Here’s how to fix the spinning beach ball (wheel) issue in Mac Mail, it involves resetting the Mac Mail Preferences by trashing the com.apple.mail.plist file. This has been tested for Mavericks and the file may reside in a different location based on the version of OSX you are using. Do so at your own risk.
Step 1 – Open Finder
Make sure Mac Mail is not running and force quit if necessary. Open a new finder window.
Step 2 – Delete the com.apple.mail.plist file
Go to /Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences and find the com.apple.mail.plist file. Click and drag the file in to your trash.
Step 3 – Restart your Mac
This one’s important – Restart your Mac and open up Mac Mail. In most cases this will reset your Mac Mail to it’s default view and it should be good to go. Some people have reported that they have had to add their email accounts in again so be prepared for this particularly if you don’t know how to set them up by yourself.
Go to /Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences
You need to hold down the option key to get this hidden library folder to appear in the finder’s folder list…. you won’t be able to find the folders else wise.
Thank you! This was driving me crazy.