Garbled mail

MacDoc · Sep 6th, 2009, 10:44 AM

Can't quite sort this out

some messages, and some parts of some messages come into Apple Mail looking like this

If I look in Gmail at the same message it is fine, if I see it in MailAppetizer on screen it is fine

If I reply and convert it to plain text it shows correctly

Some aspect of converting HTML text in Mail is malfunctioning....but what??

Not thrilled with doing an archive and install just for this...

Not ready to jump to SL which would likely cure it.....

Ideas??

rgray · Sep 6th, 2009, 10:48 AM

Have you vacuumed your mail database lately?

I have cured all sorts of Mail ills by this method, tho admittedly not this particular scenario....

chas_m · Sep 6th, 2009, 02:34 PM

MacDoc, have you tossed any fonts lately?

I saw a very similar phenomenon when I accidentally disabled a .dfont (Helvetica) in favour of the PS version. The system relies on fonts like that for screen drawing.

The clue here is that changing to plain text solves the problem. Try checking your Mail preferences to what font you view styled email in, try changing it to something else.

rgray · Sep 6th, 2009, 02:38 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by chas_m
	MacDoc, have you tossed any fonts lately? I saw a very similar phenomenon when I accidentally disabled a .dfont (Helvetica) in favour of the PS version. The system relies on fonts like that for screen drawing. The clue here is that changing to plain text solves the problem. Try checking your Mail preferences to what font you view styled email in, try changing it to something else.

Cool tip.........

Sep 6th, 2009, 02:39 PM

What happens if you view the raw source of the message? Is it html or just text ... I'd agree with chas_m about the fonts as well, have seen that cause all kinds of chaos.

simon · Sep 6th, 2009, 09:29 PM

I really don't want to concur with the answer machine that is Chas_m, but it's a font issue.

MacDoc · Sep 6th, 2009, 10:25 PM

Yeah would seem to be but have not changed fonts, does not happen on all parts of the message and when I change fonts all the rest of the text changes in the message - that part blinks but nothing happens.

I'll try the vacuuming

Actually Onyx rebuilds the Mail index. I'll go that way. Overdue for a cleanup anyway.

MacDoc · Sep 7th, 2009, 11:30 AM

Onyx did the trick - not sure why but it's gone - thanks for suggestions..

Original incoming message now reads correctly

Sep 7th, 2009, 12:58 PM

Could have been font cache issues. Glad it's worked out.

Mr. CoBalt · Sep 8th, 2009, 03:15 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by MacDoc
	Onyx did the trick - not sure why but it's gone - thanks for suggestions.. Original incoming message now reads correctly

Haven't used that specific tool but Onyx appears to clear out font caches so that's more than likely what did it. Font caches seem to be the number one cause of garbled text, weird kerning, etc. on OS X, and Mail seems especially susceptible for whatever reason.