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You can now remove recent email addresses from Mail

HazyCloud

HazyCloud

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jun 30, 2010
2,779
37
This is something I've seen others complain about on here, as well as myself. Before, if you typed a letter when addressing an email, you'd see all the email accounts you've ever sent an email to. To remove these you had to restore as new as that was the only way to get these deleted from Mail.

Now, Apple gives us an easy way to remove them. Just click on the > button and you'll be given the option of Create New Contact, Add to Existing Contact, or Remove From Recents.


EDIT** It appears they are also synced via iCloud. I just opened my iPad which had a few for the letter 'A' and now they are gone even though I didn't remove them from the iPad, just the iPhone.
 
Last edited:
KeanosMagicHat

KeanosMagicHat

macrumors 68000
May 18, 2012
1,559
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HazyCloud said:
This is something I've seen others complain about on here, as well as myself. Before, if you typed a letter when addressing an email, you'd see all the email accounts you've ever sent an email to. To remove these you had to restore as new as that was the only way to get these deleted from Mail.

Now, Apple gives us an easy way to remove them. Just click on the > button and you'll be given the option of Create New Contact, Add to Existing Contact, or Remove From Recents.
Click to expand...

Whilst seemingly a small change, this is really useful. I had an address in there for a works email from my previous job and it was quite annoying having to have the nimble fingers of a surgeon to avoid sending mails to the wrong address.

It should be noted that you can only delete the addresses from the recent list if they are not stored anywhere in your contacts, which makes sense.
 
HazyCloud

HazyCloud

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jun 30, 2010
2,779
37
KeanosMagicHat said:
...It should be noted that you can only delete the addresses from the recent list if they are not stored anywhere in your contacts, which makes sense.
Click to expand...

This is true. If you'd like to remove a certain email address that's stored in one of your contacts, you'll need to remove it from Contacts. If it still shows up, go back to Mail and remove it from there.
 
KeanosMagicHat

KeanosMagicHat

macrumors 68000
May 18, 2012
1,559
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interconnect said:
Where exactly is this option?
Click to expand...

As you start to type the email address and the offending one appears, you will see a blue arrow beside it.

See the attachment below;
 

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KeanosMagicHat

KeanosMagicHat

macrumors 68000
May 18, 2012
1,559
556
When you click the blue arrow, you now have the option to remove the address from your recents list for good.

Again, please see the picture below. Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to add multiple pictures to the same post from my iPhone, sorry.
 

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interconnect

interconnect

macrumors regular
Nov 15, 2007
154
9
Unfortunately I don't have that option... I just checked. I wonder if it's because I'm using Gmail configured as an Exchange account.

Also, since I setup Facebook integration now all my Facebook contacts show up in that list. I've chosen to hide them by going to "Groups" in Contacts and deselecting the Facebook contacts, but they still show up in the recents... anyone discover a way to clear them out (aside from the way above where I'm assuming you'd have to go one-by-one)?
 
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P

Pb4543

macrumors newbie
Feb 21, 2015
1
0
Meaning of Recent

How long are contacts kept on this 'recents' list? Why do some addresses get tagged in the drop down as 'recent' whilst others, equally unused and expired, don't?


HazyCloud said:
This is something I've seen others complain about on here, as well as myself. Before, if you typed a letter when addressing an email, you'd see all the email accounts you've ever sent an email to. To remove these you had to restore as new as that was the only way to get these deleted from Mail.

Now, Apple gives us an easy way to remove them. Just click on the > button and you'll be given the option of Create New Contact, Add to Existing Contact, or Remove From Recents.


EDIT** It appears they are also synced via iCloud. I just opened my iPad which had a few for the letter 'A' and now they are gone even though I didn't remove them from the iPad, just the iPhone.
Click to expand...
 
HazyCloud

HazyCloud

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jun 30, 2010
2,779
37
Pb4543 said:
How long are contacts kept on this 'recents' list? Why do some addresses get tagged in the drop down as 'recent' whilst others, equally unused and expired, don't?
Click to expand...

I honestly don't know. I can't seem to find any rhyme or reason why they act they way they do. At least we can remove them.
 
Curly Howard

Curly Howard

macrumors newbie
Jun 17, 2015
17
3
HazyCloud said:
This is something I've seen others complain about on here, as well as myself. Before, if you typed a letter when addressing an email, you'd see all the email accounts you've ever sent an email to. To remove these you had to restore as new as that was the only way to get these deleted from Mail.

Now, Apple gives us an easy way to remove them. Just click on the > button and you'll be given the option of Create New Contact, Add to Existing Contact, or Remove From Recents.


EDIT** It appears they are also synced via iCloud. I just opened my iPad which had a few for the letter 'A' and now they are gone even though I didn't remove them from the iPad, just the iPhone.
Click to expand...
 
Curly Howard

Curly Howard

macrumors newbie
Jun 17, 2015
17
3
Well if I do that I will loose my jb but hey thanks for letting me know that 9.1 will work with this.
 
Curly Howard

Curly Howard

macrumors newbie
Jun 17, 2015
17
3
I tried this and it works:

Sveta replied on October 18, 2015 - 12:02am PERMALINK

I have the same problem on my iPad iOS 9.0.2
Your e-mail addresses are stored on the iCloud server - not on the device.
Login into your account www.iCloud.com from any desktop or laptop computer (mine is Windows) via a web browser (mine is Firefox). Click on the mail icon. Compose a new mail and start to enter the name of the contact. You will see a list of suggestions from contacts with red (delete) button for each e-mail on the right (that option not available from iPad). Delete unwanted address. Log off from a computer.
Compose a new message from your iPad the unwanted email address will not appear in the autofill list.
 
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