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Best Email App for Mavericks?
- Thread starter That-Guy
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Well the only email client I can get working correctly with outlook.com emails it Outlook 2011 that is bundled with Office 2011.
I hate it but sadly it's the only mail app that seems to work for me with no issues
Ugh! I feel your pain.
Well the only email client I can get working correctly with outlook.com emails it Outlook 2011 that is bundled with Office 2011.
I hate it but sadly it's the only mail app that seems to work for me with no issues
Airmail has worked without any issues for me so far with gMail, Outlook.com and Exchange.
I have tried Apple Mail (each iteration going back to 10.2), Entourage (not sure if it is even supported anymore), Outlook, Postbox, Thunderbird, Sparrow, Unibox, and Airmail. The only other interesting one (to me) that I have not tried is Inky, and I just haven't found time to do so yet.
My take: Apple Mail is better than using multiple webmail services, but I would not call it a good user experience. Postbox is far superior to Apple Mail, but it is a big, feature-filled application. Like many people, when I first used Mail on an iPhone, I started wondering why desktop mail user experience was so frustrating by comparison. I picked up on Sparrow when it was in beta, and to date it has been my favorite desktop email app by simplifying the GUI in a manner similar to iOS. However, I jumped ship the day it sold to Google and they ceased to support it. The closest thing I have found since then is Airmail, which is nearly functionally equivalent to Sparrow, although aesthetically it leaves a lot to be desired. The developers seem to be dedicated, and they have really improved the app at a fast pace since its App Store debut. Assuming they are not bought up like Sparrow, this is a pretty safe bet for the best desktop email client going forward.
My take: Apple Mail is better than using multiple webmail services, but I would not call it a good user experience. Postbox is far superior to Apple Mail, but it is a big, feature-filled application. Like many people, when I first used Mail on an iPhone, I started wondering why desktop mail user experience was so frustrating by comparison. I picked up on Sparrow when it was in beta, and to date it has been my favorite desktop email app by simplifying the GUI in a manner similar to iOS. However, I jumped ship the day it sold to Google and they ceased to support it. The closest thing I have found since then is Airmail, which is nearly functionally equivalent to Sparrow, although aesthetically it leaves a lot to be desired. The developers seem to be dedicated, and they have really improved the app at a fast pace since its App Store debut. Assuming they are not bought up like Sparrow, this is a pretty safe bet for the best desktop email client going forward.
But surely Apple Mail is a safe bet, given that it's free, in the Apple OS, and supported by the company that designs that OS?
Mail Pilot has been released to the Mac App Store: http://www.mailpilot.co
Any tried it yet? It's currently half price so tempted.
Any tried it yet? It's currently half price so tempted.
No, it has not always been a safe bet, and I have run into various serious issues with it in the past. I find several of the 3rd party apps to be more stable than the built-in mail app.
Check out Mail Pilot. Works pretty well, and has this cool listing feature.
It sort of has a to-do feel, in that you check off messages and can easily assign dates to them. Once you've done that, they show up in either Today, Set Aside or Upcoming panes. Useful even if you use other clients when you're dealing with email that is time sensitive. I used MailTags in Mail to do much the same stuff, but it's super easy in Mail Pilot.
It sort of has a to-do feel, in that you check off messages and can easily assign dates to them. Once you've done that, they show up in either Today, Set Aside or Upcoming panes. Useful even if you use other clients when you're dealing with email that is time sensitive. I used MailTags in Mail to do much the same stuff, but it's super easy in Mail Pilot.
Ha ha, I just posted about how mail.app was a safe bet and then had some weird bugs. I check all my new emails, but the little numbers next to the various inboxes didn't go away until I restarted mail. It's that weird indexing problem again. But I know how to reset indexing if it remains a problem. It hasn't done it today.
Been using Sparrow since the beginning of time. Those that have used Sparrow and Airmail, care to chime in on the pros, cons, and differences between the two?
No, they access the server your mail is on directly via the POP or IMAP mail access protocol as you choose. In this way they work identically to Mail (that doesn't route your email - except your iCloud email - via Apple servers either.
Well Airmail is still being actively developed and I think that's a pretty significant difference.
Yes, I'd say that's the biggest difference - Sparrow has been discontinued whereas Airmail has not and will see further updates, etc.
Just signed up for Postbox after trialling for a couple of days - great interface (very Thunderbird-esque in some ways), and great to see it is supported - I must have used Tbird for 10yrs prior but the thought of someday ending up with a client unable to access my mail is too bad to contemplate (yes I know there are web interfaces...).
Outlook.com as IMAP is pretty slow. I doubt you'll find a lot of difference in email clients.
Not all IMAP is equal. http://imapwiki.org/ImapTest/ServerStatus
You might want to give Fastmail a try.
Not all IMAP is equal. http://imapwiki.org/ImapTest/ServerStatus
You might want to give Fastmail a try.
So I am assuming you have experience with Fastmail? And based on your post (suggesting it) I guess that experience is positive? Do you have a personal or business account?
Feel free to PM me in response as to not clutter up the thread if you feel that would be more appropriate.
Thanks in advance.
I went back to Postbox when Mavericks made it so you had to doubleclick on contacts to get them into the Mail "To" address bar. I also have Outlook and Airmail installed but I think Postbox has the best features for me.
switched to mavericks last week to find out that Gmail is broken. It never really worked perfectly with snow leopard anyway so I am trying airmail and so far so good. Only wish it was easier to tell what emails are unread from the already read ones...
Just got my first mac a week ago (rMBP 15") as I needed a new laptop and the disaster that is Windows 8.1 drove me to mac (not that I needed much pushing).
On windows I was a long time Thunderbird user, but there are a few shortcoming on OSX that made me look elsewhere ...
My thunderbird email setup is as follows, it's pretty specific and Thunderbird does it perfectly (with the caveats above), just for the record I like to have an empty inbox so items in the inbox are pending for action/reply:
I tried Mail.app but that doesn't give me the control over folders and subscriptions I'd like, also the Unified folders need the option to NOT have certain accounts included.
I also tried Airmail, but there are no filters and there doesn't seem to be a way of filing all my archived emails and moving mail between account folders. I guess if I went over the top with labels then it might work better but still the unified inbox shows all accounts.
Any ideas what else I can try to change my setup and/or habits entirely to embrace something new. Now I've moved platform now is the time before I get stuck in my ways again ;-)
On windows I was a long time Thunderbird user, but there are a few shortcoming on OSX that made me look elsewhere ...
- If you compose a mail when in full screen mode when you send you get presented with a blank screen, the first time it did this I though my MacBook had crashed.
- No Notifications other than the badge for unread emails.
- No integration with iCloud (specifically the address book).
- The look and feel is exactly the same as on Windows, it would be nice if there was a Mail.app theme for thunderbird
My thunderbird email setup is as follows, it's pretty specific and Thunderbird does it perfectly (with the caveats above), just for the record I like to have an empty inbox so items in the inbox are pending for action/reply:
- 4 email accounts (2x Gmail, 2x ISP) for correspondence, these share a saved search for a Unified inbox, all mail and other folders.
- 2 email gmail accounts for forums and mailing lists, some of these get pretty busy (100's of mails per day). these do not appear in the unified inbox etc, but instead have their own inbox.
- 1 gmail account that is shared with 6 other users, sadly this is not an inbox zero kind of deal so this two gets it's own inbox in my universal view.
- 1 set of local folders that holds the saved searches (AKA Smart Mailboxes) and a 20 year email archive (I've considered pushing this all up to gmail but haven't as yet).
I tried Mail.app but that doesn't give me the control over folders and subscriptions I'd like, also the Unified folders need the option to NOT have certain accounts included.
I also tried Airmail, but there are no filters and there doesn't seem to be a way of filing all my archived emails and moving mail between account folders. I guess if I went over the top with labels then it might work better but still the unified inbox shows all accounts.
Any ideas what else I can try to change my setup and/or habits entirely to embrace something new. Now I've moved platform now is the time before I get stuck in my ways again ;-)
I never really cared for the UI of thuderbird and it seems very laggy to me^^^
I am pretty happy with airmail. It's pretty close to .mail and is working better with Gmail than .mail did
I am pretty happy with airmail. It's pretty close to .mail and is working better with Gmail than .mail did
The UI is one of the main reasons I'd like to leave Thunderbird behind me.
I don't seem to have any issues with Mail.app and Gmail, but in Airmail I noticed that for one of my mailboxes not all the inbox items appear in the "All mail" mailbox.
I'm now considering a combination of Mail.app and Airmail apps, use one for my 4 normal email addresses and one for mailing lists and shared stuff. This is what I have been doing on my iPhone for a few years using iOS Mail and the Gmail app).
Just not sure which way round to do it.
I don't seem to have any issues with Mail.app and Gmail, but in Airmail I noticed that for one of my mailboxes not all the inbox items appear in the "All mail" mailbox.
I'm now considering a combination of Mail.app and Airmail apps, use one for my 4 normal email addresses and one for mailing lists and shared stuff. This is what I have been doing on my iPhone for a few years using iOS Mail and the Gmail app).
Just not sure which way round to do it.
None of these apps worked reliably for me.
No idea why noone is able to programm a functional email app.
I am back to using the browser.
Airmail came close to be reliable but i just cant take the chance of emails not beeing sent and 'certificate problems'
No idea why noone is able to programm a functional email app.
I am back to using the browser.
Airmail came close to be reliable but i just cant take the chance of emails not beeing sent and 'certificate problems'