Apple Mail ALTERNATIVE?
 

Hi guys,

After a couple of days a did a full reinstall and backup of my whole OS X because Apple Mail was driving me nuts! If i wrote a paragraph and then try to correct and insert some words in the middle of that it will broke down in half like the paragraph is not selected as a whole. I know if difficult to understand but it extremely annoying.

I guess it could be some FontExplorer Font Manager hidden conflict or some Mavericks bizarre problem with Gmail. Some forum user suggested me to open a new Admin Account i did that and works for a while...but what happens will all the software i have to re-install in another Admin account. It takes to much time.

1) I am looking to an Apple Mail alternative to see if the problem fixes. It kind of sad because i like Apple Mail design but i cannot work with that problem now.

2) How can i install a previous version of OSX before Mavericks. I inserted my Mountain Lion CD but when i reinstall it began downloading Mavericks from the Internet.

3) I will going to delete my Font Manager to see if that solves the issue. Since i work in graphics that is complicated.

Sorry for so many questions and the long text.

Best,
S

By the way, i think there is a reported Copy and Paste issue in the Apple Mail app. I read in another forum many users complaint about it. It seems the format and so on corrupts Apple Mail for some reason.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread...t=120&tstart=0

I run Linotype FontExplorerX, and haven't had any problems. There are issues with Gmail, mostly relating to using Gmail's Labels in the web mail client, I think.

Trying an earlier version of Mail in Mavericks won't work.

You may want to try clearing the font caches, which you can do in FEX. It may be some other cache issue. Try using a utility like Onyx to clear all the user and system caches.

Thanks for the fast reply benwiggy ;) good info indeed.

I tried everything you suggested by now. I am not sure if this is a font conflict or not but i just deleted all my Fonts Cache and Systems with FontExplorer X and also with Onyx. I also did a general cleaning system with Onyx. Restart and the bug is still there.

If you see the attachment picture, the full paragraph is selected but, the selection color jumps leaving a blank space from selected text like those words are not there for Apple Mail at all. I write from 30 to 50 emails and copy paste into the Mail box all the time, when that mail editor start to go wrong is very frustrating and time consuming.

BTW, i don't use my emails in Gmails with labels. The smart mailboxes Apple Mail don't work for me and many users complain to have the same issue. There is something not going right this time.

Could it be a trojan? some sort of virus? I will download the Clam X to check but it doubt it.

After the reinstall the Applications and Apple Mail worked nicely for two or three days and now everything wrong again. Uff.

Anything else i could try?
Thanks

It seems i am not the first one to have those Apple Mail cut and paste issues

https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

just to add some extra info. I have a MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion, Adobe InDesign, FontExplorer X, the very same software than my iMac and never have a problem with either Apple Mail or text edit. I decided NOT to upgrade to Mavericks in the Macbook. Could that be the issue? cheers,

Doubtful.

Thre was another thread here recently about alternatives to Mail. Someone suggested that there aren't many alternatives, and all of them have some sort of deficiency. The conclusion was that building a decent mail client is a "non-trivial" problem.

For all its faults, Mail has a good integration with other OS X apps, as you might expect. I'm lucky, in that I haven't experienced half the problems that others seem to be having with it.
I don't know what it is that I'm doing or not doing that might be the determining factor. :o

Mail has one very useful feature regarding copy and paste that is unique. This is an aside beyond the issues people had in general with Mavericks prior to and in some cases still with 10.9.1

*** From the Edit Menu choose Paste and Match Style. This will strip text of crap and use the formatting already in the email, e..g same font size. It will get rid of extra returns you get from word, etc.

thanks for the good points guys.

Since the last two or three years i have been using Mail. I really like it. Nice clean interface it has good integration with Apple systems and so on. Unfortunately this little bug, which simple is i cannot re-write any text of an email (which is a major issue) has make the workflow a pain in the neck.

When i just re-install the whole OSX the first couple of days this annoying bug was not there and Mail was a pleasure to work with. I am sure there no is actually Mail's fault but some conflict somewhere. Maybe the famous Helvetica Neue vs. Apple own Helvetica, some App that i have...i don't know. I really no idea what could it be. I tried with the good advice of benwiggy of cleaning all fonts cache, running Onyx to a deep system cleaning and still cannot write an email as most people do.

Since my Macbook has most of the very same Apps and Software than my iMac withe the only difference being Mavericks in iMac i am seriously thinking in downgrading to Mountain Lion if i cannot fix this issue soon. Many users are having similar problem with similar issues.

What do you think?

First tell us if paste and match style helps.

Cleaning font caches can not hurt. If i suspected a font issue i personally would head to Apple font book application, and let it scan for and resolve conflicts, etc.

thanks for the good tips!

Unfortunately paste and match style does not work. If i try to write in the middle of a paragraph i write in one place but the words appears five to ten words further. I know if difficult to explain but this is the behavior now. I might make a little clip to show this actual problem. I don't know what screen capture works for this. Do you know some free App for this?

I did clean the font cache a couple of times. I will try to uninstall FontExplorer just to check if that App is the one causing the whole mess. Unfortunately i don't think Apple Font Book will be enough because since i work with Graphics i need a more Pro Font Manager App which allows me to activate and deactivate many fonts at the same time. I am not sure Font Book can do that.

Thanks again for helping out ;)

This rings a bell. People for many years have had problems with the Helvetica Fractions font. (Not Helvetica or Helvetica Neue, specifically Helvetica Fractions.) Apple wrote a note about it back in the OS X 10.2 days.

Try either turning off or completely removing this font from your system.

Trevor

hi Trevor, thanks for the good tip ;) interesting indeed.

I did a search on my Font Manager and i found i don't have Helvetica Fractions installed. The curious thing with this bug is that only gives me problem in Apple Mail's Text Editor. There is no issue in the simple Text Edit or Notes or so on. How come? what a mystery, right?To avoid this bug i have started to write my emails in Text Edit and then paste them into Apple's Mail window...it is a big of a drag, but it is better than nothing.

I suspect there is some issues with fonts in my iMac since sometimes Google Chrome show this plain body text in Internet that look like chinese fonts. It does not happen in Safari though. But after deleting font cache from time to time this not seems to solve the problem.

what do you think about returning to Mountain Lion?

You could certainly return to Mountain Lion. I'm currently running Mountain Lion quite happily on the MacBook Pro that I'm typing this on. But it does seem a drastic step?

It might be an interesting test to see if uninstalling Font Explorer X makes the problem go away. Even if ultimately you reinstalled it, knowing the source of the problem could help you in your quest to fix the problem.

Trevor

Just to reiterate, I'm running FontExplorerX and Mail without such problems. Make sure you're running the latest version, 4.1.

I would also check you haven't got any other third-party background apps -- Input Managers, keyboard macros, SIMBL, anything like that.

An alternative to reverting to a previous OS X is to install a previous OS in Parallels or VMware.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439

Apple now offers Snow Leopard Server for $19.99 + sales tax & shipping 1.800.692.7753.

Perhaps a quick SAFE BOOT, shift key held down would be worth a shot.

I have not kept up with 3rd Party Font managment, Font Book is pretty good where Apple used to provide virtually no tools.

Here is a pretty good article on where you might have gone off the rails.
http://www.jklstudios.com/misc/osxfonts.html

Thanks for that info Trevor. I might uninstall FontExplorer X first as you says. Nevertheless, i am not crazy about Mavericks and i have seen tons of unhappy users. Cheers, S

thanks for the info :)
Is the any way i could check for third-party background apps? Is there a log or something i could pin out them out?

I know you have FontExplorerX and Mail without problems and that is good but i have also the very same Apps in my iMac and Macbook Pro with Mavericks or Mountain Lion as the only difference and in one have this bug and no in the other.

Cheers,

thanks for the interesting info!
i will do a Safe Boot now, uninstall FontExplorer just in case.

Best,

You should also read through the article I linked you on it offers details on Fonts that may cause issue or that can not be disabled.

Check the following folders in /Library and ~/Library:
LaunchAgents
LaunchDaemons
InputManagers
StartupItems

Also, Login Items in System Preferences > Users

Thanks for the good info guys ;)

I did a SAFE BOOT and the problem disappeared which is good. Today i have to design an Add for the Newspaper so is not a good time to uninstall FontExplorerX. Probably i will do it in the afternoon.

I will look for those Launch Agents soon. The only external soft i have besides Adobe Suite, FontExplorer that i can think of is

A better Finder Rename
Easy Find (way better internal search engine than the Finder)
Skitch,
Paparazzi (great website screen capture)
Flux (light intensity regulator)
Google Drive
Fillezilla
Dropbox
Onyx
Small image

Uff...the list is longer than i expected. I don't know if any of them has some 3 party style of plugins.

Cheers,

EtreCheck will display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It's used on Apple Support Communities to help diagnosis problems.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

Glad Safe boot cleared. I have suspicion the issues may be Onyx and or Fonts. I would skim though the Font article I linked you to paying close attention to the beginning and then sections for your version of OSX and make sure your Fonts are the correct place.

Basically a good rule of thumb is not to add a utility or modify system things unless you have to.

The effects of Safe Boot are listed here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564
Not only does it clear all caches, but it disables all user fonts, and prevents Login Items and various .kexts from launching.

Disable or remove Google Drive. See this article for instructions:

How To Fix Google Drive Crashing Finder In OS X Mavericks

Good info Dianeroos ;)

Now that you mention, when the iMac starts i cannot open any App until Dropbox sync. completly. If i try to open a Word or InDesign file it will hang until Dropbox (i don't know if Google Drive too) finish its sync.

I thinks there is definetly something wrong with the fonts, because sometimes Google Chrome will show all this strange characters like in the attachment picture. Safari does not. I guess it could be related that when you install FontExplorer it will System and non System font in its special way, supposedly better and more efficient, but i am not is always right for the rest of the Apps environment too.

Cheers,

Thanks,

i will take a look at the article you suggested. Probably the font issue is the mother of all system corruption here.

Best,

good point ;)
indeed it help out a lot. At least now i know ther is no major issue if Safe Boot solved the problem.

Cheers,

Well good news everyone (as Professor Farnsworth said)

I have cleaned all my cache fonts with FontExplorerX Pro and also clean up everything with Onyx. Next step, uninstall FontExplorerX Pro and restart. The problem is gone for now. The moment of truth will be when i start installing new fonts like the problematic

Helvetica Neue

which seems to clash is OSX native Helveticas.

thanks for all the good help through all those messeges ;)

I'll keep you posted if the issue returns. I hope not!

Best,

It is likely to be a font conflict between fonts that FEX enables and system ones, rather than any inherent problem of having FEX installed.

For what it's worth, I've always had Helvetica Neue installed alongside the OS X native Helvetica, and never had problems.

Trevor

FWIW, how about downloading AirMail and/or MailMate and check if the same issue happens in those apps?