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Apple Mail application very slow to respond

Posted in Mac by Carl Ward

[140 Comments]

Mar

Home / Operating System / Mac / Apple Mail application very slow to respond

Categories

Problem
Apple Mail is very slow in its response. Message lists take ages to update and the app itself seems to pause

Assistive Software (173)

for 15-20 seconds.

General Software (257)

Hardware (76)

Cause

Internet & Networking (30)

The SQL database that Mail uses to catalog your email addresses needs a bit of housekeeping now and again,

Operating System (349)

you really need to have a tidy up!

iOS (3)

Solution

Mac (178)
Windows (165)

First quit Mail then:

Web Development (6)

For OSX Lion (10.7) and Mountain Lion (10.8) you need to do the following:
"I have a Canon S 400 printer that is 11
years old. I tried you advice to reset the
code about 4 times and it seemed to work,
The repair center wanted $25.00 just to
reset the codes. Thanks, you saved me
some money."
- Ben, via comments.

1. Open the Terminal App You can find this by using spotlight and typing terminal.
2. Copy and paste this command into the command line of Terminal:
sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum;

For Snow Leopard (10.6) you need to do the following:

1. Open the Terminal App You can find this by using spotlight and typing terminal.
2. Copy and paste this command into the command line of Terminal:
/usr/bin/sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum;

You should now find that Mail runs much faster.

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140 Responses to Apple Mail application very slow to

respond
Michal March 15, 2013 at 13:26
This fixed my problem. Thanks!
Reply

Anonymous September 30, 2013 at 09:31

thanks a lot
Reply

really worked like magic

Sangsu Baek April 15, 2013 at 11:50

thanks. It works !!
Reply

John M April 22, 2013 at 23:02

good tip; I should note that the terminal command did not occur instantly it took a few minutes
before the vacuum finished and the prompt returned.

Reply

Laurin May 3, 2013 at 17:35

Wow! I dont know much about how computers run and I was worried my macbook pro was getting
too old (I guess a good excuse to buy a new one, but as a poor grad student that would have been

Reply

painful to my wallet), but this fixed everything! Thanks

SuzqFL May 7, 2013 at 03:55

OMG. Relief. And instructions a non-techie could totally do. Worked instantly with my Lion as soon
as I did a force quit on mail.

Reply

Vaughan May 7, 2013 at 06:31

Perfect problem solved
Reply

QTip May 10, 2013 at 04:34

Works perfectly! Very Nice. Worked on my snow leopard.
Reply

Sarah May 10, 2013 at 11:45

Often scared to try these things I find online but I have to say THIS WORKS.
I have a new MacBook Air and I thought there was something wrong with it.

Reply

Thank you!

Bob May 12, 2013 at 01:52

I have Mountain Lion, and before trying this it took sometimes 30 seconds or more for Mail to open.
After running this command, everything now works very fast. Great solution!

Reply

yves amand May 17, 2013 at 07:36

excellent ! Thanks a lot, its changing my life
Reply

Patti May 19, 2013 at 19:45

I was having the same problem and the fix worked for me also!! thanks so much!
Reply

Robert May 22, 2013 at 13:12

Great fix thanks.
Reply

LD May 23, 2013 at 00:41

The fix works! . excellent
Reply

Stephen May 22, 2013 at 15:34

Worked like a charm! thank you!

John May 25, 2013 at 16:12

Reply

I am a hero to my wife! Thank you!!!

Reply

Lisa R May 30, 2013 at 02:37

Worked for me too; thanks!
Reply

Andy May 30, 2013 at 03:18

Sweet job, thank you!
Reply

Attila Eross May 30, 2013 at 16:56

Works perfectly! Thx
Reply

Colette May 31, 2013 at 18:21

Thanks so much. I was so frustrated with my computer until I found this.
Reply

David P June 1, 2013 at 17:25

Instant fix! Many thanks
Reply

Francis Castelino June 3, 2013 at 16:33

Amazing, stumbled on this site and have had two separate major problems resolved in a flash.
Reply

Been through a few others as in a nightmare

Karthik June 3, 2013 at 19:02

Thanks!! This is absolutely awesome. You have relieved me of a great worry. Mail is one of the
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most frequent apps I use and it was extremely distracting to have it slow and frozen.

Ed June 3, 2013 at 23:27

AmazingTank you!
Reply

Kuleen June 4, 2013 at 01:51

Bless you!
Reply

radiantkd June 4, 2013 at 19:13

Thank you! sure made a difference
Reply

Chris June 5, 2013 at 21:20

Fixed
Reply

Thank you

Regina June 7, 2013 at 18:04

Worked perfectly! Thanks!
Reply

Michael June 11, 2013 at 03:03

Awesome fix!
Reply

Antonio June 13, 2013 at 12:24

Fixed it totally thank you
Reply

Govind June 14, 2013 at 15:19

Wow . Was a bit worried before trying. It worked so well . Thanks a lot
Reply

George K June 16, 2013 at 18:19

Yep. A perfect fix. Mail was taking 20-30 seconds to display a message from my unread smart
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mailbox (which usually has about 20 messages in it). Now, no delay.

Thanks!

Andy S June 25, 2013 at 18:18

What would I do without stuff like this on the web? Go Crazy Thanks
Reply

SCY June 27, 2013 at 04:57

Thanks! Worked perfectly.
Reply

Chris June 27, 2013 at 10:10

Nice fix, worked like a charm! Thanks!
Reply

Jaydeep July 3, 2013 at 14:04

Thank you so very much this worked beautifully
Reply

David July 3, 2013 at 20:25

Many thanks!
Reply

GTBurns July 5, 2013 at 11:49

Loving your work!
Reply

This has been bugging me for a while, will be using again.

Jim July 6, 2013 at 13:43

This worked great! Thanks!
Reply

Alphaduck July 9, 2013 at 01:10

Awesome. It just worked!

Reply

Ben July 11, 2013 at 13:07

Thanks! life saver!
Reply

Elle Fran July 11, 2013 at 13:47

OMG you saved my comp from a drowning (by me)!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Bookmarking this page!

Reply

Stephen July 16, 2013 at 00:11

WOW! Awesome. Worked great!
Reply

Is there a command like that would speed up my entire mac !?!

Geoffrey July 19, 2013 at 07:33

Thank you. My message window was taking for eeeeeeever to load, especially when there were
attachments. Seems much better.

Reply

ED July 21, 2013 at 17:35

Immediate relief from a plaguing problem. My question is Why didnt Apple make it easy to
diagnose and remedy the problem. Thank you for making the explanation and the clean up

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available to all the frustrated Mail users.

Ed July 25, 2013 at 15:01

Follow-up! Worked fine for a very short time. The problem returned and the cleanup fix
does not stop the slow response time that I am experiencing with Mail. After the second

Reply

pasting to terminal, I checked the activity monitor and Mail is using 95% of CPU. Something
else is going on other than the SQL Database needing housecleaning.

Ed August 6, 2013 at 01:48

Does anyone notice only positive comments in the review section. The next day I added a
follow-up to my comment that stated the fix only worked for a short time and I still had the

Reply

original problem with Mail. This comment was not displayed which leaves me wondering why
the moderator would prevent it. It was not intended to be negative, but it was an attempt to
seek further help for the problem.

Adam Green August 6, 2013 at 10:00

Hi Ed,
This is not an example of selective comments being approved. If a comment requires
a more technical response its passed to support so they can find a fix for the problem.
Reply

Its not approved so it sits in a (shorter) pending list and doesnt get lost in the
hundreds of other comments.

Ed August 6, 2013 at 18:57

Thanks Adam,

Reply

Your explanation restores my confidence in Fix-KB.com and I believe posting

your answer to me in the comment section will be helpful to others that are
participating and looking for answers to those nagging problems that come up.
This will help us all to better understand the proper use and expected results
from your wonderful web site.

Shaffin November 6, 2013 at 20:09

I have the same problem. IS there a more permanent fix
Shaffin

Jamie July 26, 2013 at 13:18

Thanks! Worked like a charm!
Reply

Chrissy July 28, 2013 at 09:04

While this seems to work for all.. I have the problem that it says
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Unable to open database ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\: unable to open database file

What can I do about it or is this normal? Thanks a lot

Mike July 31, 2013 at 13:19

This is a vital tool in the toolbox. Thank you!
Reply

Gordy August 1, 2013 at 22:45

thank you it worked very well
Reply

Gayle August 5, 2013 at 08:51

Worked for me! Thanks
Reply

Alan August 11, 2013 at 13:12

I had the same problem and I just quit mail right click and quit and then when it was opened back
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up all was good? Maybe it doesnt like being open all the time.

Mary Anne Doggett August 12, 2013 at 20:08

hi I am getting a terminal error that says
Reply

-sqlite3: Error: too many options: vacuum;

Can you help?
Thanks!
Mary Anne

Teresa August 15, 2013 at 00:03

Thank you so much! Thought my Mac was dying on me! And many thanks for giving easy to follow
Reply

directions for all of us non-techies!!

Bonita August 15, 2013 at 17:32

This worked BEAUTIFULLY!!!! Thank you so much!

Reply

Alejo August 16, 2013 at 20:45

excelent!!!!
Reply

fredlobo August 16, 2013 at 22:08

Worked great. Thx!
Reply

Quincy August 21, 2013 at 11:13

On Mac OSXv10.7.5 I got error database is locked for the sqlite3
Reply

~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum; command but I tried the /usr/bin/sqlite3

~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum; and that didnt get any problems. I have relaunched mail
but it still slow.
Any advise?

Quincy August 21, 2013 at 11:47

Its ok I didnt quit mail first so ignore the last comment from me.
Reply

Thanks.

Leigh August 22, 2013 at 21:35

That totally worked! Thanks
Reply

henrybenj August 24, 2013 at 20:35

How come Apple support does not know about this?
Reply

Well done

Jean-Marie August 25, 2013 at 01:32

For Snow Leopard (10.6) you need to do the following:
Reply

Open the Terminal App You can find this by using spotlight and typing terminal.
Copy and paste this command into the command line of Terminal:
/usr/bin/sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum
I did that nothing happen so i click enter no change ?
And i still have the same problem.
My problem is the same in both of my computer, Mac book 10.6.8 and IMac 10.8.4, when i send a
mail through my routeur, DLink Dir-815, in WiFI for my Mac Book and normal with my IMac it take
about 1 to minutes to go. i call DLink and Apple nobody find a solution. Look like there is a conflit
between Mail and the routeur. Please HELP !!!
Thank you .JM

warren August 25, 2013 at 21:57

fantastic!
Reply

Sita August 26, 2013 at 08:47

Works like a charm.. Thank you!
Reply

Diana August 28, 2013 at 06:20

Fabulous! Thank you. Read, tried and fixed in less than 30 seconds!
Reply

Alex August 31, 2013 at 05:38

bless your effing heart for this.
Reply

Barbara August 31, 2013 at 09:32

Its been running like a snail on and off for some months now. Just tried this and it seems to be a lot
better. Ill keep monitoring it and see how it goes. Many thanks.

Reply

Boyd September 1, 2013 at 07:05

thanks it fix well
Reply

Shaun3001 September 2, 2013 at 22:22

It worked a treat!
Reply

Uttara September 3, 2013 at 15:34

It really is super.. and such an instant fix!
Reply

Angela September 5, 2013 at 19:27

I have to do this once a week. Why? Is there a bigger reason it keeps coming back?
Reply

Dave September 6, 2013 at 23:55

WOW, that was easy, and back to super quick
Reply

Justin September 10, 2013 at 14:57

Worked immediately! thank you
Reply

tech ignoramus September 11, 2013 at 14:31

Absolutely have to try this but some dumb questions: 1) when you say quit mail does this mean
force quit or just close it? If force quit when done with the copy and paste, do I need to do

Reply

anything re macMail? 2) when I bring up terminal, see two lines of stuff there already do I just
paste at the end of the second line??

Adam Green February 24, 2014 at 09:58

Quit means cmd + q. We dont want to force quit unless absolutely necessary. When you
log into terminal the first line will tell you last login, the second is your username. Dont worry
about these, just paste and hit enter.
Reply

Kristine T Hall September 11, 2013 at 16:06

Perfect solution easy to follow, took seconds and made all the difference. Thank you!

Reply

Steven September 13, 2013 at 12:58

Wonderful !!!
Reply

I have been working with mail pain for monthscrying , but not Hahaha
Thank you !

Brian September 15, 2013 at 14:32

It looks like the 10.8.5 update may have fixed the problem: fixes an issue that may prevent Mail
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from displaying messages. So far it is working well.

John September 17, 2013 at 11:20

I have had this problem on two occasions in the last 9 months. I spent a total of around an hour with
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Apple technical support who fixed the problem with lots of cache deletion and other magic
I did this myself in 30 seconds.it worked, many thanks

Jan September 20, 2013 at 18:07

Worked perfectly, thanks a lot!
Reply

lunte September 24, 2013 at 13:23

Holy cow! This did the trick! Thanks a lot!
Reply

Corinne September 27, 2013 at 03:54

I could kiss you! Thank you so much.
Reply

yannis October 1, 2013 at 23:25

yes it worked thank you!!
Reply

Paul October 2, 2013 at 15:59

I have a problem. I pasted the wrong link to terminal line of command. I am using mountain lion, but
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i paste the snow leopard command.

Now i have problem with my mail, it hangs, with spinning disc sign red,blue, green.
Can help me to restore.
All the earlier download mail is gone, all folders are empty.
Thank you.

Lori October 3, 2013 at 16:09

Wow, THANKS! Clearly if I cannot figure out mail on my own, a lot of other things are slowly
Reply

building and getting hosed up. Any tips for doing maintenance such as this to prevent problems in
the future?

Nando October 9, 2013 at 05:11

Great your a genius.
Reply

Tim October 15, 2013 at 21:39

Wow! Thank you!
Reply

Anonymous October 16, 2013 at 22:55

HELP!!! i run the command on Mtn Lion and restart my Mac, but it wont boot up!? its stuck on grey
Reply

startup screen with Mac icon and spinner

Glamo October 17, 2013 at 13:28

Wow, Fantastic tip. Thank You Much.
Reply

Shibu George October 18, 2013 at 02:04

Yes, It worked.. Thanks a lot!
Reply

Joe October 21, 2013 at 18:24

OMG!!!!!! it actually worked!!!!!! thanks a million!! i was devastated my outgoing mail was taking
Reply

about an hour to send!!

Salim Salam October 27, 2013 at 12:39

I tried this and got the following error message in Terminal: Unable to open database
Reply

/Users/salimsalam/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope Index: unable to open database file

ANy suggestions? I am running Snow Leopard with Mail.4.6 and I am finding emails are taking ages
to send, if they send at all, and that updating folders is very slow. The Mail icon in the dock shows
there are unread messages even when I have opened all messages and deleted everything that
needs deleting.

Salim Salam October 27, 2013 at 12:43

Sorry, worked it out I cut and paste the command line for the wrong version of OSX. Doh!
Reply

Salim Salam October 27, 2013 at 13:10

OK, but it didnt work!
Reply

Michael October 30, 2013 at 18:55

Did not work for me. My mailbox is huge though, is that the issue?
Reply

KS October 31, 2013 at 07:48

Will this work on Mavericks as well? You only mention OSX Lion (10.7) and Mountain Lion (10.8).
Reply

Jon November 1, 2013 at 08:56

Does anybody know if this will work on Mavericks?
Reply

Fernando November 4, 2013 at 20:29

Hi.I need wait to reopen the mail.because noting happen.Im using Maverick

Reply

Sharon November 5, 2013 at 04:48

So, after pasting that in the Terminal window, then what does one do? I closed Terminal and
launched Mail again but nothing has changed.

Reply

Adam Green February 24, 2014 at 11:44

After you paste push the enter key.

Reply

Ria November 5, 2013 at 16:01

Worked like a charm! Thanks
Reply

EA November 6, 2013 at 00:13

Im wondering (before I try this) if it works the same way for Mavericks? Or will that mess things up?
Reply

My slllllooooooowwwww Mail app is driving me bonkers!

Thanks,
ea/

Andy February 24, 2014 at 11:59

Im with younobody has mentioned Mavericksalthough I did ask originally. Its painful that
Reply

Mail is so slow now. Any attachments above 1Mb just wont send..massively frustrating.
Apple online help werent able to amend anything either. Ive tried the Terminal copy and
paste solution with little or no effect. Apple seriously need to fix this.
A

Megan November 7, 2013 at 19:04

Worked like magic, thanks!
Reply

Devin November 9, 2013 at 09:10

Mine has been running terrible slow since the upgrade to Mavericks. I had this problem once
Reply

before, but cant remember how to fix it. This prompt didnt seem to fix my problem, maybe there is
a different prompt for Mavericks?

Jen November 15, 2013 at 13:47

What do I use for the new operating system? I get error database is locked which I try the newest
Reply

one listed above. Thanks!

Michelle November 15, 2013 at 14:52

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!

)))

Reply

Daniel November 16, 2013 at 00:01

Amazing! thank you!
Reply

jose November 19, 2013 at 20:15

Great! Thanks!
Reply

Walther November 29, 2013 at 15:08

WOW, it works wonderful, for Mail 7.0 under OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). I was annoyed by Mails
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performance but now my faith in this excellent piece of software is restored.

Susan December 3, 2013 at 18:08

I tried your fix and this is the response I got:
Reply

-sqlite3: Error: too many options: vacuum;

Use -help for a list of options.
[Process completed]
Now what?

joe December 5, 2013 at 13:53

Holy cowit works!
Reply

A thousand thanks!

Rachel December 10, 2013 at 07:16

Wowsers even with all the comments above, I wasnt expecting it to work quite as well as that t
Reply

hank you so much, you have saved me hours of frustration!

Jure December 16, 2013 at 11:51

Thanks man, worked perfectly! Cheers.
Reply

dom December 18, 2013 at 17:29

awesome. a neat trick that has reived my mac! thanks
Reply

Andy January 9, 2014 at 13:44

Hi all, does anybody know if this fix works with the 10.9.1 Mavericks OS?
Reply

Thanks!
Andy

Lynn January 20, 2014 at 15:32

Immediate fix amazing!
Reply

Matthew January 20, 2014 at 19:11

Hello,
Reply

Do you know if this fix will work in the new apple OS: Mavericks 10.9?
Thanks very much, Matthew

Adam Green February 27, 2014 at 13:41

Based on the feedback weve received so far it seems fine for 10.9.

Ashok C R January 23, 2014 at 10:22

Reply
Thanks! Indeed that worked like a magical Hogwarts Charm!
Reply

pamelerr January 24, 2014 at 17:29

Works for Maverick too! Thanks so much for this help.
Reply

joost January 29, 2014 at 07:36

thank you, this brings a smile to this day!
Reply

hubert January 29, 2014 at 11:04

I tried the proposed solution without success. My system is OS X 10.8.5 but i dont know is my
macbook air system is Lion or lion mountain. Also let me know if ; should also be part of the copy

Reply

paste
Thank

Corinne January 30, 2014 at 19:40

This worked the first two times I used it but my email has slowed down dramatically again and it
doesnt seem to do the trick anymore. Any other suggestions?

Reply

Andy February 7, 2014 at 10:11

I suffered the same problem Corinne.I just have to keep quitting Mail, and restarting it.
Reply

Eventually the email sends. Im running Mavericks 10.9.1. Ive tried sorting it out with Apple
with an online chat, but to no avail, as Im back to square one. Any emails with an attachment
over 1Mb just wont send, which is crazy considering I used to be able to send attachments
up to 10mb! Apple really need to sort this out

Michael Richards February 3, 2014 at 22:36

I tried this but get an error message which says too many options: vacuum;
Reply

What does this mean I wonder?

Student February 6, 2014 at 21:59

When I pasted the link into the command field, this error message appeared:
Reply

-sqlite3: Error: too many options: vacuum;

Use -help for a list of options.
[Process completed]
Does anyone know what this means? I would really like to speed up my mail application. Thanks in
advance.

Matt February 10, 2014 at 19:19

Thanks, a noticeable improvement.
Reply

aw February 12, 2014 at 13:13

Brilliant! Worked on Mavericks too
Reply

John February 18, 2014 at 21:26

With the multitude of positive results including mine, Im wondering why Apple doesnt address
vacuuming into the functionality of the OS

Reply

Leanne February 22, 2014 at 21:01

Brilliant. Thank you so much
Reply

luc February 23, 2014 at 17:51

sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
Reply

This trick worked really well!!! THANK you!!!!!

Tony February 26, 2014 at 13:41

Wonderful still works in 2014
Reply

Jeremy March 1, 2014 at 15:40

Wish I had found this site a long time ago! Thanks for posting. Worked great!
Reply

Laurin April 25, 2014 at 18:47

Hooray, thank you!! 2 days of suffering slow emails and multiple pauses until I found this fix.
Reply

Dave April 25, 2014 at 19:03

This worked great! Thanks
Reply

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