Where are "previous recipients" now stored?

[theoretician]

Upgraded from 10.8.5 to 10.9 - so far so good.
However I notice that "MailRecents-v4.abcdmr"
(in ~/Library/Application Support/Addressbook) is not longer being modified/updated as I use email, yet the "Previous recipients" list is still being modified. Does anyone know where the data is now kept?

 

[scottsil]

I noticed this same thing and am also looking for the location where the list is now stored. Anyone have any info on this?

 

[snail22]

There's a file called "recentsd-com.apple.mail.recents.plist", which contains all of the previous recipient information and is editable in Xcode. I've found copies of it in two locations: ~/Library/Synced Preferences/ and also ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/SyncedPreferences/

Unfortunately, editing/trashing either of these files has no effect in Mail. Maybe there's a third copy of this file somewhere?

 

[Weaselboy]

There's a file called "recentsd-com.apple.mail.recents.plist", which contains all of the previous recipient information and is editable in Xcode. I've found copies of it in two locations: ~/Library/Synced Preferences/ and also ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/SyncedPreferences/

Unfortunately, editing/trashing either of these files has no effect in Mail. Maybe there's a third copy of this file somewhere?

I think what you are experiencing is the result of Mavs caching plist files. If you edit/delete a plist it will be replaced from the cache. I bet if you trash those plists then reboot and start Mail you will see the recents are gone. You need to restart to empty the plist cache.

 

[Bear]

There's a file called "recentsd-com.apple.mail.recents.plist", which contains all of the previous recipient information and is editable in Xcode. I've found copies of it in two locations: ~/Library/Synced Preferences/ and also ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/SyncedPreferences/

Unfortunately, editing/trashing either of these files has no effect in Mail. Maybe there's a third copy of this file somewhere?

Why don't you just edit the previous recipients in Mail?

 

[snail22]

I think what you are experiencing is the result of Mavs caching plist files. If you edit/delete a plist it will be replaced from the cache. I bet if you trash those plists then reboot and start Mail you will see the recents are gone. You need to restart to empty the plist cache.

That makes sense, but no luck. I even cleared my caches systemwide after removing the files, and the recipients list remains unchanged in Mail.

I was mainly interested in editing the recipients list because often they are stored awkwardly, either with no name or with the address in place of the first name. Now I'm simply baffled by my inability to figure out where they're stored.

 

[snail22]

OK well I finally found the file where the previous recipients are stored. It's a file called "Recents" stored in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.corerecents.recentsd/Data/Library/Recents/.

Like the MailRecents-v4.abcdmr file, it seems to be an SQL database. But I tried 3 different SQL browsers and was unable to browse its contents. Then I tried opening the MailRecents-v4.abcdmr file, which still exists even though Mail does not seem to make use of it anymore, and I was unable to browse that database either (though I used to be able to).

Has Apple done something to these SQL files to make them unreadable by, say, SQLite database browser or a similar utilitiy?

 

[Weaselboy]

OK well I finally found the file where the previous recipients are stored. It's a file called "Recents" stored in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.corerecents.recentsd/Data/Library/Recents/.

Like the MailRecents-v4.abcdmr file, it seems to be an SQL database. But I tried 3 different SQL browsers and was unable to browse its contents. Then I tried opening the MailRecents-v4.abcdmr file, which still exists even though Mail does not seem to make use of it anymore, and I was unable to browse that database either (though I used to be able to).

Has Apple done something to these SQL files to make them unreadable by, say, SQLite database browser or a similar utilitiy?

Sorry, I have no idea, but at least you found the file!

 

[Data]

Does this also influence the mail app when logged in to iCloud ( webmail ) on an externel computer ?

 

[Weaselboy]

Does this also influence the mail app when logged in to iCloud ( webmail ) on an externel computer ?

No... these previous recipient entries are only stored for messages sent directly from the Mail app.

 

[srindvieh]

Sorry, I have no idea, but at least you found the file!

This worked for me to export the previous recipients to a file from terminal:

$ cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook/
$ sqlite3 MailRecents-v4.abcdmr
SQLite version 3.7.10 2012-01-16 13:28:40
Enter ".help" for instructions
Enter SQL statements terminated with a ";"
sqlite> .headers ON
sqlite> .width 15 15 36 /* make sure the columns are wide enough */
sqlite> .output filename.txt
sqlite> select ZLASTNAME, ZFIRSTNAME, ZEMAIL from ZABCDMAILRECENT;
sqlite> .exit

but opening ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.corerecents.recentsd/Data/Library/Recents/Recents with http://sqlitebrowser.org and exporting the contents of the recents table worked too, but gave three times as many entries and many doublettes and only names without email addresses.

Cheers, Matthias