Mac 911

When fonts won’t display properly in Safari and Mail

Don Walker opened Mail in macOS, and discovered a whole bunch of ??????s when trying to read and use the app. Don writes:

System software is up to date. I use Suitcase Fusion and it’s also up to date. I tried bootingup without Suitcase but that made no difference. Copying the camouflaged text and pasting into TextEdit reveals the original letters, so the underlying info isn’t lost—just hidden.

Other people who have experienced the same problem, sometimes in Mail and sometimes in Safari, have solved it by resolving font corruption or duplication. You can use Font Book for both, a font utility found in macOS’s Applications folder and part of Apple’s sytem software.

What the ??? is going on? Maybe a font corruption problem or a font missing altogether.

Open Font Book. First, try validation:

1. Click All Fonts in the sidebar at left.

2. Click in the fonts list to its right.

Choose → (or press Command-A).