OSX 10.5.6 Woes? You’re Not Alone…
Posted on 17 December 2008, at 8:59 am, by Christopher Spera
It’s no secret that many of the Team Members and Contributors here at Gear Diary have Macs. Some of us use them more for a Windows Machine, like me (sorry…the hardware is just too freakin’ awesome…), but most of us use them with their native OS, as intended. Like many people, most of us here have applied the newly released OSX 10.5.6 OS update. Some of us have had success. Some of us have bumped into a number of problems. One of the biggest things to hit members of the Team here has been issues with Mail:
Mail Many users are having problems with Mail crashing after the update when trying to read email messages. For some the program will not open, but for others it seems to crash when messages are selected. Some users have been able to fix this problem by removing Mail add-on software, but this does not apply to all affected users, most who do not have any third-party add-ons. As such, users might try the following to fix these problems:
Fixes
- Reapply the combo update Users should first try downloading and applying the combo update for the 10.5.6 updater. This may fix some problems with various frameworks and other system resources that Mail uses, and is a way to ensure all updated files on the system are refreshed as much as possible without having to reinstall.
- Delete Mail’s preferences file These problems could be due to a corruption in the Mail preferences file. As such, users should try removing the “com.apple.Mail.plist” file from the /username/Library/Preferences/ folder, and then relaunch Mail.
- Rebuild Mailboxes Since this problem happens for many when they load messages, launching Mail with the shift key held should allow it to load as this prevents the program from loading messages when the program starts. With the program open, users can select each mailbox and use the rebuild option that’s available in the “Mailbox” menu to hopefully fix this problem.Â
However, don’t be surprised if you also have issues with any of the following. The 10.5.6 update seems to have created a number of different issues with a number of different OS and hardware features:
- Trackpads
- Time Machine
- Airport
- Bluetooth
- Post-Installation–the infamous startup loop
- Pre-Installation–hangs and more
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All of the known issues with this update can be seen here. If you don’t already have a subscription to MacFixIt, you may want to take a look into getting one. Its free, unless you need any of the premium content connected with it, or VersionTracker. I have found it to be a very valuable resource and wouldn’t want to run my Mac without it.
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December 17th, 2008 at 9:47 am
It seems then, that the problem isn’t 10.5.6 – it’s the add-ins, which often hack the original code in unsupported ways to b=provide additional functionality. This often seems to be the case after Apple releases an update – the hacks break. Not much of a surprise there.
I tend to avoid add-ins and I’m not having any problems at this point. But who knows? I could hit one anytime.
I’m much more concerned about the hangups peoplke are having during installation. That seems pretty serious.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:18 am
I’ve applied it to all three of my Macs (one is two years old, the others just over a year old) and all three went fine. My two year old MacBook was the only one with a minor issue – Mail crashed on its first start – but then, after a restart and choosing an option to build a To Do folder for one of my imap accounts, it has worked perfectly since.
I also avoid any hacks or unsupported plugins like the plague.
December 17th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Sorry- Chris but it can’t be JUST the add-ins. No add-ins and started crashing after a Time Machine restore seemed to have fixed it.
December 17th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Chris- THANK YOU for this post- I did the plist and “re apply combo update” trick and… so far so good. Thanks!
December 18th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Mail crashed on my first Air after the upgrade, and while I have been able to salvage the file (with all my GBs of past email), it gave me quite a scare.
I was running no add-ons.
The .plist fix worked, but Mail kept crashing and was generally unstable and untrustworthy.
I have since routed all of my email through Gmail, and it seems to be doing the trick.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Well it may NOT be the plug ins but I haven’t had any problems and I AM running Apple Mail with multiple mailboxes. Don’t know why it’s hit and miss like that.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:05 am
You’re looking for logic??