Mail Crashes on startup

[Bushwack]

Hey guys, I hate to bother ya'll if this has been asked and answered, but I can't find a thread about it. I did a search and went through about 100 pages...

My wife did a security update on her Macbook (Intel running 10.4.11) the other day and ever since then Mail crashes and so does Safari on start up.

Does anyone of you mac guru's have any ideas on how to repair this?

I'd really appreciate any help I can get. I'm about ready to wipe the drive and start over.

[Bushwack]

And now I'm finding out it's the network pane crashing...What the heck is up with apple? Sending an update that causes all of these problems?

[Satcomer]

Try this. Download the Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (Intel) and run that to see if that helps. Don't be alarmed because it will double restart the Mac, so be patient.

[Bushwack]

Thanks Satcomer, I thought it worked, it actually came up for a second and checked mail then Boom it quit.... Any other ideas?

[Randy Singer]

When a program repeatedly unexpectedly quits under OS X, or its icon bounces in the Dock but the application does not open, there are
three or four common reasons for this that you can investigate:

1) Corrupted user preference file for that application. The first
thing to try is:
Preferential Treatment (free)
http://www.jonn8.com/html/pt.html
Note: While Preferential Treatment is quick and easy to use, it
unfortunately doesn't always find user preferences files that are
corrupted. If you are experiencing an application that is suddenly
quitting on you, and Preferential Treatment doesn't find anything,
you should look in your user preferences folder
(~/Library/Preferences/), located at:
[hard drive]/Users/[your user name]/Library/Preferences
for any preferences files with the name of the application, (or sometimes the name of the developer of the application) in the name of the file.

For example, if you are having a problem with ComicLife , you will find this file in your user preferences folder:
com.plasq.ComicLife.plist
Drag that file to the desktop and restart. A new preferences file
will be created in your user preferences folder when you launch
ComicLife the next time. See if things are better. If they are, you
can trash the ComicLife preferences file that you now have on your desktop.

If this does not help, try this. Create a new user, log in as that
new user, and see if things are better. If they aren't, your problem
isn't a corrupted user preferences file. If they are, then you
probably have missed a corrupted user preferences file.

2) You need to repair permissions on your disk.
See:
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
Item #1

3) If your problem is with a browser, or another program that
maintains a cache, you should try resetting that cache.
Download and run:
CacheOutX (free)
http://www.trilateralsystems.com/cacheoutx/
to clear out your caches.

4) If your problem is with a word processor, or some program that
uses typography, you should suspect a corrupted font. Often this
font is located in the Fonts folder in your Classic/OS 9 fonts
folder. (Usually that font was fine running under OS 9.)
Often it is a dingbats font.
Use Font Book (installed with OS X) to verify and repair your fonts.
See:
http://www.macattorney.com/tutorial.html
Item #26

[Satcomer]

to reset Mail you have to follow some steps and you will not loose any saved email boxes.

1. Write down (on paper) your Email server settings because they will be blown away.

2. Quite Mail and have no email in the Mail Inbox.

3. Navigate to the folder /YourHardDrive/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/ and find the file com.apple.mail.plist and move it to the Trash can.

4. Relaunch Mail and setup your Email server settings you wrote down in step one.


You will not loose any saved email that were archived in custom folders in Mail. Hopefully this will help you email settings.

The way you describe your situation something might be going either in the hard drive or some other worse hardware issue. Good luck.