Combatting Mail's inability to hide at Login

Do you use Apple's own Mail app for checking your emails? Pretty good isn't it? But do you load the app automatically at login by adding it to your login items? More to the question, have you ever tried hiding it at login by ticking the 'Hide' box next to it's name? Successful? I thought not. This is a well known bug that has survived from Tiger. No matter what you try, it simply will not hide. It has been reported to Apple long ago, and so far they just seem to be ignoring the problem. Do any Apple staff use Mail? Surely it's not too much to ask for the app to load up automatically and check mail while being hidden, is it?

Of course, the one thing we can all do as Mail users is provide feedback to Apple regarding this. Perhaps the more we complain, the more likely they are to do something about it. Until then, there are a number of free apps we can use to help get around the problem (note: not all apps listed will run on Tiger, but all run on Leopard) -

1) Launch And Hide Mail. Once downloaded, you can put this app anywhere you like (I would still put it in the Applications folder myself). Then you go into your login items (under Accounts in Preferences) and add this app them. It doesn't need to be hidden, and you don't need to add the Mail app itself to your login items, as this app will launch it and hide it for you. When you login next time (assuming you have already ran the app once to confirm with Leopard that it's ok to run), you may see the Mail app window for a split second or two, then disappear. This app is very good for the job, but it's a shame the Mail app window is on screen as long as it is (a few split seconds is still too long in my book).

2) Google Notifier. Obviously, this is one just for users of Googlemail (or Gmail as it's known outside the UK). It's a pretty good app which runs on the menu bar, and checks for new mail in your Google inbox. It does NOT check the inbox of the Mail app itself, so with this app running at login, you don't actually need to have the Mail app in your login items at all to check for new emails. There may be other services (Yahoo!, AOL, etc) that might provide a similar desktop app for their dedicated emails, and they will do exactly the same as this one- checking the inbox at the server rather than your Mail app. There are two disadvantages to this approach. Firstly, if it tells you there is new mail, you will then have to load the Mail app and wait a few seconds while it checks your inbox and downloads the email itself. Secondly, if you move or delete the email, the Google notifier will still display the same number of unread emails until it is time for it to check the inbox at the server again. There are other menu based email checkers that will display the number of unread emails from the Mail app itself (available here). However, the ones I have found actually need to have the Mail app up and running, so to be honest I fail to see the use of them.

3) Dashboard Kickstart and MailWidget. This way has a very nice advantage. Downloading and adding Dashboard Kickstart to your login items will start your Dashboard up next time you login, and hide it again straight away. Now normally the first time you access Dashboard, there is a delay as it loads up all your various widgets. With this app automatically loading it up in the background, when you do access Dashboard for the first time now, the widgets should be already running. The second part to this would be to download the MailWidget and install it on your Dashboard. Selecting your email account in the widget will allow it to check your mail without needing the Mail app to be running. So instead of trying to hide Mail, we are essentially running and hiding the Dashboard at login instead, with it's own mail checker doing the job. Disadvantages are a delay again in the number of unread emails updating once you have actually read them in Mail, and the fact that some users just don't want Dashboard running at login, as it will use up some RAM.

4) MailFX. This is my personal favourite, and I use it on my own Macbook Pro. It comes as an installer (the app is certified by Softpedia for no spyware, adware, or viruses) as it needs to imbed a menu of it's own in the Mail app itself. Basically, it creates effects for when you have new mail. I have mine set to a semi-transparrent icon appearing at the top right of my screen with a nice lady informing me. You can pick from different icons, positions on screen, and voices/sounds. It's very good. However, it also (kind of) fixes the problem of Mail not hiding at login. Once MailFX is installed (keep the install app as you can use the same one to uninstall if you don't like it), just add the Mail app to your login items and tick its hide box. Reboot, and you will (unfortunately) still see, for a split millisecond, the Mail app window before it vanishes. However, it is gone so fast you will barely notice. The advantage is it is your Mail app itself that is now listed in the login items, and the hide box does now (sort of) work. Plus you have the bonus of a nice notifier when you get your new mail. The only disadvantage I can see is if you are bothered about that split millisecond of seeing the Mail window (which I personally can live with).

So, there you have it. Of course none of these are ideal solutions. The ideal solution would be for Apple to fix the Mail app themselves, but we seem to be waiting an awfully long time for this to happen. Until then, these will have to do.

Tags: Mac OSX Mail