Mac OS X 10.3.9: Sluggish Mail.app performance

One of the most widely reported issues with Mac OS X 10.3.9 is significantly decreased performance from Apple's Mail.app after installation.

The most commonly reported issues include:

• Extremely slow retrieval of mail
• Pauses or freezes when synchronizing folders
• Pauses or freezes when 'Comparing Notes with Server'

MacFixIt reader Seth Dolman writes:

"Mail.app has been performing quite sluggishly since applying the 10.3.9 update. Repairing disk permissions and clearing caches (system and user via Onyx and mail by deleting in ~/Library/Mail) do not fix the problems. Also, Mail.app has not been remembering SMTP settings, and it keeps reverting to another SMTP server than the one I keep setting."

Donald Broadribb adds:

"Since installing 10.3.9 I have found that when I go to load Mail it takes upwards of a minute for it to show up. (There was the same problem after one of the OS 10.3 updates a few updates ago, which was fixed by one of the later updates.) Once loaded, there seems to be no problem in retrieving messages. It is a bit slow in sending messages, though."

Gretchen Hayman offers a slightly more detailed account:

"After applying the update, Mail.app has had issues filtering my e-mail, even after I manually and repeatedly selected the mail and then 'Apply filters.' Only after repeated restarts (or force quits, see below) of Mail, will it filter properly.

"It has also become glacially slow in mail checking; it will just sit there for minutes on end while checking. I am on IMAP, connecting to a cyrus IMAP server on our LAN. Nothing on our mail server side or network side has changed; I'm the Network Administrator, so I know this for a fact. It also incorrectly reports the mail. For the entirety of yesterday afternoon and night, it continued to "check" e-mail and when I came in this morning, I had no new e-mail. After (force) quitting Mail and restarting it, it correctly found my e-mail. So, I have taken to manually checking for mail from time to time, and to (force) quitting Mail several times a day, just in case it is not correctly reporting/gathering my mail.

"Last, but not least, Mail also now has problems quitting. When I select Quit, it appears to quit, but doesn't (the Dock indictor still shows it open). An inspection of the Activity Monitor shows the Mail process as hung and I have to force quit the application, losing any changes I may have made."

Potential Solutions

Reverting to an earlier vesion of Mail.app Some readers have reported that obtaining a copy of Mail.app from a volume containing an earlier version of Mac OS X 10.3.x (10.3.8, for instance) resolves the performance bottleneck introduced by Mac OS X 10.3.9. The new version is 1.3.11, and the prior release is version 1.3.9. Note, however, that this procedure may undo security refinements introduced by the latest release of Mail.app.

Doug Miner writes:

"I appear to have fixed the problem by copying Mail.app from another disk with OS 10.3.8 installed on it. I just copied the app (no other associated files) and moved it to replace the version that came with 10.3.9. Everything seems to work fine now."

Emptying deleted mail Emptying messages from both the "Deleted Messages" and "Junk Mail" folders prior to quitting Mail.app reduces the quit and subsequent launch times for some readers.

MacFixIt reader Jim Forsman writes:

"One way that I have found not to have Mail stall when quitting, is manually to 'Erase Deleted Messages' and 'Erase Junk Mail' from the 'Mailbox' menu. If I fail to do this, Mail delays quitting for many minutes, but if I do, Mail quits promptly. (Note that in, Preferences -> Accounts -> Special Mailboxes, I have enabled "Erase Messages in the Junk Mailbox" and "Erase deleted messages" when quitting.)"

Deleting Mail.app cache and .plist file Deleting the following folder:

• ~/Library/Mail/Caches/Mail

and this file:

• ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

may provide faster Mail.app performance in some cases.

Turning off SSL Turning off the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) option in Mail.app's preferences (Click "Server Settings..." for the desired account) appears to resolve performance issues with IMAP servers in some cases. Note, however, that this will disable access to some servers that require this option to be turned on.

MacFixIt reader Chris Janton, for instance, writes:

"When connecting to the IMAP server using SSL on port 993 all sorts of odd behavior - slow, not completely quitting, etc.

"If you turn off secure mail (back to port 143) the bad behavior seems to go away, at least I haven't observed the odd behavior."

Switching e-mail clients Some users are simply switching to an alternative mail client, such as the excellent Mozilla Thunderbird, in the wake of these issues.

MacFixIt reader Richard Eppert writes:

"I'm seeing the same things as David Miller. Connecting to our campus Exchange server has become painfully slow (and sometimes requiring a restart of Mail to even work) under 10.39. Never had this issue with any previous OS X updates. Installed Thunderbird, just for testing and it works fine."

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