Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with osx and mail

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!

Please Help Me eMail my Videos via OSX Mail

konig — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:59:28 -0800

I want to send YouTube and other videos via email after I've download them. I am using OSX 10.5.6 and v3.5 Mail. I have a QT Pro license, so I can convert the format once the video is downloaded. I would like for friends who use PCs and those who use Macs to be able to play the videos. My questions are:

1) In what format should the video be when I send it, so that users of both platforms are able to enjoy the video?

2) If a PC user tells me that they cannot view the video, what application should I advise they obtain in order to do so. (I am not going to try to troubleshoot their PC, I just want to tell them that they need "X" program in order to play the movie.)

3) Is there any other info that I need to be aware of, from your experience, to do this as seamlessly as possible?

I have done a lot of searching for these answers and cannot seem to find them. I sincerely appreciate your assistance in advance!

How do I disable Mail on my mac?

bluefly — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:24:01 -0800

Is there a way to disable Mail.app on my mac (OS 10.4.11)? It pops up whenever I mistakenly click on a mailto link. I don't use it for my email, so it's really annoying. Googling suggests that you can go to the Preferences menu in Mail, but that's greyed out for me, as I've never ever used the program before. I use my departmental webmail. I'd like to eventually figure out how to redirect the mailto links to some other email software/account, but for now, just disabling it will be fine.

Where are my Mail messages?

ddaavviidd — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 10:10:08 -0800

I am using Mail on OS 10.5.2. I have several mailboxes as well as subfolders. If I put messages in a mailbox that has subfolders, these messages do not appear when I look for them in the Finder. I'll try to be clearer inside. So for instance I have in Mail this local mailbox called let's say School, with subfolders in it called Courses and Teaching. If I put messages in the School mailbox (not in its subfolders), I can't find them in the Finder (They should be in Users\ddaavviidd\Library\Mail\Mailboxes\School\, but there are only subfolders in this mailbox). I'm just worried that I don't back up these messages, as they don't appear in the Finder. Any idea where they are? And also if I should class them differently to make sure they are backed up?
I read something on the net about blue and white folders, but mine are all blue. And they are local folders (all pop accounts).

Create local finder links for mail.app

Raff — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:35:07 -0800

A few of us work off a local OS X Fileserver. We often need to point each other to files deep with it by email. I am looking for an automated way to create clickable local links in the mail.app friendly format of "file:///Volumes/Server%20Portal/". Any solutions? I have found applescripts that nearly do it. But they only make POSIX links. For Mail to recognise and launch links they need both file:/// appended and spaces replaced with %20. I am guessing it could be achieved by a few additions to current applescripts, but unfortunately it is above me.

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.

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?

Viewing the BCC field on emails one sends with OS X?

Manhasset — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 19:30:40 -0800

Can I see the names in the BCC field of an email that I sent on OS X Mail? I can't seem to figure it out if it's possible. If it's not possible, are there any OS X mail apps that do allow this? When I was on Windows, I used an email program that allowed me to view the BCC field. It was very useful to look and see who the recipients were (ie, to make sure I invited everyone to a party or gathering). It annoys the hell out of me that I can't seem to do this in OS X. Why block this info from the sender?

osX mail, ical, address book recovery?

specialk420 — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 19:47:44 -0800

My girlfriend just had osx reinstalled on her computer - which lead to the overwrite of her mail and ical files ... essentially wiping them clean. is there any chance there is a backup or recovery method for the her mail, calendar, address book archives?

How to recover deleted messages in Apple Mail

after_hours — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 21:33:37 -0800

I have foolishly deleted my entire Apple Mail inbox and unwittingly deleted its trash before realizing this fact. Can anyone help me recover four years of personal and school correspondence? So, I was away on vacation and returned to find my school mailbox filled with quite a bit of spam and other undesired messages. In the process of deleting these messages, I must have hit "select all-delete" instead of "shift-delete" or something alone those lines, because instead of deleting the relatively small selection of mail I had intended, my entire inbox has disappeared. The files were deleted through Apple's Mail utility, which is running in OS 10.3.9 Panther. To make matters worse, these messages are nowhere to be found in the trash bin of the Mail utility or the general system trash, which have both been emptied since then.
It is my understanding that not everything that is deleted from a computer disappears instantly, so I'm wondering if there are any (preferably inexpensive) steps I can take to recover these messages. It has been approximately 10 hours since this occurred, though I just discovered it now.
A big thank you in advance for everyone that takes the time to read and reply to this message.

How do I set-up an "Away for vacation" e-mail using Mail on OSX?

jeremias — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 08:17:31 -0800

How do I set-up an "Away for vacation" e-mail using Mail on OSX? Actually I know how to set up an automatic message using the "Rules" preferences in Mail but as far as I can tell, this only works if the Mail program is open and running on my work machine.

So the last time I set this up, my computer was turned off the day after I left and noone received my messages. Even worse, when I came back and turned on my system and launched Mail, all the "Away for vacation" e-mails were sent, making me look like a dope.

Any solution?

How can I reject foreign languages in OSX Mail?

filmgeek — Tue, 02 May 2006 12:31:52 -0800

Very simple. How can I set up a rule in apple mail to disregard foreign languages (particularly asian and cyrillic languages)? I get killed on a daily basis by spam. Apple's Filter hasn't ever done terribly well, I use Spamfire (full baysian) which helps. It stops 80-90% of them from getting through....but I still get 10-30 in my inbox. I know, 100% of the time that the Russian/Chinese/Japanese email is spam.

All I want is a simple rule to chuck those emails. I've tried playing with the ablity to add the charset header (except I think charset is in the body, not the header), as well as just check the entire message for the ISO for the character set, to no avail.

Ideas? Other spam solutions that work for you? But really, how do I set up this rule?

I'm using Mail 2.0.7 (746.2/749.3), part of Tiger 10.4.6

Mail Scripting Hooks?

teece — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 18:35:30 -0800

Can I hook a script onto the 'Get Mail' button/function in Apple's Mail.app in OS X Tiger? I run my own IMAP server on a Linux machine in my house. It consolidates mail from POP sources with fetchmail. So I'd really like the 'Get Mail' button to first do 'ssh imap.server fetchmail' before it actually checks for new mail. (The machines are set up so that that ssh command works fine with key-based authentication to awaken the fetchmail daemon).

whither bulk mail on osx

luriete — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 23:50:12 -0800

A good friend of mine uses the application BULK MAILER+ to maintain an address list for an academic organization. He uses various flags in the notes field to sort addresses by membership year, indicate specific officers of the organization, whether or not they organize sessions at each year's annual meeting, etc. However, now he's on OSX and we're wondering if the only option is to run the app in Classic (Satori Software seems to have no intention of creating an OSX version) - or is there something else he should be using?

How do I import mail from OS X Mail to Windows Outlook 2003?

jeb — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 15:55:07 -0800

Does anyone know how to get Windows Outlook 2003 to import all of my old mail from OS X's Mail.app? I know its a lame ask.metafilter question, but I've already broken one mouse in frustration over this today. Please hope me.

How do I convert an Army certificate into a format OS X understands?

yesno — Fri, 27 May 2005 09:27:40 -0800

Army Knowledge Online is a webmail/pop email service that any current or former US Army member can use in order to have a .mil address. I've been using it for a while, but for going on three years now I can't get Mail.app (and the keychain) to accept its security certificate. The normal way of importing a self-signed certificate doesn't work under Jaguar, Panther, or Tiger- I can import the cert, but nothing happens. I've tried setting up a new "root" certificate. Nothing works. Apple discussion boards have been useless. Can someone look at this certificate (try going here and it will send you the cert) and maybe tell me what's going on? I think it's in some odd format that prevents it from being imported.

apple mail references

vacapinta — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 18:57:52 -0800

I use Mail.app on OSX. Is there a way to have a reference/resource link/shortcut to a particular email. Ideally, I'd like to be able to click on that link, have it fire up Mail (if not already up) and pop up the email. Possible?

Imprting Thuderbird into OSX Mail.

seanyboy — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 16:48:14 -0800

I am trying to import Mail Folders from Thunderbird into Mac Mail. The only problem I've got is a huge section of emails in 2004 will not import. Looking at the files, it appears that earlier and later emails us the $OA character to line break, but the emails in 2004 use $ODOA (Hex). Is there an easy way (using a Mac) to remove the extra $OD character from the offending files.

On a related note. Is there any way in Mac Mail to detect duplicated emails and delete them?

Mail.app putting line breaks in long URLs. Make it stop!

jragon — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 11:24:10 -0800

Mac OS X Mail.app putting annoying line breaks into long URLs. [more inside] If I use Apple Mail to send a message with a long line, Mail seems to wrap the line automatically with no indication while composing that this will occur.

This is a big problem for URLs, because they get chopped into two lines (with a space at the end of the first line) which causes problems on at least some clients (Eudora and Outlook on Windows, as well as web based gmail from what I see)

Any tricks for getting around this? I don't see it between two Macs, so I imagine it could possibly be a setting on the sender or receiver's side that could fix this.

What is a good Mail application for Mac OS X (10.3.5)?

rorycberger — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 09:43:59 -0800

What is a good Mail application for Mac OS X (10.3.5)? Requirements: can send html email, generally produces "windows friendly" formatting. [slightly more inside] At work I almost exclusively use my iBook, which I love, and occasionally use a company-issue IBM laptop, which I don't love so much. In response t oa recent email I sent, I recieved the following from my boss:
This is a good summary, but unfortunately coming from your Mac is [sic] looks
a bit jumbled. Can you set up the IBM as your email PC so you can do
HTML enabled emails with - bullets and indents?

I've always used Mail.app, but would be much more inclined to switch to a different email application that to switch my email over to the windows machine. A few of the main reasons:
1) I fear Outlook; well actually, I fear virii, and they like outlook.
2) Having the email on my personal computer makes it easier to stay in touch from home/out of town/etc.
3) I'm afraid that this is a slippery slope, and I may soon find myself doing everything on the PC, which would suck.

Help me convince my boss that I can keep using my beloved mac!

Problems with Mail on OS 10.3.5

fionab — Sat, 16 Oct 2004 22:58:56 -0800

Problems with Mail: Running OS 10.3.5 and using the Mail app. I haven't changed anything, and suddenly some of my settings seem to have been altered such that my deleted/sent messages aren't being saved. [MI] I am not super techy, so please help me to understand what's going on here! I have only one account on Mail. I use it to get my IMAP mail from my school account. I haven't switched anything recently, but now when I delete messages, they just disappear instead of being put in the "Trash" folder. Also, the "Sent" folder appears empty and I have a new folder called Sent Messages, which is where all of my sent mail seems to have been placed. New 'sent messages' are not being placed there, however.

Under the Preferences folder / Special Mailboxes, the boxes saying "Move deleted messages..." and "Store deleted messages..." are still checked. The pulldown menu "Permanently erase deleted messages..." is still set to Never. I have tried: toggling the buttons, quitting Mail, restarting.

What's going on here?

OSX Mail Icon

inksyndicate — Mon, 16 Aug 2004 14:56:18 -0800

In Apple's OS X, the icon for "Mail" depicts a postage stamp with the words "Hello from C_________." I can't read it. What does it say? It's not Cupertino or California. Or maybe Cocoa?

Mail certificate in Mac OS X 10.3?

40 Watt — Mon, 28 Jun 2004 20:05:33 -0800

How do I PERMANENTLY install a mail certificate in MacOS X 10.3? (more inside...) I have an IMAP mail account that requires a certificate in order to send mail through the server. The annoying part is that every time I quit mail.app, it apparently forgets that I accepted the certificate already, and the next time I try to send mail I have to re-install the certificate. Granted, it only takes a mouse click, but I'd rather not have to do it every time.... I've checked all the usual suspects (MacOSXHints, Google...) but haven't found a satisfactory answer.