Original email disappears when replying to email, even though I have checked my preferences.

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Original email disappears when replying to email, even though I have checked my preferences.

My mac mail has just started to do this, and I'm not sure why (although I did upgrade to an Office 365 Subscription around the same time as it happened).

I reply to emails and want the original message to be included.

In preferences, I have gone to 'composing' and under 'responding', I have ticked the boxes for 'use the same message format as the original message', 'quote the text of the original message' and 'include all of the original message text'.

But nope, it is keeping only the first line ('Dear Mom') and includes my signature, and deletes everything in between.

There was a whole thread about this in 2009 ... that had 40 people with the same problem but no answer was ever reported. Can someone help now, in 2019?

iMac 27", macOS 10.14

Posted on Apr 24, 2019 3:48 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

chris_g1

Community Specialist

Apr 25, 2019 9:50 AM in response to The-Quanster

Hey there The-Quanster,

Thank you for visiting the Apple Support Communities. I understand that you’re experiencing an unexpected behavior when replying to emails on your Mac. I send a lot of emails and understand the importance of including the original message. I’d love to provide information that can help isolate and solve this.

First, I'd like to have you boot up into safe mode. It’s a way to start up your Mac so it performs certain checks and prevents some software from automatically loading. Safe mode can take several more minutes to boot into, just to give you a heads up this is expected. Once in safe mode, open your Mail, double check the same preferences are set, and then reply to an email to see if the same behavior continues: Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support. Once tested, note the results and restart your Mac to boot back into your normal user.

If the original message is still not quoted in your reply while you were in safe mode, I will have you test a new user account next, to isolate if this is a user-specific issue, or a system-wide issue. Here’s how: How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support Based on the results in the new user, you would continue to the section titled “If the issue doesn't happen in the other account” or “If the issue happens in the other account” to continue troubleshooting.

Let me know how this goes and we can continue from there.

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Answer 2

The-Quanster Author

Level 1

22 points

May 2, 2019 12:46 AM in response to chris_g1

Chris. Wow. Thanks so much. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me with this issue. Between when you wrote and now, I replaced my iMac (it was vintage and had power issues). So, I would be pretty sure that we can know it wasn't about that specific computer. And now your message makes me realise: I have three main accounts, and this issue is only happening on one of them (though all are with the same provider). So, I will follow your instructions above and see what I can learn.

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Answer 3

The-Quanster Author

Level 1

22 points

May 4, 2019 7:54 PM in response to chris_g1

Hi Chris.

I was wondering if I could bend your ear one more time, since it seems like you have a lot of technical expertise. I have three main accounts, all with the same provider. I've checked under 'accounts' in my Mac Mail program and all the settings are the same (except for the usernames).

The problem, that I'd described, only happens to the newest emails that I am sending out, and then trying to follow-up on them or reply on ONE of the three accounts.

What happens is that if I reply to the email, or try to forward it, it keeps the address ('Dear Client') and then inserts my signature and deletes the rest. It even does this if I copy the text to the reply or forward. The text just disappears.

What I can do is to copy the whole text to a completely new email. But that's obviously not perfect.

Does this make any sense to you? It is such an odd problem I can't figure out what to search for on google, and I can't understand why I would have this problem with only one of my three accounts, and only new emails. If I find an old email, I can forward and reply to it and all the text will be included.

Any ideas? THANKS so much for listening.

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Original email disappears when replying to email, even though I have checked my preferences.

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