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Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

annoying.technology

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Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#81

Post by davidcorbin »

hnarayanan wrote: post #63
vladharbuz wrote: post #55

I've had this issue for the past 2–3 years. It seems to happen because of improper error handling. If you look closely at the app in the instant it opens, your affected account will have a “disconnected” symbol next to it in the sidebar. However, it goes away before an error can be shown. My theory is: there is a momentary connection issue with these G Suite accounts, and Mail.app starts to show an error by focusing…

You are right. This has been going on for a few years, and it is related to the need for the app to display the connection error. I find myself quitting mail when I want to be in the zone because otherwise this random behaviour is really annoying.

Exactly. Been doing the same thing for years. Eventually just switched to AirMail.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#82

Post by Hamuko »

ornornor wrote: post #14

Apple Mail is riddled with bugs it’s unusable. Do yourself a favor and switch. Anything else is better than it, Thunderbird is a pretty good alternative imo. It feels like apple doesn’t put any care into regression bugs in their applications. It’s the same on the iPhone, Mail is so bad that I uninstalled it in favor of outlook (the irony...) —Mail was sucking so much battery that my phone wouldn’t last 8h. With outlo…

Too bad there's not really a plethora of good email applications on macOS. I use Spark, but really only because it's the least bad option I've tried.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#83

Post by sleepless »

thiht wrote: post #38
ornornor wrote: post #14

Apple Mail is riddled with bugs it’s unusable. Do yourself a favor and switch. Anything else is better than it, Thunderbird is a pretty good alternative imo. It feels like apple doesn’t put any care into regression bugs in their applications. It’s the same on the iPhone, Mail is so bad that I uninstalled it in favor of outlook (the irony...) —Mail was sucking so much battery that my phone wouldn’t last 8h. With outlo…

Same here. I like using Apple programs on OSX because they're pretty well integrated, but Apple Mail is the exception. Random crashes, sudden 100% CPU or memory usage... It sometimes just stops receiving mails altogether.

Try rebuilding your mail index. You can use OnyX for that.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#86

Post by lonelappde »

mihaaly wrote: post #60
vladharbuz wrote: post #55

I've had this issue for the past 2–3 years. It seems to happen because of improper error handling. If you look closely at the app in the instant it opens, your affected account will have a “disconnected” symbol next to it in the sidebar. However, it goes away before an error can be shown. My theory is: there is a momentary connection issue with these G Suite accounts, and Mail.app starts to show an error by focusing…

I confirm your observations. Yet, to force an app to the front when glitch in connection happens is more like a feature they deliriously thought is being useful, instead of choosing other means of notifications, which is plenty. An app is not forcing itself to the front without someone is specifically writing the code for it to do.

This smells like a feature built 10+ years ago, before notifications existed in Mac OS X, that never got upgraded.

That's how apps "notified" back then.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#87

Post by 7ewis »

Something I still don't understand, similar to this - not sure if it's a bug or feature but I use Desktops heavily, especially while working at home without my extra monitors.

For some reason, the order of my Desktops on Mac seem to reshuffle, I can't work out what causes it or when it happens. I often have it ordered something like this:

Desktop 1 - Google Doc (Chrome)

Desktop 2 - Researching (Chrome)

Desktop 3 - Slack

Desktop 4 - Spotify

I'll do the three finger gesture moving from Desktop 1 to 2 and randomly say Spotify will have moved there. It's so annoying.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#88

Post by theDoug »

7ewis wrote: post #87

Something I still don't understand, similar to this - not sure if it's a bug or feature but I use Desktops heavily, especially while working at home without my extra monitors. For some reason, the order of my Desktops on Mac seem to reshuffle, I can't work out what causes it or when it happens. I often have it ordered something like this: Desktop 1 - Google Doc (Chrome) Desktop 2 - Researching (Chrome) Desktop 3 - Sl…

The answer is found in System Preferences > Mission Control. Uncheck the “Automatically rearrange spaces based on most recent use” box :)

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#89

Post by TacticalTable »

7ewis wrote: post #87

Something I still don't understand, similar to this - not sure if it's a bug or feature but I use Desktops heavily, especially while working at home without my extra monitors. For some reason, the order of my Desktops on Mac seem to reshuffle, I can't work out what causes it or when it happens. I often have it ordered something like this: Desktop 1 - Google Doc (Chrome) Desktop 2 - Researching (Chrome) Desktop 3 - Sl…

When you go into preferences > Mission Control, is 'Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use' checked? I used to hate spaces until I turned that off.

Re: Apple Mail randomly becomes the frontmost application in macOS

#90

Post by justinsaccount »

7ewis wrote: post #87

Something I still don't understand, similar to this - not sure if it's a bug or feature but I use Desktops heavily, especially while working at home without my extra monitors. For some reason, the order of my Desktops on Mac seem to reshuffle, I can't work out what causes it or when it happens. I often have it ordered something like this: Desktop 1 - Google Doc (Chrome) Desktop 2 - Researching (Chrome) Desktop 3 - Sl…

That's a feature ( or at least was)

https://osxdaily.com/2011/11/12/stop-spaces-rearranging-mac-...

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