Apple has released a patch for the Mail e-mail client crash that’s been aggravating Mac OS X 10.5.6 users.

The problem seems to be that some copies of Mail were not properly updated during installation of the 10.5.6 update and unexpectedly shut down.

Ver. 10.5.6 users whose Mail version isn’t updated to 3.5 (930.3) will need the patch.

Apple advises users who do have the proper version of Mail and are still experiencing crashes to update or remove third-party plugins, which could be the problem behind their crashes.

The Mail update and full details on the fix are available via the Apple Updates system or from the Apple downloads Web site.