Are you facing issues with the Mail app opening randomly on your Mac? You are not alone. It could pop up while you are in the midst of work to display a new email. Or it could bug you for no obvious reason at all. Annoying. So, can you do anything to stop that from happening?
When you have an app in full-screen mode, its thumbnail will appear in Mission Control at the end of the thumbnail list with the name of the app instead of Desktop 1, Desktop 2, etc. From the Finder's Go menu, select Applications and then the app you want to open. Using Spotlight macOS lets you search for an application by name and then launch the program using Spotlight, a built-in search system that is accessible from multiple locations. Mac Spaces minimized windows FAQ: How do I open a minimized Mac window in the current Mac Space? I love the Mac Spaces feature, but it has nearly driven me insane that when I click a minimized Mac application window (a window minimized to the Mac Dock), it changes the current Mac Space to whatever Space that window was opened in before, and then opens the window. 98% of the time I want that.
Connectivity issues with certain email accounts (such as Gmail) can trigger the Mac's Mail app to open randomly. So far, Apple has not released a permanent fix to this issue. But thankfully, there are a few fixes that you can apply to patch things up. Without any further ado, let's get started.
Minimize Instead of Close
If the Mail app opens without warning while running in the background, try minimizing the app instead of closing it—click the orange-colored icon to the top-left of the window to do that. You can also use the Command+H keyboard shortcut to minimize the Mail app quickly.
That isn't a permanent fix by any means and could take some getting used to. But it's a surprisingly quick way to put a pause to the Mail app's odd behavior.
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Read MoreUse Gmail App Password
Are you using Gmail on the Mac? At times, the Mail app may fail to connect to your Google Account, especially if it's secured with two-factor authentication. That could result in the app opening automatically whenever it re-establishes the connection.
Thankfully, you can fix this issue with an App Password.
Step 1: Use a web browser to sign in to your Google Account. Click the Security side-tab, and click App Passwords (located within the 'Signing in to Google' section).
Step 2: Generate an App Password for the Mac's Mail app. Copy it to your clipboard.
Step 3: Open the Mail app. Next, click Mail on the menu bar, and then click Preferences. Switch to the Accounts tab, and then remove your Gmail account.
Step 4: Re-add the Gmail account.
Step 5: When prompted for your password, add the App Password instead of your Google Account password.
That should likely stop the Mail app from facing connectivity issues with Gmail going forward.
Note: If you want to revoke the App Password for the Mail app, re-visit your Google Account and click Security > App Passwords.Use a Separate Space
Give the Mail app a separate desktop space. Open Mission Control, create a new space (click the Add icon to the top right), and then drag the Mail app into it. That should prevent the Mail app from opening randomly and interrupting you.
Click the Mail app on the dock whenever you want to check your email. Alternatively, you can visit the desktop space manually via Mission Control.
Check for New Messages Manually
Are you still having issues with the Mail app opening randomly on your Mac? Try checking for new messages manually. To do that, go to the Mail app's Preferences screen (Mail > Preferences), and then set 'Check for New Messages' to Manually.
Click the Get Mail icon—located to the top-left corner of the Mail app window—whenever you want to fetch new messages manually.
Mac Open With Menu
Note: This isn't a viable fix for most and isn't recommended if you receive urgent emails frequently.Also on Guiding Tech
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Click here to see our macos articles pageDisable Messages in Split-View
Is the Mail app opening new emails automatically in Split-View while using another app in full-screen mode?
To stop that from happening, open the Mail app's Preferences screen (Mail > Preferences), and then disable the 'Prefer opening messages in split view when in full screen.'
Delete non-Essential Email Accounts
Try removing non-essential email accounts from the Mail app. That should further reduce odd connectivity issues from causing the Mail app to pop up on your screen randomly. To do that, go to Mail > Preferences.
Disable Open at Login
Is the Mail app only opening automatically while booting up your Mac? That isn't an issue, but rather happens when the app is configured to open at startup.
To stop the Mail app from doing that again, simply right-click the Mail icon on the dock, point to Options, and then uncheck Open at Login.
Alternatively, go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items, and then remove Mail from the list of startup items.
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Read MoreBottom Line
Most fixes that stop the Mail app from opening randomly aren't very practical, but they should help you until Apple resolves this issue for good. Hence, make it a point to install the latest updates for your Mac whenever they become available—to do that, go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Software Update.
So, know of any other fixes that can stop the Mail app from popping up on the screen all the time? Drop in a comment and let us know.
Next up:Getting bombarded with spam on your Mac? Check out what you can do to protect yourself from that.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Read Next3 Tips to Protect Your Mac Against Spam in MailAlso See#email #troubleshooting
Did You Know
Ray Tomlinson is credited as the first person to send an email message.
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The Terminal app allows you to control your Mac using a command prompt. Why would you want to do that? Well, perhaps because you’re used to working on a command line in a Unix-based system and prefer to work that way. Terminal is a Mac command line interface. There are several advantages to using Terminal to accomplish some tasks — it’s usually quicker, for example. In order to use it, however, you’ll need to get to grips with its basic commands and functions. Once you’ve done that, you can dig deeper and learn more commands and use your Mac’s command prompt for more complex, as well as some fun, tasks.
Curated Mac apps that keep your Mac’s performance under control. Avoid Terminal commands, avoid trouble.
Download FreeHow to open Terminal on Mac
The Terminal app is in the Utilities folder in Applications. To open it, either open your Applications folder, then open Utilities and double-click on Terminal, or press Command - spacebar to launch Spotlight and type 'Terminal,' then double-click the search result.
You’ll see a small window with a white background open on your desktop. In the title bar are your username, the word 'bash' and the dimensions of the window in pixels. Bash stands for 'Bourne again shell'. There are a number of different shells that can run Unix commands, and on the Mac Bash is the one used by Terminal.
If you want to make the window bigger, click on the bottom right corner and drag it outwards. If you don’t like the black text on a white background, go to the Shell menu, choose New Window and select from the options in the list.
If Terminal feels complicated or you have issues with the set-up, let us tell you right away that there are alternatives. MacPilot allows to get access to over 1,200 macOS features without memorizing any commands. Basically, a third-party Terminal for Mac that acts like Finder.
For Mac monitoring features, try iStat Menus. The app collects data like CPU load, disk activity, network usage, and more — all of which accessible from your menu bar.
![Mac Open App With Spaces In Name Mac Open App With Spaces In Name](/uploads/1/3/4/1/134148954/971689813.png)
Basic Mac commands in Terminal
The quickest way to get to know Terminal and understand how it works is to start using it. But before we do that, it’s worth spending a little time getting to know how commands work. To run a command, you just type it at the cursor and hit Return to execute.
Every command is made up of three elements: the command itself, an argument which tells the command what resource it should operate on, and an option that modifies the output. So, for example, to move a file from one folder to another on your Mac, you’d use the move command 'mv' and then type the location of the file you want to move, including the file name and the location where you want to move it to.
Let’s try it.
- Type cd ~/Documentsthen and press Return to navigate to your Home folder.
- Type lsthen Return (you type Return after every command).
You should now see a list of all the files in your Documents folder — ls is the command for listing files.
To see a list of all the commands available in Terminal, hold down the Escape key and then press y when you see a question asking if you want to see all the possibilities. To see more commands, press Return.
Unix has its own built-in manual. So, to learn more about a command type man [name of command], where 'command' is the name of the command you want find out more about.
Terminal rules
There are a few things you need to bear in mind when you’re typing commands in Terminal, or any other command-line tool. Firstly, every character matters, including spaces. So when you’re copying a command you see here, make sure you include the spaces and that characters are in the correct case.
You can’t use a mouse or trackpad in Terminal, but you can navigate using the arrow keys. If you want to re-run a command, tap the up arrow key until you reach it, then press Return. To interrupt a command that’s already running, type Control-C.
Commands are always executed in the current location. So, if you don’t specify a location in the command, it will run wherever you last moved to or where the last command was run. Use the cdcommand, followed by a directory path, like in Step 1 above, to specify the folder where you want a command to run.
Webkit in macos app. There is another way to specify a location: go to the Finder, navigate to the file or folder you want and drag it onto the Terminal window, with the cursor at the point where you would have typed the path.
Here’s another example. This time, we’ll create a new folder inside your Documents directory and call it 'TerminalTest.'
- Open a Finder window and navigate to your Documents folder.
- Type cd and drag the Documents folder onto the Terminal window. https://foodstree353.weebly.com/record-lectures-app-mac.html.
- Now, type mkdir 'TerminalTest'
Go back to the Finder, open Text Edit and create a new file called 'TerminalTestFile.rtf'. Now save it to the TerminalTest folder in your Documents folder.
In the Terminal window, type cd ~/Documents/TerminalTest then Return. Now type lsand you should see 'TerminalTestFile' listed.
To change the name of the file, type this, pressing Return after every step:
- cd~/Documents/Terminal Test
- mv TerminalTestFile TerminalTestFile2.rtf
That will change the name of the file to 'TerminalTestFile2'. You can, of course, use any name you like. The mv command means 'move' and you can also use it to move files from one directory to another. In that case, you’d keep the file names the same, but specify another directory before typing the the second instance of the name, like this:
mv ~/Documents/TerminalTest TerminalTestFile.rtf ~/Documents/TerminalTest2 TerminalTestFile.rtf
More advanced Terminal commands
Terminal can be used for all sorts of different tasks. Some of them can be performed in the Finder, but are quicker in Terminal. Others access deep-rooted parts of macOS that aren’t accessible from the Finder without specialist applications. Here are a few examples.
Copy files from one folder to another
- In a Terminal window, type ditto [folder 1] [folder 1] where 'folder 1' is the folder that hosts the files and 'folder 2' is the folder you want to move them to.
- To see the files being copied in the Terminal window, type -v after the command.
Download files from the internet
You’ll need the URL of the file you want to download in order to use Terminal for this.
- cd ~/Downloads/
- curl -O [URL of file you want to download]
If you want to download the file to a directory other than your Downloads folder, replace ~/Downloads/ with the path to that folder, or drag it onto the Terminal window after you type the cd command.
Change the default location for screenshots
If you don’t want macOS to save screenshots to your Desktop when you press Command-Shift-3, you can change the default location in Terminal
- defaults write com.apple.screencapture location [path to folder where you want screenshots to be saved]
- Hit Return
- https://foodstree353.weebly.com/google-apps-directory-sync-mac.html. killall SystemUIServer
- Hit Return
Change the default file type for screenshots
Close All Open Apps Mac
By default, macOS saves screenshots as .png files. To change that to .jpg, do this:
Open Mac App Store
- defaults write com.apple.screencapture type JPG
- Press Return
- killall SystemUIServer
- Press Return Best hangouts app mac.
Delete all files in a folder
The command used to delete, or remove, files in Terminal is rm. So, for example, if you wanted to remove a file in your Documents folder named 'oldfile.rtf' you’d use cd ~/Documents to go to your Documents folder then to delete the file. As it stands, that will delete the file without further intervention from you. If you want to confirm the file to be deleted, use -i as in rm -i oldfile.rtf
To delete all the files and sub-folders in a directory named 'oldfolder', the command is rm -R oldfolder and to confirm each file should be deleted, rm -iR oldfolder
Just because you can use Terminal to delete files on your Mac, doesn’t mean you should. It’s a relatively blunt instrument, deleting only those files and folders you specify.
Another way to free up space
If your goal in removing files or folders is to free up space on your Mac, or to remove junk files that are causing your Mac to run slowly, it’s far better to use an app designed for the purpose. CleanMyMac X is one such app.
It will scan your Mac for files and recommend which ones you can delete safely, as well as telling you how much space you’ll save. And once you’ve decided which files to delete, you can get rid of them in a click. You can download CleanMyMac here.
As you can see, while Terminal may look scary and seem like it’s difficult to use, it really isn’t. The key is learning a few commands, such as those we’ve outlined above, and getting to know the syntax for those commands.
However, you should be careful when using Terminal, it’s a powerful tool that has deep access to your Mac’s system files. Check commands by googling them if you’re not sure what they do. And if you need to delete files to save space, use an app like CleanMyMac X to do it. It’s much safer!