[SeSawaya]

Just got my ibook back from a new screen fix. I had them do the "back up" for me and when I got it back, everything was exactly like it was when I gave it to them, except the dock. It look like it dose when you do a clean install.

OK, so I used to use the mail app that comes with X and it worked flawlessly with my .Mac account. Loved it!
Now everytime I open it, it crashes instantly. Everytime. no exception. Restarts, virus scans, nothing.

What should I do?
(and talk to me like I'm 5 )


thanks!!!

[PubGuy]

1) Well, first thing I would do is to open Disk Utility and run a Repair Permissions...then try it again.

2) Next, open your Home folder, goto Library, goto Preferences. Look for com.apple.mail.plist.
Rename it to com.apple.mail.plist.org (I don't like deleting these things, just in case this isn't the problem, why loose your settings). Launch mail again. If it still crashes, then delete the new com.apple.mail.plist file that was created and rename the original file back.

The next step is more time consuming, but it will allow you to extract the current mail.app and replace the one on your system.

3) If that doesn't work, go to Apples web site at http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/ and download the Mac OS X Update Combo 10.2.6
It's an 86 MB file, so I hope you have a broadband connection. Now you should be able to Double-click on the update.DMG file to mount it and double-click on the PKG file to rerun the update. This update contains a new Mail.app file.

4) If that doesn't work, you can extract the Mail.app file manually by doing the following:
Go to MacUpdate and download a program called Pacifist. What this program does is allow you to look at the contents of the PKG file that is in the 10.2.6 Combo Update. Install Pacifist on your machine.

Double-Click the Mac OS X Update Combo 10.2.6.dmg file to mount the image. A window will open showing you the PKG file inside. Drag the PKG file onto Pacifist and let go. Pacifist will open showing the contents of the update. Click the disclosure triangle next to Applications. Click on the Mail.app file to highlight it. Go to the File menu and select "Extract To" and extract the Mail.app file.

Now you've got a perfect, known good copy of the Mail.app file. Delete the old one and replace it with the new one.

Good Luck. Tell us which items worked.

[SeSawaya]

wow thanks for all the detailed help.

Nothing worked. I even trashed my prefs and the app and then did the pakage extract but the application folder showed the mail app as modified a year ago. ??? So it crashes really without even launching. Luckily I do have broadband so the download wasnt a big deal.

I have NO idea now. I guess its time to make a trip to the genius bar at the Apple store and let them freak over it.

thanks a million. If you have any other suggestions, let me know. I'll try anything!!!

[RoofusPennymore]

Try creating a new user and testing mail.app that way. There could be other OS User prefs that are corrupt. I had this issue and found about a dozen files that the OS creates. Once those were replaced everything workse good.

[CharlesS]

Open the Console utility (found in /Applications/Utilities). Then, try to launch Mail while the Console is open. Then, click on the Console window, and see if any new errors have been logged. If so, post the errors here.

[SeSawaya]

Hey Charles, thanks. Here what the console said.

2003-08-25 20:57:50.355 Mail[2268] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): plist parse failed; the data is not proper UTF-8. The file name for this data could be:
/Users/arns/Library/Mail/Mac-sonordrum/.mboxCache.plist
The parser will retry as in 10.1, but the problem should be corrected in the plist.
Aug 25 20:57:51 12-247-193-175 crashdump: Crash report written to: /Users/arns/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Mail.crash.log

[misc]

What happens if you rename /Users/arns/Library/Mail/ something like Mail.old and restarting the mail program so it creates a new Mail/ folder. Not sure if this will work, make sure you do not delete your current Mail/ folder. It looks like something is fuxored up with it atm.

[CharlesS]

Yep, sounds like your mailbox cache files are corrupt. Do what misc said, move the Mail folder, and see if it fixes the problem. If it doesn't, I'm not sure we will be able to help you, but you might as well post the text of the crash log (the file at /Users/arns/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Mail.crash.log) in case it contains something helpful.

[SeSawaya]

MISC - Charles
that did it, ts fine now!!! Thanks a million, and my wife thanks you both too. I just renamed it and poof, no problems!!!

ye-ha!