Return Receipt (Mail 3.3)

Step 1: Enter this in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.mail UserHeaders '{"Disposition-Notification-To" = "youremail@here"; }'

Step 2: Contact all your recipients and ask them to turn on receipt sending in their e-mail programs. I for one would never set this on my client, because I consider it nobody's business but my own whether or not I have read or even received my mail. YMMV.

And, he told you. He also told you that it doesn't matter what you do on your end. The person you send the message to must allow the receipt to be sent. No matter how important you think it is.

I may be missing something here but I found this thread because I need to know that important emails have arrived (i work with soft-proofing of print to tight deadlines - if proofs fail to arrive and deadlines get missed it is my neck on the block, financially etc).

I've recently started moving over to Mail and need to replicate the functionality I'm used to.

If I send an email from a non-mail computer with "receipt required" to my work computer running Mail 3.2, I get an almost immediate receipt (yet I have not specified this when I set up Mail). It's not as good as I'm used to as it only shows the mail was delivered whereas I'm used to getting a receipt to show the mail has been read (much more useful, as if I don't get such a receipt after a few hours I can ring through and chase the job, rather than being a pain in the ars3 and ringing every time I send an email, which I suppose is what Király would recommend?)

The ability to set a check box to ask for a receipt would be a useful option IMHO.

It's true that there is no check box or other GUI way to request a receipt. You can set it with the defaults write command I posted earlier.

But, no matter what you do, if your recipient has not configured his own e-mail program to send responses to those receipt requests, they won't get sent and you won't get them.

In a nutshell: If your recipient has receipt sending turned off, there is absolutely nothing you can do at your end to get those receipts, short of contacting your recipient and asking him to turn it on.

And if anyone asked that of me, I would respond with a polite no.

If it's that important, can't you ask your client to send an email reply to say that they got it?

deh2k has it. Ask. You know, all those companies that invade your mail and email boxes just want to "inform" you. Those tapping your phone are doing it for "your own good". No matter how much lipstick you apply, this is still a pig. I am with others. I would not appreciate, in fact I would find it offensive, to find out someone did this without my knowledge.

I'm in the same boat as Beardy man - some emails are project critical, and I'm so busy that following up with a phone call is not only a PITA but reduces my profitability. Having said that, most of my mail is non-critical, and I find it uncomfortable to have message receipting switched on for this non-essential mail. I don't want to look like an obsessive compulsive email wally for mail that simply does not need a receipt.

I've used the script above before, but from my naiive position, it looks like a global setting. Given a recent crash with Mail, I've not restored it. What would be perfect would be the option on a message by message basis for setting a receipt.

When my message receipting was active prior to my crash, I added a line in my signature explaining why it was on. Obvious I know, but it made me feel a bit better.

If you used the defaults write command to enable sending a Read Receipt (which is a Windows feature, not a Mac OS feature), it would not be wiped out by Mail crashing. If it were, then everything else you setup in Mail would also be wiped out, and we know that just doesn't happen.

Mulder

I agree that (1) a return receipt feature would be nice, (2) that receiving email with a "return receipt" demand is annoying, (3) a return receipt that the recipient can decline AND read the email is worthless.

Thunderbird, which looks like a much smarter free client than Apple Mail, allows you to request a receipt on a case-by-case basis. I agree setting it globally makes one look rather overly anxious. Also, I'm not sure Apple Mail even honors incoming receipt requests!

I want something that works like old-fashioned certified mail: the recipient can sign for and read or decline and NOT read the message. I get date-stamped notice either way. It might also send you a notice that an email has not been picked up after a certain interval and has presumably been lost. This addresses the lost-mail scenario and is useful in the situation where the recipient pretends not to receive emails and blamed the sender (as you might suppose, a phone call is not a good alternative with such a person). The who-said-what-when can be invaluable, not just in litiagtion contexts but in figuring out where communication broke down so that it doesn't happen again. The log should be created automatically.

So, no email client can really fix this. (Apple mail should still have the option to request receipt!) The only way I can see for this to work is to go through a 3rd party. Ideas?

For now, yes, request a reply when it's important!!!!

One alternative I hate to mention is the "bug" the emails. Services such as didtheyreadit embed invisible images or html tricks in emails and report back every time the message is opened or forwarded, including time, date, IP address, and other details. Maybe this doesn't break the law in that it doesn't reveal private information about the person's computer etc. any more than their picking up the phone does, BUT I dislike it and think the recipient should, as with certified mail, have a chance to decline seeing the message altogether. Perhaps one could bug AND advise the recipient that you do so. At least it is automatic and provides a 3rd-person log that you can point to in a dispute and not be accused of fabricating. Not that I know personally, ahem, but it does work quite well provided the recipient doesn't know how to block it. Admissible in court? I'm not sure.

I checked and Apple Mail doesn't honor incoming receipt without going through contortions. I'm afraid the return receipt road is useless outside of a homogeneous (non-Apple) work environment and the like. The only real options are to ask the person to respond or to bug. As I'm looking at a legal sitaution, this is intensely irritating and has serious consequences. Well, snail mail is still better than email in some ways.

Do check out Thunderbird and other Apple mail alternatives.

Kiraly, if I enter that in Terminal, how do I undo it in Terminal? I need to take the service off now.

Thanks