Mac OS to handle a crash. You can do this from the OS X Dock or from the Force Quit window. To force-quit an app from the OS Dock, follow these simple steps:

  1. Click anywhere outside of the program
  2. Right-click (or Control-click) on the frozen app’s icon in the Dock. A menu appears.
  3. Hold down the Option key on your keyboard so that Quit in that menu changes to Force Quit.
  4. Select Force Quit.

That’s it. The app is instantly closed. Re-launch it and try again. If you prefer to work with the Dock hidden — or if the Dock itself is unresponsive — you can simply bring up the Force Quit dialog box to perform the same task.
Here’s how:

  1. On your Mac’s keyboard, hit the Option, Command and Escape keys simultaneously (alt + ? + esc).
  2. The Force Quit dialog box appears with a list of running programs.
  3. Select the frozen app and then click Force Quit.
  4. The software will stop running and you’re free to re-launch it at this point.

If you’re using a maintenance utility like CleanMyMac X, it has freezes covered. When CleanMyMac spots an unresponsive app, a notification window with a Quit button pops up, so you could force-quit the app without rummaging around in its menu.

CleanMyMac keeps an eye on other performance issues, too, so if you'd like to get alerts like this one when anything goes wrong, download CleanMyMac X for free and give it a try.

How to fix Mac apps that keep freezing

First, check what apps are running in the background and launch with the startup.
To do it go to Settings > Users and Groups > Login items.
Uncheck anything you think might be causing trouble. In fact, just to be sure, uncheck every app and restart your Mac.

Now, find out which process or program is causing the problem. How to see what programs are running on Mac in general? You need launch Activity monitor.
How to find Activity Monitor on Mac: You can do it via the Spotlight Search or just open Launchpad and type it in.
How to open Activity Monitor in Finder: launch it from Applications > Utilities folder > Activity Monitor.

When it opens, you'll probably see hundreds of processes in each tab, but the ones you need now are CPU and Memory tabs. Click on the % CPU sign to sort processes by their influence on your Mac's work. The heaviest ones will show up on the top. They could be your main issue, but don’t rush to deal with them. Some, like kernel, are important system processes and you shouldn’t mess with them.

How to kill a process on Mac OS

However, sometimes your problem does lie within a specific process, you can force quit it (Apple doesn't call it 'to kill a process on Mac', they make it sound fancy). But we're not at Apple HQ, so here's how to kill a Mac OS process:

To enable it, click the cog icon on the Start menu, then choose Personalization, Colors, and then either Light or Dark under the Choose your color heading. News of the future, now. Dark modee on all mac apps. Oct 07, 2019  Dark Mode, available in macOS Mojave or later, is a dramatic new look that's easy on your eyes and helps you focus on your work. Dark Mode uses a dark color scheme that works system wide, including with the apps that come with your Mac. And third-party apps can adopt it, too. Mar 29, 2019  Apple rolled out macOS Mojave this past fall and, with it, Dark Mode became available to all Mac computers. You likely know what Dark Mode is: the feature darkens your Mac’s color scheme to help whatever you’re working on stand out better. It’s ideal for anybody working at night; developers working with code particularly like Dark Mode. Dark Mode, a feature that replaces your usual black-on-white display with white-on-black, is easier on the eyes and makes you feel like you own bitcoin. The site Dark Mode List lists macOS apps.

  1. Open Activity Monitor.
  2. You see a list of processes. You can sort them by clicking on %CPU or % Memory in relevant tabs.
  3. Find the process you want to kill and choose it.
  4. Click on the octagon with an X sign.
  5. Done.

Occasionally the problem isn’t with the Mac app, but with the Mac OS itself. If you’re experiencing troubles regularly, it’s time to ask why your Mac keeps freezing. There are several possible reasons, so let’s start with the simplest potential solution.

First, the file you were working with at the time of the freeze may be the issue. To help determine if this is true, try opening a different file with that app and work with it for a while. If it behaves normally, quit and then go back to the file you were working with at the time of the crash. If the errant behavior persists, you may have found your problem. Salvage what you can into a new file.

Make sure that your software and OS X are up-to-date. This is easy to do with software purchased from the Mac App Store. The same goes for OS X. Launch the Mac App Store on your Mac, and you’ll see the list of pending updates, including any for the OS X itself. For third-party software purchased outside of the App Store, visit the manufacturer’s website.

What to do if Mac OS X freezes

If you cannot force-quit a program, or if the Mac OS is completely unresponsive, it’s time for the most obvious action — a reboot.
You can bring up the Restart/Sleep/Shutdown dialog box instantly by hitting Control plus the Power button. Option four, Shut Down, is selected by default.
Alternatively, you can press and hold the Power button for 1.5-2 seconds to bring up the same dialog box. If things aren’t hopelessly messed up, you’ll get a chance to save your work before your Mac shuts down. If that still doesn’t work, a more drastic option is available.

How to force reboot a frozen Mac

Press Command ?, Control and Power (on earlier MacBook models, use the Media Eject key instead of the Power button) to restart your Mac immediately. Note that you won’t have the option of saving anything in this scenario, but it will definitely reboot your icy Mac.

Once your Mac has restarted, you might find that the hard restart has corrupted the file you were working on. Salvage what you can from it and create a new file.

How to fix a frozen Mac

After the reboot, ensure that your Mac has enough free hard drive space for the OS X, and enough free RAM to do what you want. CleanMyMac X can help you here, too. It removes all the useless files that take up space on your hard drive: app leftovers, mail attachments, cache files, and so on. That way, you can free up additional disk space for the OS X without deleting any of your own files. Plus, CleanMyMac X keeps tabs on how much RAM you’re using and lets you free some up with a tap.

Finally, if system cleanup also fails to fix the problem, you can try to run a clean install of your Mac OS. Just follow the instructions: How to clean install macOS Sierra 10.12

Note: If you don’t know which system your Mac runs, click the apple icon in the top left corner and choose About this Mac. You’ll see the name on the popup window.

That’s it, we hope this guide has helped you fix a frozen Mac. Remember, with day-to-day maintenance, your Mac can offer years of reliable work. On the rare occasion of a frozen program or even frozen OS X, these tips will help get you working and productive again. And software like CleanMyMac X can do some of the monitoring and maintenance for you, so you can focus on what needs to be done.

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