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GPG Mail: Mail app slow opening due to GPG extension and config

• Edit

Luis Puerto

03 May, 2021 08:00 AM

Which of our tools is giving you problems?

The mail extension.

Attach a screenshot of the version info for all installed components (how to: https://gpgtools.tenderapp.com/kb/faq/where-can-i-find-version-info...):

You can check the screenshot

Describe your problem. Add as much detail as possible.

Mail app took solid 30" to open every time I have to open it.

What did you expect instead

Open instantly as always

Describe steps leading to the problem.

Just open mail

Are you using any other Mail.app plugins?

No

Notes

Hey!

I just fixed the issue, but I thought it would be helpful for others that perhaps are experiencing the same issue.

The problem was that mail was taking 30" to open, when before it opened almost instantly. Not a great deal of a problem, but annoying.

As you can see in this thread in macrumors, I solves this issue before just deleting the contents of ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/ but after updating to Big Sur, this stopped working.

However, I just solved the issue changing the default key on the settings of the app (on the System Preferences panel). And the fix persisted, even after changing back to the original key…

I hope this helps any one with this same issue.

• Screen_Shot_2021-05-03_at_09.53.38.png 728 KB

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1. GPG Mail no longer working after macOS update

   We do our best to ensure that macOS updates won't disable GPGMail. For that to work, please ensure automatic update checks are enabled in System Settings > GPG Suite > Updates.

   

   While minor updates are mostly unproblematic, major updates of macOS are likely to break GPG Mail compatibility. This is because for new version of macOS, Apple changes a lot of internals in Mail app. The fact that GPG Mai...

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1. Luis Puerto closed this discussion on 03 May, 2021 08:00 AM.

2. Luis Puerto re-opened this discussion on 15 Jul, 2021 06:40 PM

3. 1 Posted by Luis Puerto on 15 Jul, 2021 06:42 PM

   

   Hey!

   Just to comment related to this issue that the problem has returned more or less. The idle time has been reduced, but even if I change the default account it takes like 20' to open the mail app.

   I'm fairly sure that the problem is the GPGtools extension, but to be honest I really don't know what else to do.

   • Edit

4. Support Staff 2 Posted by Luke Le on 20 Jul, 2021 11:27 AM

   

   Hi Luis,

   we are very sorry for the problem you are experiencing.
   Do you use S/MIME certificates with macOS Mail as well?

   • Edit

5. 3 Posted by Luis Puerto on 22 Jul, 2021 10:49 AM

   

   Hey!
   Well not specifically, but I have a signing certificate from my country and it's acting also as S/MIME certificate. Do you think it's related?

   • Edit

6. Support Staff 4 Posted by Steve on 22 Jul, 2021 11:38 AM

   

   Could you try removing and re-importing that S/MIME cert. Sadly there is a known issue where S/MIME certs tend to slow down mail app and that is often resolved by removing and re-adding the certificate.

   • Edit

7. 5 Posted by Luis Puerto on 22 Jul, 2021 05:53 PM

   

   Sorry, but it's not helping… I've deleted it and the issue is still there.

   • Edit

8. Support Staff 6 Posted by Steve on 22 Jul, 2021 09:20 PM

   

   And if you disable GPG Mail in Mail > Preferences > General > Manage Plug-ins… Mail does start as expected?

   • Edit

9. 7 Posted by Luis Puerto on 24 Jul, 2021 07:50 PM

   

   Hey!

   No, if I disable the plugin the situation doesn't improve…

   The only times I was able to improve the situation —temporally— in the past is changing the default key and deleting the ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/DataVaults/MailBundles/Library/Mail/Bundles/Properties.plist file which isn't present in Big Sur anymore.

   • Edit

10. Support Staff 8 Posted by Steve on 24 Jul, 2021 11:00 PM

    

    This problem is unrelated to GPG Mail. I am not quite sure, what could be causing this problem.

    Had you updated to macOS 11.5 and GPG Suite 2021.1 since you first contacted us back in may 2021?

    • Edit

11. 9 Posted by Luis Puerto on 25 Jul, 2021 06:06 PM

    

    ummm I don't think that is totally unrelated… can you tell me where are the preferences of the mail extensions stored on Big Sur? On other words… where is ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/DataVaults/MailBundles/Library/Mail/Bundles/Properties.plist file on Big Sur?

    Everything is updated on my machine.

    There is a little bit more info on this macrumors thread:

    https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mail-app-on-big-sur-a-little-b...

    I think that everyone that has problems has or had extensions. Perhaps when I changed the default key in the past and the issue improved was because somehow the prefs file was regenerated.

    • Edit

12. 10 Posted by Luis Puerto on 26 Jul, 2021 06:11 PM

    

    Just right now the situation got fixed… I guess temporally…

    But if I close the app an open it again it almost instantaneously.

    Anyhow, I really think that the issue is related to the mail extensions preferences or something related.

    • Edit

13. Support Staff 11 Posted by Luke Le on 03 Aug, 2021 01:42 PM

    

    Hi Luis,

    good to hear this is fixed for you now.
    Please let us know if it should re-appear for some reason.

    Closing this discussion. Feel free to create a new one should you have questions or run into other problems.

    • Edit

14. Luke Le closed this discussion on 03 Aug, 2021 01:42 PM.

15. Luis Puerto re-opened this discussion on 27 Oct, 2022 02:49 PM

16. 12 Posted by Luis Puerto on 27 Oct, 2022 02:49 PM

    

    Hey!

    I would like to know if you have taking a look to this problem…

    There is more people having it

    https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mail-app-slow-to-open-and-whil...

    And the file causing the trouble almost has no info. Can you provide any additional info about what this file is doing?

    • Edit

17. Support Staff 13 Posted by Steve on 27 Oct, 2022 02:52 PM

    

    Hi Luis,

    are you on macOS Ventura currently? Are you still seeing this problem?

    Which file are you referring to?

    Best,
    Steve

    • Edit

18. 14 Posted by Luis Puerto on 27 Oct, 2022 02:53 PM

    

    No, I'm not in ventura… and I don't think I'm going to update till Christmas. Is not happening in Ventura?

    • Edit

19. Support Staff 15 Posted by Steve on 27 Oct, 2022 02:57 PM

    

    We don't know yet. We have never seen this issue on our own macs. The issue has been reported to Apple who are aware of the problem.

    So it is currently hard to tell what the status is. We are awaiting feedback from other affected users to report back from macOS Ventura and the updated Mail app.

    So it would be great once you update if you could observe this for a while and let us know if the issue is still going on.

    How are things on Monterey then? Are you still seeing the issue currently?

    • Edit

20. 16 Posted by Luis Puerto on 27 Oct, 2022 03:00 PM

    

    Yes… the issue in Monterrey is common. I mean… I don't know how the issue actually builds up, but most probably is you don't delete the file in two or three days the issue arises.

    • Edit

21. Support Staff 17 Posted by Steve on 27 Oct, 2022 03:04 PM

    

    Which file? The mail plugin file?

    "Only one extension: MailTrackerBlocker. Disabling and restarting the app did nothing." is a clear indicator this is a bug in Mail app and sadly not related to GPG Mail itself.

    Had you reached out to Apple about this issue?

    • Edit

22. 18 Posted by Luis Puerto on 27 Oct, 2022 03:07 PM

    

    Had you reached out to Apple about this issue?

    I don't remember to be honest because this has been around for a while.

    • Edit

23. Support Staff 19 Posted by Steve on 27 Oct, 2022 05:54 PM

    

    If you have capacity, please do. It is important they do get user feedback regarding this issue. That is one of the few options to have them increase priority.

    • Edit

24. 20 Posted by Luis Puerto on 27 Oct, 2022 06:53 PM

    

    Hey!

    I just reported on https://www.apple.com/feedback/ and tomorrow I'm going to have a conversation with a senior advisor from Apple Support.

    Let's see.

    • Edit

25. Support Staff 21 Posted by Steve on 27 Oct, 2022 07:15 PM

    

    🙌

    They will probably ask to reproduce while screensharing.

    Another frequent thing they test is setting up a fresh test user with a minimal reproduce case.

    (in case you want to prepare for the call)

    Also: thanks for your efforts in pushing this up on Apple's priority list.

    • Edit

26. 22 Posted by Luis Puerto on 27 Oct, 2022 07:25 PM

    

    I really don't know if I'm going to be able to reproduce because I just delete the offending file today and I don't know if there will be build up.

    To be honest, this problem has been around for awhile (perhaps two years) but since I've been able to have a workaround I haven't been playing too much attention to it.

    Thanks for the tips for preparing, I highly appreciate.

    • Edit

27. Steve closed this discussion on 07 Apr, 2023 01:50 PM.