IMRAN

Q: Can't change Mail accounts display order? + From behavior changed?

There are many quirks and backward steps in the otherwise excellent upgrade to Mountain Lion.

 

Howver, unless I am missing something elementary, why would Apple take out the ability to change the order different email accounts are displayed in Mail Preferences? My primary email account is now displayed at 6th or 7th in my list of accounts and I cannot drag it upwards as I could in the previous versions of Mail. That means every time I have to send an email, I have to use the pop-up menu and navigate to that account to use as the From address.

 

Any ideas on how to change the display order of Mail accounts? Thank you.

 

Imran

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, Nikon D300 +++

Posted on Aug 2, 2012 11:54 AM

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Q: Can't change Mail accounts display order? + From behavior changed?

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  • by wyrmsmaug,

    wyrmsmaug wyrmsmaug Aug 3, 2012 4:51 PM in response to IMRAN
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Safari
    Aug 3, 2012 4:51 PM in response to IMRAN

    Oh! It's not just me then! Sorry - I don't have the answer - I am still looking for a solution myself. There must be an answer somewhere - it is hugely frustrating!!!

  • by wyrmsmaug,

    wyrmsmaug wyrmsmaug Aug 3, 2012 5:03 PM in response to IMRAN
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Safari
    Aug 3, 2012 5:03 PM in response to IMRAN

    A bit more hunting around coughed up the information that you can at least change the default account to send from.

     

    Go to Mail > Preferences > Composing


    Under "Addressing" click on the pop-up menu and select the account you want to be your default sending account for new mail.

    No answer on the changing account order, but for me this solves my problem - hopefully it will be useful to you.

     

    Cheers

     

  • by olgv,

    olgv olgv Aug 10, 2012 8:28 AM in response to IMRAN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 10, 2012 8:28 AM in response to IMRAN

    Before (Lion) you ware able to change the order of the accounts in "Preferences > Accounts" and that was setting up your default account.

     

    Now (Mountain Lion) you can change that order in "Mailbox List" (Shift+Cmd+M), the first acount there, would be your default account.

  • by wyrmsmaug,

    wyrmsmaug wyrmsmaug Aug 10, 2012 2:58 PM in response to olgv
    Level 1 (23 points)
    Safari
    Aug 10, 2012 2:58 PM in response to olgv

    Very good! I like simple solutions to problems.

    Thank you very much for your help!

     

  • by R Allen Matsumoto,

    R Allen Matsumoto R Allen Matsumoto Mar 14, 2013 4:53 PM in response to olgv
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Apple Watch
    Mar 14, 2013 4:53 PM in response to olgv

    One problem: After you get the order nicely set like that, if at any time you go into Preferences > Accounts and edit or add any accounts, the order gets reset to:

    1. iCloud accounts
    2. Exchange accounts
    3. Alphabetical IMAP and POP accounts

    ...so you have to re-do the order in the Mailbox list, and sometimes quit and restart Mail in order for the change to be reflected in the From: dropdown list of accounts in a new email.

     

    Not the end of the world, but it would sure be nice if Apple let you control the order in the Preferences > Accounts area and fixed this reset order issue.

  • by iHumanPro,

    iHumanPro iHumanPro Mar 18, 2013 11:11 AM in response to R Allen Matsumoto
    Level 1 (43 points)
    Mar 18, 2013 11:11 AM in response to R Allen Matsumoto

    The Issue that R Allen described is a frustrating one. It is one that didn't exist in Lion, but does in Mountain Lion. -

     

    • arrange your mail accounts in the order you prefer in the Mail window
    • this stays as your default order – unless you make changes to Preferences > Accounts
    • when changes are made, it reverts to the order that R Allen described
    • then, you have to manually rearrange your accounts again

     

    This is something that did not occur in Lion, so is a newly introduced bug to Mountain Lion.

     

    It would be great if they could fix it!

  • by Nathan Jones2,

    Nathan Jones2 Nathan Jones2 Mar 27, 2013 6:51 AM in response to iHumanPro
    Level 1 (47 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 27, 2013 6:51 AM in response to iHumanPro

    I have this issue too.

     

    Rearranging within the mail interface is OK… but they have removes the 'expected behaviour' from preferences - for no good reason (and that part of the UI was designed to work that way, sothey are breaking their own UI rules by negating the functionality).

     

    The mailboxes do seem to rearrange them - especially with the iCloud account as the first one. I haven't yet established what instigates this change. Is it related to iCLoud itself and incorrectly synchronising the wrong data (as it often does because you can no longer set the flow direction??!!!)

     

    I think this is one of those dull 'auto features' introduced in Lion/ML that are supposed to help, but actually interfere with any creative or work process on your Mac, because you can no longer work naturally, or because like this, the settings need constant nannying to fix them.

  • by paperqueen,

    paperqueen paperqueen Jul 29, 2013 10:48 AM in response to IMRAN
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iWork
    Jul 29, 2013 10:48 AM in response to IMRAN

    :::urgh!:::

     

    Ditto here. As someone who owns multiple companies, plus Admins a non-profit, I have 20 email accounts...

     

    ..that are all in the wrong order now, thanks to ML.

     

    Only solution I could come up with was to add numbers to the Description fields in the Preferences > Accounts list. Example:

     

    Old names = AU-Susan, AU-Inbox, AU-Accounting (in their old, preferred, non-alphabetical order)

     

    New names = 1. AU-Susan   2. AU-Inbox   AU-Accounting

     

    Annoying as ****, since it lengthens the account name, making it necessary to resize the column (which, on a MacBook Air means gobbling up valuable screen space). But at least it puts the accounts in the order I want them.

  • by LAUSBUA,

    LAUSBUA LAUSBUA Jan 19, 2014 9:10 AM in response to IMRAN
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 19, 2014 9:10 AM in response to IMRAN

    One "work around" is to drag the importat mail folders to the header. (Just ride of the hide Button) I have my 5 most important inboxes there. The good thig is, they stay there in the order I put them. Not a elegant solution, but it works for me.

    Klaus

  • by kerrynos,

    kerrynos kerrynos Jul 31, 2014 3:22 PM in response to IMRAN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 31, 2014 3:22 PM in response to IMRAN

    I think I managed to solve this issue, by adding 01, 02, 03 to the description of my accounts. They now appear in the order I want them to appear.

  • by applesathya,

    applesathya applesathya Aug 5, 2014 8:48 PM in response to IMRAN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 5, 2014 8:48 PM in response to IMRAN

    I too was using the 1.2 3 numbering method for each account. I found a simple solution. In your mail default page, go to the inbox or wherever all the mail boxes of each account are. Change the sequence there and the sequence changes automatically in the composing drop down.

     

    Cheers. If someone has posted this solution. My apologies.

     

    Sathya

  • by iHumanPro,

    iHumanPro iHumanPro Aug 5, 2014 10:40 PM in response to applesathya
    Level 1 (43 points)
    Aug 5, 2014 10:40 PM in response to applesathya

    I believe your solution is short term. Once you make a change to any account, they all revert to the Mac selected order. You will have to re-order them again.

  • by albioner-306,

    albioner-306 albioner-306 Sep 30, 2014 7:10 PM in response to IMRAN
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 30, 2014 7:10 PM in response to IMRAN

    I am able to re-order the email accounts by dragging them in the main Mail window, but not in the Preferences/Accounts window. Agreed that this would be annoying when 20 email accounts get reset, but at least it is possible to put them back in order in the window where we use them.

  • by CrishQ,

    CrishQ CrishQ Jan 12, 2015 11:47 AM in response to albioner-306
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 12, 2015 11:47 AM in response to albioner-306

    This problem seems to have carried over to Yosemite too. I can render my dozen or so Mailboxes in the Inbox list, but as soon as I open Preferences > Accounts and make a change, I have to re-order them again.

     

    Short of adding 01, 02, etc to the names, there doesn't seem to be a way to reorder them in Preferences so they stick.

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