Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with apple and mail

Apple Mail w/ multiple accounts

xmutex — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 11:23:49 -0800

I use Apple's Mail app with three mail accounts and I would like somehow to differentiate emails other than the tiny little label they show. So it does say "Inbox - Account A", etc, but that's a tiny little label. Can you color each item according to its account? Any tips/tricks/hacks?

Thanks.

How to transfer mail into a folder on my mac, with Apple mail?

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 28 May 2012 08:36:30 -0800

My online mailbox is full. I want to move some of those messages to a folder on my computer, using Apple Mail in system 10.6.8. There's doesn't seem to be an obvious way to create a new folder in Apple Mail, under the section On My Mac. Can you tell me how to do this? The account is IMAP and private mail service.

How can I map the keyboard shortcuts from Apple Mail onto Outlook 2011 for Mac?

chefscotticus — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:02:33 -0800

How can I map the keyboard shortcuts from Apple Mail onto Outlook 2011 for Mac? I'm a longtime Apple Mail user, but have been convinced to give Outlook 2011 for Mac a try, given a few quirks with our local exchange server. Unfortunately, all of the old Apple Mail shortcuts are ingrained in my brain.

Is there anyway to map all of (or the primary) keyboard shortcuts from Mail onto Outlook without doing each one manually in system preferences?

Using Imap to forward GMail to Apple Mail, but outgoing messages are landing in [Imap]/Drafts folder

abbyladybug — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:22:46 -0800

I am using IMAP to forward GMail to Apple Mail, but outgoing messages keep landing in a folder called [Imap]/Drafts instead of sending. Why? I am working with a woman who is very smart but has Aphasia, so she struggles to express herself verbally. I'm doing some tech support for her because of my skills as a communicator more than because of my excellent Mac tech support skills, so I'd like to research the answer as much as possible before I head back over to her place to try and sort out the issue.

She has a laptop and a desktop. One has Apple Mail 2 and one has Apple Mail 3. I used the standard instructions by GMail to use IMAP with Apple Mail.

apple mail from column

jfricke — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 08:40:50 -0800

How can I enable the "From" column in Apple Mail again? Today I deactivated the "From" column in Apple Mail. When I wanted to activate it again, this was not possible because the function was greyed out. Despite Google I could find not find any solution to this problem. Any suggestions?

Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our Mail clients learning?

Toekneesan — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 06:49:59 -0800

Why doesn't my Apple Mail junk filter learn? I've tried three times by resetting the filter and yet it doesn't seem to learn a single thing. The problem isn't that it's not filtering enough, the problem lies in the number of false positives. Things that it thinks are junk that are not. These are email I get from colleagues who are in my address book, that I get frequently, and which I unmarked as junk mail and moved to my main mail box. I have reset the filter three times and the results are the same. No learning is occurring.

I suspect this may have something to do with a problem that occurred when I first migrated my work user to this new computer. After that, spotlight stopped working. It also wouldn't re-index. I used the utility ONYX to discover the problem was that the index file seemed to have disappeared. So I created a new one, told it to re-index the contents of my home folder, and spotlight has been working ever since.

Is there a similar file for the junk filters? Any other ideas?

Moving Apple Mail emails to Microsoft Outlook

punkbitch — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:02:11 -0800

How do I move my emails FROM Apple's Mail program TO Microsoft Outlook on a PC? There are so many instructions online for doing the opposite.

At my office, I was working on a MacBook running OSX. Now I am switching to A Dell Vostro running Windows 7 (not by choice).

I need to get all my emails from Mail (from 2 accounts) to Outlook.

Please help!

A man can't be too careful what he signs these days...

Bromius — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:27:58 -0800

Why won't Apple Mail let me attach a signature to my emails? Having decided to put on a veneer of grad school professionalism, I made a signature for myself for use in Apple Mail. It's nothing fancy; there's no HTML or any images. It's just my name, title, address and phone number. I access a Gmail account and a university account through Mail, so I created two identical sigs, one for each account.

Now the pulldown signature menu appears with each blank email I open, but it's stuck on the default "None." No other options appear on the pulldown. I've Googled around, and I'm confident that I have all the signature settings set correctly---on the signature menu, each account has the correct sig assigned to it, not "None." I've even restarted my computer a few times since I first tried setting this up, and nothing's changed.

So what am I doing wrong?

Crap, I missed ANOTHER meeting?

The Winsome Parker Lewis — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:18:10 -0800

How can I integrate my company's Microsoft Exchange 2003 calendar with Mail.app and iCal on Snow Leopard? I don't fully understand how Exchange and Outlook work on PCs but I need to make it happen on a Mac. My company uses Exchange 2003 for company calendars on the network. How can I read and edit a calendar in iCal?

Also, when I receive meeting invitations in Mail.app, they show up as ordinary emails with an Outlook Web Access link at the very bottom. Often I don't see the link or realize they're invitations in need of a response. How can I easily determine that they are, accept them, and add them to my calendar (and to iCal)?

I'm willing to try crazy, outside-of-the-box workarounds to get Exchange to talk to Apple's software if necessary. I found John Maisey's You Are Invited, which seems to be a step in the right direction, but it's broken on Snow Leopard and has been discontinued.

Extra bonus points for you if your solution will also let me read and edit the calendar from my iPhone over the web, instead of via USB syncing.

How do I start using OS X Mail?

Junior687 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:46:45 -0800

How can I start using OS X .Mail App when I'm so in love with Gmail on the web? I recently purchased a Mac and I'm really interested in using OS X's Mail program. The only problem is Gmail is my bread and butter. It has a lot of different features and I love the labeling system. Is there a way to integrate labels, IMAP, and some other Gmail features with Mail? Will it hurt my current setup on the iPhone? What are the pros and cons? Thanks!

My e-mail won't send on one account. How do I fix it?

hdh — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:31:54 -0800

I'm having trouble with my Apple Mail program. I have a number of e-mail accounts (some with Optimum online, a g-mail, yahoo, etc.) Apple Mail has no problem at all reading and downloading any mail from any of the services. My problem is with Optimum Mail (Optonline.net). Mail refuses to send anything through that set-up. I've been on the phone for hours with Optimum and the settings are all correct. I've tried connecting directly to the cable modem and mail gets sent. This would make me believe that it is the Apple Airport Extreme router that is at fault. I've tried restarting it, re-initializing it and setting it up again and the problem continues. All my Optimum mail is picked up and can be read but it will not send anything through Optimum. It asks if I want to send it through another server (like g-mail or yahoo) and if I pick yes the mail sends. It happens on all my computers a G-3 and pre Intel iMac G-5 on Tiger and my Macbook on Leopard. Anyone else hear of this problem? Both Apple support and Optimum online say they have never heard of it. Talking for hours with their tech departments have found no solutions. Any thoughts would be apprectiated.

Help me find Apple mail 3.0

citybuddha — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:50:00 -0800

This should be a no brainer but I guess I am extra challenged at the moment. I am looking to download version 3.0 of apple mail for OSX 10.4.11. I am looking for a google eye dog on this one.

How can I get Mail and Gmail working for me?

veggieboy — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:47:38 -0800

I'm using Gmail with IMAP, and Mail.app (and an iPhone, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't matter for these purposes). How can I erase the old messages in the "Sent" folder on my desktop app without erasing them on Gmail? OK. Just thinking about this makes my head hurt. I apologize in advance if I have left out some crucial piece of information.

For years, I was very happy using POP. Then I got an iPhone and decided to switch to IMAP. I have everything almost to where I want it, with one glaring exception: the 10,000 messages in my "Sent" folder in Mail.app

Here was my POP-era behavior: Send a message, remove it from the "Sent" folder and put it in the "Family 2009" folder or what have you. Incoming emails from family also went there. That way, the Mail.app folder Family 2009 contained all family emails both ingoing and outgoing. Sometimes, a few messages would accumulate in the "Sent" folder until I filed them. All was well.

Now, I have those same folders on my desktop app and would like to maintain the same behavior. . . except that "Sent" now mirrors what is on Gmail itself, which is to say it contains 10,000+ messages — every message since I started using Gmail. The thing is, I already have those messages filed away in their respective Mail.app folders. And, while I could just erase them, I do not wish to also erase them from Gmail itself at the same time, because I like the idea that Gmail has every message incoming and outgoing archived.

I want to get rid of that enormous Sent folder on Mail.app while still having those messages on Gmail itself, and then I want all future sent messages to stay in the "Sent" mailbox in Mail.app until I file them, at which time Gmail would archive them.

God only knows if this makes any sense to anybody. It's been an authentic odyssey even getting this much working. I apologize in advance if my explanation is less than clear and I am happy to answer questions.

apple mail started marking every new sent mail and every new deleted mail as unread

cg2 — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:08:46 -0800

Apple mail has suddenly started marking every new sent mail and every new deleted mail as unread. any way to turn that behavior off? apple mail in the past day or so has started marking every new sent mail and every new deleted mail as unread. it used to be smart enough to mark them as unread (i mean of course i've read the sent mail, i just typed it!)

any way to turn that behavior off?

Is there a way to create folders or otherwise organize my email inbox?

iamkimiam — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 08:24:08 -0800

Is there an app/script/somethin'-sweet I can install on my Mac(s) that will allow me to organize my email INBOX? I'd like to be able to group, folder, or rearrange the items in my email inbox so that I can deal with them more efficiently. Viewing by subject/date/time/etc. will not solve my organization problem. I do NOT want to take them out of my inbox in any way (my rule is that I can't do that until I've dealt with it). I'm currently using Apple Mail, and would like to continue to do so. Thanks!

How to sanely migrate email messages from Apple's Mail.app to Google Apps' GMail

Wild_Eep — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:34:07 -0800

How do I move around 2000 messages from Apple's Mail.app (10.4) to a Google Apps (Premier) GMail account quickly and efficiently? Maintaining the received dates and any miscellaneous attachments is a must.

I'm helping a company move their 35 employees with traditional POP download-it-to-your-hard-drive-then-delete-it-from-the-server accounts to Google Apps-based GMail accounts. They opted for the Premier ($) version of Google Apps.

I know about enabling the GMail account's IMAP service, then adding the IMAP account to Mail.app, and then dragging in your messages. When I tried that, it took hours upon hours to move very few messages, often timed-out for no good reason, and even with the activity window open, didn't give very detailed feedback about the progress of the operation. The company has a "business-class" DSL line. Speedtest.net reports that they're getting 300 kbps upstream from their office to San Francisco. (I assume Google's servers are somewhere in San Francisco.)

I'm willing to convert the mailboxes to some other format (mbox, etc.) and use a PC tool. Google themselves provide a tool to suck in messages from an existing IMAP server (which doesn't help directly), or Google Email Uploader, which only seems to work with Outlook, Outlook Express, or Thunderbird. I've also heard about IMAPSync, but I'm not certain it will do what I want.

I do have a PC available, if needed. For the Mac, I do have Emailchemy available.

Can't delete my mail.

blaneyphoto — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:04:57 -0800

Mail won't let me delete one particular email! I've got a brand new 24" iMac, running OSX 10.5 (Leopard) and everything is fine - except this one email that I can't get rid of! I've tried everything I can think of but it still hangs out when deleted. Specifically, when I delete it, rather than going to the trash it just dims as though its been marked as "read". It then appears as unread in my inbox the next time I launch Mail. Its a message from a yahoo group if that matters. All the other messages from that group have been received, read and deleted just fine.

Any ideas???

how to restore preview pane in Leopard mail.app?

dcjd — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:50:26 -0800

How do I restore the preview pane on mail.app? I somehow got rid of the preview pane on Leopards mail.app, and after looking through the options and help, I haven't been able to find a way to turn it back on. Please help!

Apple Mail Address Woes

alitorbati — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:24:08 -0800

How do you get rid of unwanted email address that appear when sending a message in Apple Mail? This is a picture of what I want to delete. As far as I can tell, there is no way to get rid of the addresses.

weird spacing in mail/os 10.4.11

cg2 — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:42:05 -0800

I just updated my mac OS to 10.4.11 and now whenever I use mail (either typing in or pasting into it) the spacing gets all weird - I lose line breaks, I lose spaces in between words. Please help.

Leopard, Apple Mail & IMAP Issues

aladfar — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:27:42 -0800

Leopard, Apple Mail & IMAP issues: Since upgrading to Leopard, Apple Mail seems sluggish and unresponsive. The application is effectively unusable. It's gotten to the point where I'm using webmail access on all of my machines. Is this an issue with Apple Mail or have I misconfigured something (I use Dreamhost for my personal email accounts). On another note: Is there a better, more usable mail application I should consider? Should I go back to POP? Advice on all fronts is appreciated - my mail situation is a bit of a mess right now.

How do I change OS X's default mail app without a GUI?

sjl7678 — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:28:20 -0800

How can I change the default Mail application in OS X with a script (not through the Mail.app GUI)? I need to change the default Mail application as part of a larger setup process that will be used with a lot of computers. I've looked around online quite a bit and the only ways I've found are through Mail's GUI or some other third party application's GUI.

I need to do this in an Applescript, but I can call some other kind of script if I need to. My ideal solution would be something I can do in right in the Applescript or a simple command line command I can run. Does anyone know of anything?

You've Got (No) Mail

mkultra — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:21:30 -0800

Why does Apple Mail stop receiving new messages? I've now seen this behavior on three separate computers (two Core Duo Macbooks, one Dual G5 tower, all running 10.4.10). It started a couple weeks ago.

Periodically, without warning, Mail just stops pulling in new messages. No error messages. Can still send mail just fine. It's not the mail server(s), because I've seen this with different mail accounts, though both are IMAP. Quitting and restarting Mail solves the problem.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is this issue documented anywhere?

get rid of icon in mail

cg2 — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:24:51 -0800

How do I get rid of my flower "icon" in Mail? It only shows up in my own messages when I bcc myself, but it is really annoying.

Smart mailboxes with only unreplied messages?

clango — Thu, 17 May 2007 08:34:17 -0800

In Thunderbird, I can make a smart mailbox that shows only messages I haven't replied to, but I can't change the size of the text in the message lists. In Apple Mail, I can change the list size but can't figure out how to make a smart mailbox that only shows unreplied messages. I think I'd be better at answering mail if I could solve either of these problems. Help?