Mac Mail - Incoming: Sender and body scrambled.

[Bazza1]

So recently on Mac Mail (MacOS 10.13.3), I have had cases where some email has come in (predominantly on my @iCloud.com account) and either the From: line offers a different contact than actually produced the email, and/or the body of the email itself is scrambled / unformatted, and is from a different email. Also, some emails - already read and moved out of the Inbox within Mac Mail - have reappeared in there.

Meanwhile, no such issues with the Mail app on my iPhone, or Outlook on my Android tablet.

Thoughts?

 

[Just_Me_D]

Both my work issue MacBook Air and my personal MacBook Pro are both running the latest version of macOS High Sierra. With that in mind, I haven’t noticed any weird occurrence using the native Mail app on either. I last checked for email with the native Mail app was last night. I’m out and about right now, but when I get back home, I’ll check to see if it things start happening in the manner you described above.

 

[Lee_Bo]

Working fine here. No scrambled emails.

 

[Bazza1]

This doesn't happen consistently - just the odd email comes thru where this is occurring. It might pick a Sender from an earlier email, or keep the right Sender, but include the body from another - with no formatting. Nothing to point to say, "When A happens, B occurs. Only thing that is consistent is that it's been since last patch (sorry...update) with MacOS.

I don't need any fancy-schmancy email service, but might try, say, Spark, to see if this is a solely a Mac Mail hiccup here - or only on my Mac. Like I said, email arriving as expected on devices.

 

[Just_Me_D]

This doesn't happen consistently - just the odd email comes thru where this is occurring. It might pick a Sender from an earlier email, or keep the right Sender, but include the body from another - with no formatting. Nothing to point to say, "When A happens, B occurs. Only thing that is consistent is that it's been since last patch (sorry...update) with MacOS.

I don't need any fancy-schmancy email service, but might try, say, Spark, to see if this is a solely a Mac Mail hiccup here - or only on my Mac. Like I said, email arriving as expected on devices.

Oh okay. After checking my email, all appears normal on my end.

 

[Bazza1]

Thanks for that, Just_Me_D.

Like I said, some consistency would be useful - to be able to narrow down the hiccup - but whadd'ya gonna do?

Well, to start, I've installed Spark - just to see if its an app / OS issue (or, at the very least, a corruption locally) - or a bigger issue up the delivery chain. I figure if I don't have the same delivery issues with Spark, well...like I said, not an issue on other devices.

I haven't received enough emails - and from a variety of sources to my multiple Accounts - to tell if there's a problem / solution yet. We shall see. But Spark (or similar) may end up being 'It'.

For what I use Mac Mail for, I was perfectly content with it - when it worked. If it's local problem - a corruption - I'd be happy to apply a fix - but it's not (as far as I can tell) the sort of App you can delete and reinstall from the App Store, while I have no idea what folders to purge deeper in the system to force a rebuild of them, potentially clearing the issue.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Thanks for that, Just_Me_D.

Like I said, some consistency would be useful - to be able to narrow down the hiccup - but whadd'ya gonna do?

Well, to start, I've installed Spark - just to see if its an app / OS issue (or, at the very least, a corruption locally) - or a bigger issue up the delivery chain. I figure if I don't have the same delivery issues with Spark, well...like I said, not an issue on other devices.

I haven't received enough emails - and from a variety of sources to my multiple Accounts - to tell if there's a problem / solution yet. We shall see. But Spark (or similar) may end up being 'It'.

For what I use Mac Mail for, I was perfectly content with it - when it worked. If it's local problem - a corruption - I'd be happy to apply a fix - but it's not (as far as I can tell) the sort of App you can delete and reinstall from the App Store, while I have no idea what folders to purge deeper in the system to force a rebuild of them, potentially clearing the issue.

You’re very welcome, sir. In regard to Spark, it’s been a long time since I’ve used it, and if I recall correctly, I found the font to be somewhat tiny, but again, that was probably a few years back. Other than, I really enjoyed using it. I think I’ve tried almost all of the popular 3rd-party email apps at some point in time. Anyway, keep us updated on your findings, if you don’t mind.

 

[Bazza1]

... I think I’ve tried almost all of the popular 3rd-party email apps at some point in time. Anyway, keep us updated on your findings, if you don’t mind.

Well, I've already found an issue that has everything to do with Spark, and nothing to do with the original issue - and it may be enough to give up on the app.

The issue? Threading. Jeez I hate threaded messages. Pretty much loathe it in Gmail (which I use as my junk mail address, so not really a thing - but it's also why it will never be my primary email service), and there's no way to turn it off in Spark, either. And there appears to be no graceful way to workaround it, either - certainly a post-installation Google suggests a bunch of miffed users.

So, with Spark on a Mac, if someone replies to an email you send, its linked to the original email and others that may be related. If you really don't need to keep the response (but do want to keep the original other correspondence), you appear to be hooped. Deleting this message deletes them all. I understand there is a way to delete select messages in the thread, but I've yet to find it - not exactly intuitive.

Really? Who thought threading was a good idea? People who can't properly maintain their emails? And what would possess anyone not to include a way for users to personalize how mail is delivered and stored?

Arrgh!

 

[Just_Me_D]

Well, I've already found an issue that has everything to do with Spark, and nothing to do with the original issue - and it may be enough to give up on the app.

The issue? Threading. Jeez I hate threaded messages. Pretty much loathe it in Gmail (which I use as my junk mail address, so not really a thing - but it's also why it will never be my primary email service), and there's no way to turn it off in Spark, either. And there appears to be no graceful way to workaround it, either - certainly a post-installation Google suggests a bunch of miffed users.

So, with Spark on a Mac, if someone replies to an email you send, its linked to the original email and others that may be related. If you really don't need to keep the response (but do want to keep the original other correspondence), you appear to be hooped. Deleting this message deletes them all. I understand there is a way to delete select messages in the thread, but I've yet to find it - not exactly intuitive.

Really? Who thought threading was a good idea? People who can't properly maintain their emails? And what would possess anyone not to include a way for users to personalize how mail is delivered and stored?

Arrgh!

I hear ya!....If you want personalization & tweaking then the Airmail app will be the way to go, in my opinion.

 

[Bazza1]

I hear ya!....If you want personalization & tweaking then the Airmail app will be the way to go, in my opinion.

Yeah, I've looked at Airmail - while still inexpensive, there's a part of me that resents paying for an app that offers a service that is so ubiquitous (to the point where it's included in OSs - when they work), and for something as 'old fashioned' as email. But I may yet give it a go, if my initial problem seems to be the Mac Mail app itself.

And, for what its worth - I think I may have found the option to delete individual replies without losing other attached threaded emails within Spark, but I'm treading very carefully there...

 

[Bazza1]

So with recent update to MacOS 10.13.4, I thought I'd give Mac Mail another try - and within days, I saw the same issues pop up - scrambled body text, often with a sender listed from another email. Oh, and my personal favourite (and one I'd forgotten) - when sending out a group email, randomly adding a name from my Contact List to the list.

I've found others within Apple's own Forums with the same scrambled text / sender issue - and it seems to have kicked in within the last few High Sierra updates - but no one is certain what is going on or how to fix it. Apple, of course, is silent on the issue.

I've tried a Rebuild of my mailboxes and the other regularly posted fix - the manual Re-index of Mail via ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData - but only thing in that folder is a .plist, and not the Envelope files I'm told I should find there.

So, sadly, back to the 3rd Party Mail apps.

(BTW, I've dumped Spark because of the threading thing - drove me nuts - currently with boring but functioning Thunderbird - no issues. Yet. Or just accessing my mail online.)

 

[Just_Me_D]

I don’t know what to tell you. I use the native Mail app everyday on my 2017 MacBook Pro running macOS High Sierra v10.13.4, and I’ve yet to experience what you’ve described and I don’t know how to replicate it. In addition, I have 5 email accounts configured with it. Having said that, I will keep monitoring it to see if it ever starts acting in the manner you’ve described. In the meantime, I hope someone who has experienced what you have replies soon with a remedy for you.

 

[Bazza1]

Random weirdness, Just_Me_D - but at least it appears that I'm not the only one, if the Apple Forum (for one) is anything to go by. And the randomness of it is not something that surprises me with Apple.
Mac Mail seems to be one of those older apps that doesn't get the love newer, sparklier, cooler apps and features get (which is odd when you consider how hard Apple tries to keep its users using proprietary products over iCloud), so hardly surprising if hiccups appear - and not for all.

At least there's a free work-around.

 

[Daniel_Smythe]

I thought I was the only one who has suffered issues with Apple mail after 10.13.5. But Apple's official website speaks a lot about the issue. Users have sffered a lot of glitches in past two updates(10.13.5 and 10.14).
One of my friends had a POP account on Mail App and you can just assume the loss she has lost. Somehoow few of the mails were safely recovered, rest were corrupted enough for the retrieval. Currenty she backs up her mails with Mail Backup X.

 

[Bazza1]

I recently purchased a 'new' 2017 MBA - did not go the migration route, but rather, manually loaded all of my data and apps again, so as to (hopefully) not import old problems - a fresh install - which has helped resolve a couple of hiccups on a number of Apple apps. This also included a fresh install of all of my active accounts, including, obviously, iCloud. Since then (about 3 weeks ago), I've had a couple of scrambled emails come thru, but they seem to have been resolved by the Folder > Mailbox > Rebuild method when they have occurred.

Its still beyond tedious - and I tend to rely on the preferred accounts online mail website to access and manipulate mail, as no issues there.