Reason of Apple Mail starts automatically
Previously I met the problem that the Apple Mail application starts automatically. I tracked the history for a few days and now I find out the reason. Here under is my analyze:
- There was no sign that the Apple Mail run in a fixed frequency.
- The chance of virus is slim too. Because virus often hides itself when doing anything bad like sending email to all contacts. And in another hand, OS X is much safer than Windows at present and no too much virus is reported so far.
- It could be triggered by some application that I had to find out.
So I check the system log in Console. I found out an error of iCal occurred at the same time that Mail run. When I look into the details, yes, it was there, iCal called a function to run Mail to send a email out. Since I have never set up an account in Mail, it pops up an notice to let me set one. The log also recorded what kind of mail iCal wanted to send. Then everything is clear: I sync the iCal to my google calendar, my google calendar has a series of email reminders to send to myself. While google has it's own mechanism to send them out, iCal uses Apple Mail.
This is just a specific problem. But the way of wisely using the Console and tracking down the history is the key to find out the reason for most problems.
You see, there is only one constant, one universal, it is the only real truth: causality. Action. Reaction. Cause and effect.
January 15th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Thank you for investigating and posting this! It has been driving me crazy!
January 16th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
@Jerry Haha, glad to be of help!
February 28th, 2010 at 12:08 am
I really appreciate the info....but here's the 64, 000 question, how can I stop this from happening?
February 28th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
@AJ you may have to setup an account in apple mail to let it send out email. Or remove the notify option in events. I prefer the former way. And don't have other solution yet.
February 13th, 2011 at 5:37 am
thank you so much! I ended up removing the notify option since google calendar takes care of that just fine. Solving this is like taking a pebble out of my shoe.
February 19th, 2011 at 10:33 am
@Adrian That's good:)
February 23rd, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Awesome. Thank you for sharing your findings!
February 25th, 2011 at 11:13 pm
@Ben Glad that it helps:)
May 14th, 2011 at 6:51 pm
brilliant! thanks for that it's been driving me crazy too!
July 5th, 2011 at 4:45 am
@mrk Glad to be helpful
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