Can't hide Mail in Tiger

I suggest completely removing Mail from your login items and then shutting down the computer. If Mail still shows up when you startup then you have a different problem! If it doesn't add Mail back in to your login items and select hide and see if the problem still exists.

If I remove Mail.app from my login items, there's no problem at all. If I put it back and select hide (after shutdown and startup), the problem still exists.

I also trashed the com.apple.systempreferences.plist ?and the problem still exists.

Why hide Mail? When you get new mail you'll need to bring it up anyway. Why not just minimize the window?

If I remove Mail.app from my login items, there's no problem at all. If I put it back and select hide (after shutdown and startup), the problem still exists. Have you put other apps in the login items and tell them to hide? Does that work?

When you get new mail you'll need to bring it up anyway.
And how do you know if you have new Mail? When I startup my computer in the morning, I see with MailUnreadStatusBar if I have new mail. And if I do have new Mail, I open the Inbox. I don't want to open the Inbox if there's no need for.

But somehow your right. Maybe I'll have to look for a new way to handle my Mail.app.

Have you put other apps in the login items and tell them to hide? Does that work?
Yes, I have. Yes, ist works.

Just out of curiosity I tried putting Mail in my startup items and clicking the Hide button. It did not hide. So if it's any comfort, you're not alone :-)

I've been having the same problem with any apps I put in the login items. Nothing seems to hide for me. I'm guessing this is a general issue with Tiger.

I've been having the same problem with any apps I put in the login items. Nothing seems to hide for me. I'm guessing this is a general issue with Tiger. I did some more testing. Cyberduck, Safari, Calculator, and AppleWorks all hide just fine on my computer. So far it's just Mail that won't hide.

Could it be a corrupt preference file?
~/username/Library/preferences/com.apple.mail.plist

Could it be a corrupt preference file?
I trashed the com.apple.mail.plist ?and the problem still exists.

Looks like I'll be waiting for an update...

I know that Terminal won't hide for me. Also, I can't even change the order of the login items. In Panther I could always click and drag to set the order of load of the login items.

Haven't tried this in Tiger, but I don't know why it wouldn't work ...

Copy/paste this code into Script Editor and save as an application. Include the resulting application in your startup list [Sys Prefs --> Accounts --> youraccount --> Startup Items].

Obviously, you can modify this to include/exclude and hide any apps you want. This opens Safari, iChat (which auto-logins for me), and Mail. It then brings Mail.app to the front so I can enter my IMAP password and hides the other apps.


ignoring application responses
-- launch these applications
tell application "Safari" to launch
tell application "iChat" to launch
tell application "Mail"
launch
activate -- brings Mail to the front
end tell

tell application "System Events" -- hide these applications
set visible of process "Safari" to false
set visible of process "iChat" to false
end tell
end ignoring

I don't know either. But the script doesn't do what I want. No matter if I just doubbleclick it or put it to the login items, Mail doesn't hide and opens its mainwindow.

I had the same issue but with Safari... Was encountering a few "weird ones" like that with my upgrade installation. A fresh install was what cured it... I admit its not a nice easy solution, but since I had backed up all my stuff the day before to upgrade at least it was just timne consuming. Removing Pref files had not done the trick for me...

I don't know either. But the script doesn't do what I want. No matter if I just doubbleclick it or put it to the login items, Mail doesn't hide and opens its mainwindow.

Well, right. I've got it configured to bring Mail.app to the front. You can do a little editing to make it hide Mail.app by adding another line to the "tell app System Events" block.

This is one of those "the rest is left as an exercise for the student" kind of examples.

Ok, I should have been a little bit clearer. As you suggested I changed the script, like this:

ignoring application responses
tell application "Mail" to launch
tell application "System Events"
set visible of process "Mail" to false
end tell
end ignoring

and the problem still exists.

Mea culpa.

Get rid of the "ignoring" lines ... I had included them for a problem I was having with Oracle Calendar. By ignoring application responses, we're not waiting for Mail to finish launching before moving on. Since Mail hasn't finished launching by the time we tell Sys Events to hide it, nothing happens. This is now fixed.

Hope it works for you! It works for me in 10.4.


tell application "Mail" to activate

tell application "System Events"
repeat 10 times -- just to make sure we hide it
if exists process "Mail" then
set visible of process "Mail" to false
exit repeat
else
delay 1
end if
end repeat
end tell

Well, Scott, thank you very much.

You solved my little big problem. The script works for me even without the repeat-lines. The Mail-window opens just for half a second and then quits. So it's not that smooth as it has been with Panther, but it's much better than before.

-- donquichote

I have been having the above problem with Mail, but also with the beta version of NetNewsWire 2.0, which otherwise works fine on Tiger. I assume there's some coding difference between Panther and Tiger that causes the problem. Ranchero software has a decent excuse, of course but Apple on the other hand .... :rolleyes: Here's my variation on Scott's script for multi-app use. Also avoids the 'delay' commands by using an 'on idle' handler. 'Delay' is CPU intensive, right at the moment when you want max cycles for your starting apps.

Obviously (for old hands) this script must be saved as application, with its 'stay open' checkbox checked. Call it from your Login Items.

property appList : {"Mail", "NetNewsWire"}
property appCount : 0

on run
repeat with aItem in appList
tell application aItem to activate
end repeat
end run

on idle
repeat with aItem in appList
tell application "System Events"
if (exists (process aItem)) and (visible of process aItem) then
tell process aItem to set visible to false
set appCount to appCount + 1
end if
end tell
end repeat
if (appCount = (count of appList)) then
tell me to quit
end if
return 2
end idle