When I tried to attach a 10MB .mp4a to Mail, a graphic of what looks like a square lego block with a question mark on it appeared.

Interestingly, my brother tried to send me something two days ago, but instead of the file I received that same blue lego graphic. When I click on the graphic, nothing happens.

Why can't I mail an audio file or receive my brother's file, which I think is video?


Edited by deniro (01/02/15 11:27 AM) ET

It may have to do with a size limitation that your Email Provider has on attachments. 10 MB is fairly large for some providers. Yosemite has something called Mail Drop. Mail Drop, which eliminates the problem of emailing large file attachments. As I am not using Yosemite, I can't vouch for it, but it sounds good. It will not eliminate receiving large attachments.

My brother tried to send me a 500K jpg today and I got the same question-mark graphic.

I tried to send the same file and got the same graphic.

Something weird here. I've never seen this before.

Well I'm out of ideas.

I just sent a 10.5MB file using my iCloud account. I was warned on sending that 10.5MB was large and although I received a warning that the SMTP storage limit was reached I actually receive the sent file intact. The point being while 10.5MB is at the limit it can go through the iCloud mail. That would tend to indicate the problem is a limit at your ISP.

I know you have probably mentioned this before, but who is your ISP? Have you received notice of any service changes lately? Have you checked their web site for attachment size limits? SMTP. POP, and IMAP were never intended to be used for bulk file transfer.

In truth Drop Box, iCloud, or some similar cloud based file sharing is more appropriate to an attachment of that size, even the 500MB your brother sent.

That isn't it.

It isn't just audio files. I was sent more pictures today and still I get the blue lego icon instead of the picture. This must be a problem with Mail. I'll try deleting the preferences.

I can see the picture when I click QuickLook.

That didn't work.

I also hit "rebuild" without knowing what it meant and lost all my mail before Dec 2014. I tried replacing new prefs with the old prefs from my backup, but I didn't get my old mail back.

> I also hit "rebuild" without knowing what it meant and lost all my mail before Dec 2014. I tried replacing new prefs with the old prefs from my backup, but I didn't get my old mail back.

In Snowy, you ought to be able to recreate your old mailboxes by restoring ~/Library/Mail from your backup. (Don't trash the old folder until you know that you've been successful.)

Thanks, I got my email back.

But the blue lego block problem remains. Now when I even try to send a .jpg, even a small one, by dragging it onto a new message, I get the same blue lego block question mark icon. Never had that in the past. This one really has me stumped. Weird. Mail doesn't seem to be identifying file types, whether a .jpg or mp4a.

Have you tried logging in to a test user account to see if your issue follows you across account lines?

No. Maybe this is something with my ISP, ATT DSL. I even reinstalled the OS and still got the same problem.

I am really puzzled.

Reinstalling OS X wouldn't correct a problem in your home folder (unless, of course, you went all the way back to square one).

Trying a test account is practically mandatory at this point.

How do I do that?

It would be easier to simply enable your guest account, but I'm not certain that going that route will give you the maneuverability you need, so...

1. Navigate to /Applications/System Preferences > Accounts.
2. Click on the padlock icon and authenticate with your admin password.
3. Click on the + sign.
4. Fill in the blanks using new full and account names. (To keep things consistent, I'd make the account an Admin account.)
5. Click on "Create Account".
6. Make a note of your e-mail account settings in Mail > Preferences > Accounts.
7. Move a couple of the attachments with which you've had trouble into either /Users/Shared or ~/Public.
8. Log in to the new account.
9. Launch and configure Mail.app.
10. Experiment both ways, i.e. have somebody send you an e-mail with an attachment with which you've had trouble, and try to send e-mails with the attachments you can access in /Users/Shared or ~/Public.
11. Let us know how you make out.

(When you finish experimenting and log back into your regular account you can delete the new one if you like, but it's never a bad idea to keep a test account around in case of emergency.)

Edit: This is a shot in the dark, but if you're running Little Snitch, disable it and see what happens, particularly on the incoming side of things.

Everything worked fine in the guest account. I wonder why.

I've always used only one account, an admin account under my name. Is that wrong?

> Everything worked fine in the guest account. I wonder why.

Because the root of your problem lies in your home folder in your regular account it wasn't perpetuated in the new one. (Only system files are common to the two accounts.) Now, maybe somebody can suggest what's wrong. Time for some cache clearing, maybe? (For my own benefit, did you use your guest account or create a new one?)

> I've always used only one account, an admin account under my name. Is that wrong?

Your default account must be an admin account, but some people prefer to keep it in the background and work out of a standard account for security purposes.

I maintain two admin accounts and use one to work out of and keep the other in the background as a test account.

Your call, really.

I created a new admin account.

I'd just leave it be and forget it exists until I need it.

But the mystery remains…

But now it's identifiable...to a degree, at least, as something in your home folder.

Maybe somebody else can zero in on it, but the best I can do is suggest that you d/l the appropriate version of a utility such as TinkerTool System (It's shareware with a trial period.) and run its cache clearing routine.

I already ran all of Onyx's functions, including clearing the caches. I don't know if TinkerTool System has a different feature than Onyx, but anyway I'm unable to download a legacy version for 10.6.

TinkerTool System Release 2 (Legacy version) has been touted as offering the deepest cache clearing functionality; I've got no idea if it's your answer, but it's worth a try.

I'd also try booting into Safe Mode to see if there's anything to be learned: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

Edit: Did you install any new apps immediately before your issue reared its ugly head?

You keep going to clean out caches, which may fix it, but I keep thinking it may have to do with a corrupt preference file in your home library or some other corrupt file in the home library. This could explain why it worked fine in the new account. As Artie said it must be something in there. It could be in Mail, or preferences. I don't have the expertise to suggest which one.

Unfortunately, Mark, ganbustein (Sorry, no link.) has advised us that the venerable troubleshooting technique of trashing plists not only never really worked, but now no longer works at all. (As a matter of fact, deniro has already trashed his mail prefs with no joy.)

If deniro's problem is a corrupt plist, ganbustein is going to have to kick in and tell us how to find and address the culprit.

Edit: Hmmm... Since deniro is running Snowy, he may still have a shot at resolving his issue by trashing a plist, but which one is beyond me.

Well, I have a couple programs that I ran to check out the prefs: Onyx and Preferential Treatment. Everything OK.

Not that they are infallible.

Nor do they even check for what you're looking for. (Damn! I've got to start bookmarking ganbustein's posts.)

The trouble-shooting technique of clearing an app's default settings, forcing the app to go back to its default defaults, is still available. It's just that you don't do it by moving files. Instead, use defaults delete domain_name.

If you want to save the old settings, so you can easily put them back later, save them with

defaults read domain_name >someSaveFile.plist

and put them back with

defaults write domain_name "$(cat someSaveFile.plist)"

The latter command may fail if the saved file is very big. (At about 250KB, the "$(cat ...)" argument expands to something too long for the shell to pass along.) At some point the import/export verbs were introduced to defaults to overcome this size limit. The commands become

defaults export domain_name someSaveFile.plist
defaults import domain_name someSaveFile.plist

I'm not sure when import/export were implemented. They aren't in OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and still aren't mentioned in man defaults even on OS X 10.10 Yosemite, but show up in defaults help.

Pondering alternaut's (apparently) unrelated, but similarly frustrating, issue led me to suggest moving his entire ~/Library/Application Support folder aside, i.e. to his desktop, to see what happens. Either logging out/in or restarting afterwards is necessary.

Edit: It seems like a worthwhile step, particularly since we can no longer play with plists like we used to.

Thanks for posting the commands. (As I said, I've got to start bookmarking your posts.)

"The venerable troubleshooting technique of trashing plists" was only part of what I was thinking; what we apparently can no longer do is move half of the contents of ~/Library/Preferences, etc, etc, etc, or is there a way to do it?

I tried it, but the only thing that does is copy the Application Support folder to the desktop. I don't know why that would help. It's impossible to delete the original Application Support folder, if that's what you were thinking.

As for the other post, I assume those are Terminal commands. I haven't worked with Terminal enough to decipher that post.

I think you tried to move /Library/Application Support rather than ~/Library/Application Support. They're two entirely different animals. (Note the ~, which means /Users/Your short name.)

Forget about the Terminal commands for the moment.

You actually do that? That sends shivers up my spine.

I find it odd that so many people (not necessarily you) shy away from Terminal, as "dangerous", but don't hesitate to use the GUI to make sweeping changes across their files just to see if maybe it fixes the problem. Trashing (or moving aside) large numbers of plists, massive parts of ~/Library/Application Support, telling Finder to "apply permissions recursively", all those things give me the willies. (For that matter, asking Finder to do anything regarding permissions is scary. I have no idea how Finder is going to apply any given change. Heck, Finder won't even accurately tell me what the current permissions are. It's like trying to do surgery while blindfolded and wearing mittens.)

But surely you can narrow down any given problem to much much less than half of your preference domains. A little bit of thoughtful analysis up front is surely faster and safer than blundering about.

I know where you're coming from. In the bad old days of MacOS, it was not uncommon for Conflict Catcher to find a problem in the most unlikely of places, often as an interaction between seemingly unrelated INITs. Thank goodness for OS X and memory protection. It's been at least a decade since I've confronted a problem as thorny as the ones we needed Conflict Catcher to resolve.

They are definitely NOT infallible as you suggest. Al those utilities use the same Unix command line utility and all it does is check the grammar and syntax of the file. The parameters or values may be completely trashed but you will never know it from one of those utilities. They cannot relied upon for either a pass or fail.

I've never had occasion to need to go the 50/50 route, but it's a venerable technique that's been suggested for years and has, on any number of occasions, uncovered pretty odd culprits.

As you say, though, things have changed, and I've seen virtually no need to suggest it in quite a while.

But we've got two threads going at the moment, this one and Safari issues continuing after migration, that have resolved into mysterious home folder issues and have presumably undergone "thoughtful analysis" by a bunch of pretty knowledgeable mods and posters, none of whom has come up with any better suggestions than "blundering about".

"Pin The Tail On The Donkey", anybody?

Your question about Terminal is a good one, and I think the answer is that you can screw up in Terminal in ways that you can't in the GUI; a typo in Terminal can be disastrous, but the GUI will theoretically do precisely what you ask, i.e. think you want, it to do. You can't leave out the space between rm and / in the GUI.

I was terrified of Terminal at the outset, and I mostly still stick to copy/pasting commands posted by others; even being comfortable in the man pages, I mostly don't know enough to write my own commands, and I doubt that I ever will. (I suspect that the same goes for a very significant percentage of Mac users.)

You Terminal guys are a breed unto yourselves.

I'm not a programmer. I have no experience with Unix. The only programming experience I have had is a BASIC class in high school and, many years later, teaching myself some HTML to write a web site.

I'm not afraid of Terminal. But it's easy to screw things up if you don't know what you're doing. I suspect that describes most Mac owners.

I agree that it should be easy to find what looks like a simple problem. To some people, all problems are simple. I have a lot of experience with Macs and agree that a thoughtful analysis, which is what I've done, ought to have revealed the problem. I've picked among the files, among prefs for instance, and deleted some (eg. both Mail plists). But there's ought and there's is. I'm talking about how things are, within the limits of my troubleshooting skills. Though they are not formidable, they do exist. But they rarely include a command line.

I reinstalled the system, but the problem remains.

I deleted the entire Mail folder from my home folder library. Nope.

I can view graphics I receive via email by using Quicklook. But in the message itself, the blue lego-block, question-mark icon still appears. That's also true when I drag and drop a new picture into a new message. The problem didn't exist in the new account I created. I don't know if that means the problem is in the home folder, but there's a lot in my home folder I don't want to mess with.

More later, but it just occurred to me to ask if you've ever looked in /Applications/Utilities/Console.app > Console Messages to see if there's anything in there that relates to your issue. (Try to attach something to an e-mail and look to see if a new message has popped up.)

This is a long shot and you may have done it already, but

In the home folder /Library/ preferences are two mail preferences. It might be worth taking them out and restarting the computer. If it doesn’t help, you can put them back into the folder
com.apple.mail
com.apple.mail-shared
I will let the powers that be on Fine Tuned Mac comment if it is advisable. As I said you may have already tried it

deniro's already tried trashing plists, but ganbustein's post #32425 above puts the big kibosh in that; he's gonna have to go into Terminal.

What do you think of this? I believed this occurred when I tried to drag and drop and .jpg into a new mail message. (I removed my username where needed):

1/16/15 3:15:18 PM Mail[108] *** WebKit discarding exception: <NSRangeException> *** -[NSCFArray objectAtIndex:]: index (0) beyond bounds (0)

1/16/15 3:15:29 PM Mail[108] Error writing to /Users/myusername/Library/Mail/RSS/.mboxCache.plist: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4 UserInfo=0x10b623190 "The folder “RSS” doesn’t exist." Underlying Error=(Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=2 "The operation couldn’t be completed. No such file or directory")

I'm also getting this:

1/16/15 3:11:29 PM ReportCrash[113] Saved crash report for LCCDaemon[103] version 3.5.1 (3.5.1) to /Users/myusername/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/LCCDaemon_2015-01-16-151129_Macintosh.crash

LCCDaemon is, I assume, related to the Logitech Control Center for my mouse. I've already tried uninstalling it to see if that makes a difference but it doesn't. I'm not sure why the word "crash" is used when my Mac didn't crash.

LCCDaemon is what crashed, not mail.

it sounds like the folder structure for your email is a bit messed up. I'd suggest rebuilding your mailboxes. You may end up having to delete your mail account and re-add it if things don't improve. (back up your messages before you delete anything)

Since you've already tried rebuilding your mailboxes with no joy, I suggest that you go with V1 and delete/restore your mail account. (As he said, be sure you're backed up!)

I rebuilt the mailbox in the past and it didn't work. I deleted the account and restored it, but that didn't work. At one point I searched for and deleted anything relevant with "mail" in it. I use EasyFind. Then I reinstalled the system, but the problem remains. I deleted some third-party programs thoroughly that I thought might be intruding, but that didn't help.

Re: the above post about moving the Application Support folder. I prefer the following terminololgy. Which do you mean?

1) Hard drive/Library/Application Support
2) Hard drive/Users/myusername/Library/Application Support

Isn't this a clearer way to describe the pathway?

A few minor problems yet to fix, but I think I solved it.

Because the problem wasn’t happening in the guest account, I compared the Preferences folder of that account with my usual admin account. Fortunately, I only had to get as far as the ByHost folder rather than the entire Preferences folder. I took a snapshot of the list of files in the guest's ByHost folder, then compared that with the plists in my admin ByHost folder. I deleted the admin plists which didn’t exist in the guest's By Host folder. Then I restarted. I open Mail, dragged a .jpg onto a new message, and mailed it.

Creating a guest account was an excellent idea. Thanks.


Hard Drive/Users/johnsmith/Library/Preferences/ByHost
Hard Drive/Users/myusername/Library Preferences/ByHost

Nice job! Thanks for getting back to us with your solution.

Second MacManiac, but I wonder which plist of those you deleted was the culprit? (Edit: Admin plists?)

Assuming that it was ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.mail.your alpha-numeric string.plist, it's contents in my Snowy installation don't ring any bells:


Do you remember which other plists you trashed?

The posts following this have been moved to Ongoing Discussion in the Lounge as they no longer were relevant to the resolution of this issue.....this thread is closed.