This problem has bothered me several times. I couldn’t turn off my macbook due to apple mail, an application I use on a daily basis.
mail doesn’t seem to close and gives me this error message:
when I tried to quit the mail app, it just failed…weird!
Trying to find out the reasons, I searched and came across some forum discussions where other mac users were also experiencing the same problem.
And to my surprise, most of us (even tech gurus) didn’t know the exact reasons.
some say it’s related to the version of macos your mac is running, while others argue it’s due to the mail app itself, hinting it’s a bug that’s been around for over a decade and needs to be fixed urgently.
Personally, I think it’s the latter. because I encountered some other mail related issues like the app takes forever to receive and send new emails.
Sometimes when I try to send an email it just freezes on the “send” process, I have to double check the sent box to make sure my email response is delivered correctly. by the way, apple knows about this problem, as you can see in this support article.
In another case, the Mail app had some issues after iPhone and iPad users upgraded to iOS 11. Apple and Microsoft were working together to fix the issues, as you can read more about in this macrumors report.
Now back on topic!
the “imperfect” repair solution
Anyway, the solution to fix Mail app closing error is simple. and there are several ways to do it.
first method
Step 1: Click the apple logo in the upper left corner, then select force quit.
Step 2: Highlight the mail app and confirm the operation by clicking force quit. after that, your mac should be able to shut down properly.
second method
You can also exit the mail application through the activity monitor, an application that allows you to monitor all active processes that are currently consuming resources on your mac. this is how it’s done:
step 1. open apps, search for activity monitor. Alternatively, you can do a quick spotlight search in the top right corner to find this app and open it.
Step 2: Highlight mail and press the “x” icon.
Step 3: Select force quit.
mac still won’t shutdown?
I’m afraid the only solution now is to force shutdown your mac. you can do this by pressing the power button for 5 seconds or so, and your mac should be shutting down in a few seconds.
- for macbooks: the power button is on the far right of the keyboard.
- for imacs: the power button is behind the lower left side of your imac’s screen.
why is it an imperfect solution?
because there is a possibility that this could damage email files and cause data loss. If you handle emails from mac mail on a daily basis, it’s likely that a lot of email files will be generated.
be sure to use the force quit solution with caution. and remember to back up your emails regularly just in case.
That’s all for this post, I hope you find it useful. and hopefully the apple mail team can improve the app and fix this mail app bug.