Can I / How Best To Kill Mail.app?

[gyffes]

I use Thunderbird for mail.

Periodically (and with no consistent trigger, that I can see), mail fires up. I dislike this.

My grandfather called: "I can't shut down; I keep getting a message telling me 'mail canceled shutdown.' I am not using mail! What do I do?" He uses online-based email programs.

After walking him through Activity Monitor > Kill Process, I began searching for HowTo Eliminate Mail. No luck, but many people cranky with the program.

I'm most peeved by Mail's performance as it seems a distinctly Micro$quash way of behaving (that is, even when Thunderbird's the registered default app, Mail keeps trying to take over...).

Suggestions? Is it as simple as dragging mail.app to the trashcan?

Thankee.

 

[g/re/p]

Deleting mail.app would probably work.
Is mail.app even configured to work?
i.e. - does it have an email account
configured on it?

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Most likely, his default email client is set to Mail.app.

Ironically, the preference for your default email application is in Mail.app's preferences: simply launch Mail.app, go into the Preferences, set your default email application to Entourage (or Thunderbird, or Eudora, etc.) then quit Mail.app. You'll probably not need to delete Mail.app after this.

 

[gyffes]

I believe I indicated in my original post that Thunderbird IS the default mail client and more than 99% of the time, it performs as such.

It is when mail chooses to take over that concerns me and which I seek to permanently disable.

Perchance one should read more carefully the posts ere replying?

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

He is not a moron. You may be. I indicated that Thunderbird IS the default mail client and more than 99% of the time, it performs as such.

I was only trying to help. You weren't crystal clear about whether Thunderbird has ALWAYS been set to be the default application, or whether it's set to be the default application on both your machine and your grandfather's machine, or what exact problem you want help with anyway -- your grandfather's inability to shut down? Your distaste for Mail.app? The fact that it launches sporadically (on whose machine? Yours? Grandfather's?)?

When Mail.app suddenly, and with no discernable pattern, "takes over," is Thunderbird still set as the default email client in Mail, or has Mail made itself the default email client again?

If you're so gung-ho about getting a quick answer, then just go ahead and trash Mail.app and that should take care of the problem. Obviously, if the Mail.app application is gone, then it would be impossible to launch it. I would think that any "moron" could figure this out on their own without having to ask someone else, though.

 

[gyffes]

I edited my first response [before, I thought, any had a chance to read it] because it was overly hostile and your post count would seem to indicate a desire to help, but I did read your response as... snide. I'm no mac newbie (still have my mac from 1985, upgraded to a 16mhz plus!) and take suggestions that I'm a bit dim... poorly. If it's the result of my poorly written request, that is a different story.

I finally deleted mail. My post was really more of a quest for a way of shutting it down without resorting to that extreme of a response.

The problem was that Mail would launch, randomly, on both of our machines. With neither rhyme nor reason. Yes, Thunderbird is still the default application, as confirmed when I click an "email me" link and T-bird pops up.

Mostly, I loathe when Apple seems to adopt Microsoft-ish tactics. If I tell my computer NOT to use a bit of software, it better damned listen and not keep trying to force me to use it, no? Seems fairly basic.

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Understood -- I apologize if I sounded snide. I really didn't mean to, but, well, as with any troubleshooting, gotta start with the basics... it was not meant to be condescending and I did not mean to undermine your (or your grandfather's) knowledge.

We got started off on the wrong foot... do-over?

It is strange that Mail.app launches without rhyme or reason -- could it be some keyboard shortcut that inadvertently got set?

Also, when Mail.app launches unexpectedly, does it just launch as if you launched it manually (ie, opens up the viewer window and sits there), or does it act as if you're wanting to compose a new mail message or something?

Strange, weird, strange... I really don't know where to begin with this one (keyboard combo? Startup items? QuicKeys?), but as long as it's not doing it anymore after trashing it, sounds like Thunderbird will finally be able to fly solo...

Again, I apologize for the tone of my post.