Latest Mailspring update Intel MacOS fails to load

[jdandrews (Jerry Andrews)]

Description

Upon startup, MailSpring produces the following error and won’t move past it:
Error: dlopen(/Applications/Mailspring.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/better-sqlite3/build/Release/better_sqlite3.node, 0x0001): tried: ‘/Applications/Mailspring.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/better-sqlite3/build/Release/better_sqlite3.node’ (mach-o file, but is an incompatible architecture (have ‘arm64’, need ‘x86_64h’ or ‘x86_64’)), ‘/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/Applications/Mailspring.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/better-sqlite3/build/Release/better_sqlite3.node’ (no such file), ‘/Applications/Mailspring.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/better-sqlite3/build/Release/better_sqlite3.node’ (mach-o file, but is an incompatible architecture (have ‘arm64’, need ‘x86_64h’ or ‘x86_64’))

To Reproduce…

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Download and install the latest Mailspring version for MacOS / Intel
2. run Mailspring
3. observe the popup

Expected Behavior

Mailspring starts normally

Setup

• OS and Version: macOS 13.7.6; Intel core i7
• Installation Method: unzip
• Mailspring Version: can’t open the app; get info says 1.16.0. Latest, downloaded 16 Jul 2025. 1.15.1 reports "an update to Mailspring is available (1.16.0-5339a49f)

[ddanon13]

Exact same scenario as above.

OS: Ventura 13.7.6
CPI: Intel Core i5

[createperhaps]

I get told there is a database issue. Reverting to the old build fixes the issue. I am using intel mac.

[jdandrews (Jerry Andrews)]

upvote this issue to help get it fixed, please.

[Phylu (Janosch Braukmann)]

Thanks a lot for the bug report! I pinged @bengotow about the issue.

[bengotow]

Thanks for reporting this folks! I’ll get this fixed tonight.

[bengotow]

Hey folks, thanks again for reporting this and I’m sorry for the hassle. I’m updating a lot of the CI workflows because our build provider Travis CI has stopped supporting macOS.

The download link for the fix is:
https://github.com/Foundry376/Mailspring/releases/download/1.16.0/Mailspring.zip

I’ve also updated our build process to sanity check this in the future via
file ./Downloads/Mailspring.app/**/* | grep "Mach-O"

[jdandrews (Jerry Andrews)]

Thanks so much, @bengotow!

I have installed the new release from your link and can confirm it’s working on my machine.

-Jerry

[QBert247]

Thanks! I thought it was my computer for a bit. LIke they always say…If you have a question, it’s likely others have the same.

[mthqwork]

Thanks for the input. I could not figure out how it applies to Linux builds or how can we use that.
Anyway it’s a great app.