Hate the Catalina version of Apple Mail

[andyherman]

The version of Mail that comes with Catalina, in my opinion, is terrible. I want to see all of the message content. I don't want to have to click on "See More" every time I want to see the actual content of an email. I haven't been able to find a setting that automatically shows all of the message content - this is what I want as my default.

Mail also apparently defaults to "Grouping emails" by conversation. I don't like it and find it confusing and not at all helpful.

Finally, I don't get the "All Mail" folder. I have 2 accounts linked to Mail - Gmail and Hotmail. When I have the "Inbox" selected, some of my emails don't show up. If I select "All Mail" additional emails are there. I don't understand why ALL of my emails are not showing up in my "Inbox" (if I have "Inbox" selected it shows that there is 1 new email. However, "All Mail" will show that there are, say 3 messages - why is that?

Similarly, if I select "All Mail" and type a reply to a sender, the reply shows up in "All Mail". This is very confusing since it appears like another incoming email.

 

[Juicy Box]

The version of Mail that comes with Catalina, in my opinion, is terrible. I want to see all of the message content. I don't want to have to click on "See More" every time I want to see the actual content of an email. I haven't been able to find a setting that automatically shows all of the message content - this is what I want as my default.

I am not using Catalina, but this does sound annoying.

 

[Significant1]

The version of Mail that comes with Catalina, in my opinion, is terrible. I want to see all of the message content. I don't want to have to click on "See More" every time I want to see the actual content of an email. I haven't been able to find a setting that automatically shows all of the message content - this is what I want as my default.

Not sure what you mean. Is that, when it is a reply? Not big problem for me, because in grouped/conversation that real mail is just below (I have changed setting to show newest on top).

Mail also apparently defaults to "Grouping emails" by conversation. I don't like it and find it confusing and not at all helpful.

Doesn't it stick if you deselect it.

Finally, I don't get the "All Mail" folder. I have 2 accounts linked to Mail - Gmail and Hotmail. When I have the "Inbox" selected, some of my emails don't show up. If I select "All Mail" additional emails are there. I don't understand why ALL of my emails are not showing up in my "Inbox" (if I have "Inbox" selected it shows that there is 1 new email. However, "All Mail" will show that there are, say 3 messages - why is that?

I don't have this "All Mail", but my guess is because "All Mail" also include mails in other folders than inbox.

Similarly, if I select "All Mail" and type a reply to a sender, the reply shows up in "All Mail". This is very confusing since it appears like another incoming email.

That indicate my previous is correct, in that sent folder is also included in "All Mail".

 

[Bazza1]

Much as I'm not a fan of Mac Mail (very, very little has changed with it in several OS versions), I am at a loss to understand what is happening with your email - and can only assume its some of the settings you have.

I have the three pane setup (Mail folders, left; Inbox, top right; Preview, bottom right) - if I highlight an Inbox mail item, it shows up in Preview below - scroll down to see full message, as needed. If I double-click the Inbox mail item, it opens up in it's own window, complete with header info.

Grouping email? That must be a setting in Preferences. One of the reasons I do use Mac Mail is that I can have my mail not grouped by some AI process. Each individual Inbox item is left to me to deal with and drag into the appropriate folder I have created in the left pane.

I have three accounts attached to my Mac Mail. I do not have "All Accounts". I do have an Inbox in which all three accounts dump their mail. Sent, Junk (the app's guess plus my own filters) and Trash are pretty much self-explanatory and are working for all three accounts.

Up to me to deal with as I wish - again, each email service as shown in the left pane has its own folders which I created, all available for drag and drop.

So again, I'm not sure what's gone off the rails for you. Recheck your Preferences.

 

[mj_]

Isn't "All Mail" a Gmail feature? If I'm not mistaken that's basically every single message regardless of Label. Gmail has a horrible non-conforming IMAP implementation that works with labels instead of folders, and normal email clients struggle with this.

 

[Monotremata]

Isn't "All Mail" a Gmail feature? If I'm not mistaken that's basically every single message regardless of Label. Gmail has a horrible non-conforming IMAP implementation that works with labels instead of folders, and normal email clients struggle with this.

Yep, that's not an Apple thing.. Gmail kinda sucks in it, even though it should just be a standard IMAP account. Mine does this neat thing when I have rules set up to move my messages to different folders (music gear crap, video game stuff, etc).. It scrambles the headers and contents of the messages. I might be in my 'Music Gear' folder reading an email that says its from Steinberg with a subject line about a Cubase sale, and the content of the message is actually the email from Waves about a special upgrade price I have. If I need to save anything, I have to rebuild the folders every single time I get my mail, unless I just get one piece of mail filtered to it. Only then do they show up correct. The Inbox is fine, its just when it moves those message to the folders. I remember asking about this a couple years ago (its been there since Mojave), and got some generic script response from someone at Apple's forums. Apparently nobody sees this issue but me.

 

[mj_]

Do you have those filters setup in Apple Mail? If so maybe it'd be wiser to set them up directly on the Gmail servers. That way they shouldn't get scrambled and end up in the correct folders as expected. Google's labeling technique is sorta stupid when it comes to IMAP but they really don't care as they want you to use their webmail service instead. IMAP is basically a bonus that Google does not really care for, and offline mail client developers are often surprised by unannounced modifications to Google's IMAP protocol implementation that break existing features or usability as a whole.

 

[Monotremata]

Do you have those filters setup in Apple Mail? If so maybe it'd be wiser to set them up directly on the Gmail servers. That way they shouldn't get scrambled and end up in the correct folders as expected. Google's labeling technique is sorta stupid when it comes to IMAP but they really don't care as they want you to use their webmail service instead. IMAP is basically a bonus that Google does not really care for, and offline mail client developers are often surprised by unannounced modifications to Google's IMAP protocol implementation that break existing features or usability as a whole.

Yeah, I set those up in Mail because awhile back when I first tried it (this was a few years ago), Gmail's "folders" weren't really folders per se, just tags. It would filter stuff to the Social Media/Forum/Etc tabs, but every time I would look at it in Apple Mail, it all showed up in the inbox. I dont recall at the time Google's rules letting me actually move those to a folder, I could just label them and I had to manually move them all later if I wanted. Maybe they've updated something who knows. The inbox seems to work fine, its just when it sorts stuff to folders it mixes up the view. I can get 100 emails in my inbox at once and its fine, but the 2 emails it filtered to the 'Jobs' or 'Pet Stuff' folder get mixed up.

 

[mj_]

Gmail still only does labels, no folders. It's just that in time offline clients have learned to deal with the clusterf**k that is Gmail IMAP.

 

[NicTess]

Much as I'm not a fan of Mac Mail (very, very little has changed with it in several OS versions), I am at a loss to understand what is happening with your email - and can only assume its some of the settings you have.

I have the three pane setup (Mail folders, left; Inbox, top right; Preview, bottom right) - if I highlight an Inbox mail item, it shows up in Preview below - scroll down to see full message, as needed. If I double-click the Inbox mail item, it opens up in it's own window, complete with header info.

Grouping email? That must be a setting in Preferences. One of the reasons I do use Mac Mail is that I can have my mail not grouped by some AI process. Each individual Inbox item is left to me to deal with and drag into the appropriate folder I have created in the left pane.

I have three accounts attached to my Mac Mail. I do not have "All Accounts". I do have an Inbox in which all three accounts dump their mail. Sent, Junk (the app's guess plus my own filters) and Trash are pretty much self-explanatory and are working for all three accounts.

View attachment 948065

Up to me to deal with as I wish - again, each email service as shown in the left pane has its own folders which I created, all available for drag and drop.

View attachment 948066

Can I ask how you get the 3 pane set up and if there is ANY way you can customise width of columns in the Catalina mail app??? thanks! (and excuse my ignorance!)