Doing so is pretty simple (if you know how it is done). It is possible you may see some improvement if you take a moment to clean up Mail’s SQL database. This will slim the size of your mailbox(es), and will reduce the time it takes to launch and use the app. Once you’ve saved your attachments (which will also take a while), you can select all your email messages and then use the Message>Remove Attachments command to delete them all. You’ll get the chance to choose where to save too and to create a folder to pop all the attachments inside). To save them just select all the mail in your Mail app, and then File>Save Attachments. It really is best to save your attachments (probably to an external backup drive) first. Now your system won’t try to download any attachments until you ask it to do so. Launch Mail>Preferences>Accounts and set the Download Attachments drop down menu to Recent or None.

To help mitigate this problem it sometimes helps to access your Mail account data and change the way your email accounts handle attachments. In my experience when I’ve encountered this kind of poor Mail behavior, attachments may be to blame. The first stop when you are having Mail problems is to Rebuild your Mailbox using the Mailbox>Rebuild command.ĭepending on how large your mailbox is this can take a while, but you can still make use of Mail while the operation takes place.

Delete spam messages, delete deleted messages, delete messages you don’t need to keep and make sure your Mac is up to date with current system software.

Backup apple mail preferences