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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 Preferences > GPG Suite Preferences > 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 fa...

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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.