How to Stop the Mail App From Opening Randomly on Mac

Are you having trouble opening the Mail app randomly on your Mac? You’re not alone. It may appear while you are viewing a new email. Or it might bother you for no obvious reason. Annoying. So, can you do something to prevent this from happening?

Connectivity issues with some email accounts (such as Gmail) can trigger the Mac’s Mail app to open randomly. Apple has not yet released a permanent fix for this issue. But luckily there are a few fixes you can apply to fix things up. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Reduce instead of close

If the Mail app opens without warning when running in the background, try minimizing the app instead of closing it – click the orange icon at the top left of the window to do this. You can also use Command + H keyboard shortcut to quickly minimize Mail app.

This is by no means a permanent fix and it might take some getting used to. But it’s a surprisingly quick way to put an end to the weird Mail app behavior.

Use Gmail app password

Are you using Gmail on Mac? Sometimes the Mail app may not connect to your Google Account, especially if it’s secured with two-factor authentication. This could cause the app to automatically open every time it reestablishes the connection.

Fortunately, you can fix this problem with an app password.

Step 1: Use a web browser to sign in to your Google Account. Click the Security side tab, then click App Passwords (located in the “Sign in to Google” section).

2nd step: Generate an app password for the Mac Mail app. Copy it to your clipboard.

Step 3: Open the Mail app. Next, click on Mail in the menu bar, then on Preferences. Switch to the Accounts tab, then delete your Gmail account.

Step 4: Add the Gmail account again.

Step 5: When prompted for your password, add the app password instead of your Google Account password.

This should probably prevent the Mail app from experiencing connectivity issues with Gmail in the future.

Note: If you want to revoke the app password for the Mail app, visit your Google Account again 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 at the top right), then drag the Mail app there. This should prevent the Mail app from randomly opening and interrupting you.

Click on the Mail app on the dock whenever you want to check your emails. You can also visit the office space manually through Mission Control.

Check for new messages manually

Are you still having trouble with randomly opening Mail app on your Mac? Try to manually check for new messages. To do this, go to the Preferences screen of the Mail app (Mail> Preferences), then set “ Check for new messages ” to Manually.

Click the Get Mail icon, located at the top left corner of the Mail app window, any time you want to retrieve new messages manually.

Note: This is not a viable solution for most, and is not recommended if you frequently receive urgent emails.

Disable split view messages

Does Mail app automatically open new emails in Split-View when using another app in full screen mode?

To prevent this from happening, open the Preferences screen in the Mail application (Mail> Preferences), and then turn off the “Prefer opening messages in full screen shared view” option.

Delete non-essential email accounts

Try to remove non-essential email accounts from the Mail app. This should further reduce the weird connectivity issues causing the Mail app to appear randomly on your screen. To do this, go to Mail> Preferences.

Disable open on login

Does the Mail app only open automatically when you start your Mac? This is not a problem, but it does happen when the app is configured to open on startup.

To prevent the Mail app from doing this again, just right-click the Mail icon on the dock, point to Options, and then uncheck Open when signed in.

Otherwise, go to Apple menu> System Preferences> Users & Groups> Login Items, then remove Mail from the Startup Items list.

Conclusion

Most of the fixes that keep the Mail app from opening randomly aren’t very practical, but they should help you until Apple fixes this problem for good. Therefore, be sure to install the latest updates for your Mac as soon as they are available – to do so, go to Apple menu> System Preferences> Software Update.

So, do you know of any other fixes that can prevent Mail app from showing on screen all the time? Leave a comment and let us know.