Howto re-enable Mac Mail plugins after updates
Written on June 16, 2010
Update for 10.6.7: Please try MailPluginFix to enable GrowlMail again. This should be much easier.
Today I upgraded my MacBook to the new released Mac OS X 10.6.4. Everything worked fine except that the update contained a new version of the Apple Mail application which disabled my GrowlMail plugin (not for the first time!). As I really need this plugin and I didn’t want to wait for an update I did a little web research and came up with the following solution:
- Quit the Mail application
- Get the UUID of the new installed Mail and and Messages.framework
To do this open the Terminal application and execute the following two commands:
$ cat /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/Info.plist | grep UUID -A 1 $ cat /System/Library/Frameworks/Message.framework/Resources/Info.plist | grep UUID -A 1
You will find the UUIDs between the two string elements. For Mail 4.3 I got:
B842F7D0-4D81-4DDF-A672-129CA5B32D57
E71BD599-351A-42C5-9B63-EA5C47F7CE8E
- If the plugin already got moved to ”~/Library/Mail/Bundles (Disabled)/” move it back to ”~/Library/Mail/Bundles/”
- Open ”/Library/Mail/Bundles/GrowlMail.mailbundle/Contents/Info.plist” with the Property List Editor (If no editor opens on double click you probably have to install the Xcode tools from your Mac OS X DVD)
- Insert the two UUIDs under SupportedPluginCompatibilityUUID and save the document
- Start the Mail APP and be happy :-)
This should also work for other Mail plugins. But if the plugin is incompatible with the new Mail version you will probably have problems starting Mail. If this happens you will have to remove the plugin again and you will have to wait for a plugin update.
As always try this at your own risk and don’t forget to make a backup before you start. Good Luck!
There's no need to install the Property List Editor. info.plist is a simple text file so you can just open it and edit it in TextEdit or your favorite text editor. To get the relevant strings, enter the commands above. For Mail.app 4.4, I got:
$ cat /Applications/Mail.app/Contents/Info.plist | grep UUID -A 1 <key>PluginCompatibilityUUID</key> <string>BDD81F4D-6881-4A8D-94A7-E67410089EEB:</string>
and
$ cat /System/Library/Frameworks/Message.framework/Resources/Info.plist | grep UUID -A 1 <key>PluginCompatibilityUUID</key> <string>857A142A-AB81-4D99-BECC-D1B55A86D94E</string>
Now take those two <string>...</string> lines and insert them (one per line) at the bottom of the vertical list of similar looking lines toward the bottom of the file before the line that says simply . Save the file and crank up Mail.app. All should be well.
Thanks for this post!
you have helped me for repair GrowlMail ;-)
Thanks!!
I said "before the line that says simply ." That should read:
before the line that says simply </array>
(You have to use "<" instead of "<" to get an SGML tag to display in a comment and I forgot in this case.)