catalina mail column view

SAME ISSUE. Sent in my complaint to for what it's worth. It must be that Apple developers and executives don't actually use their own software otherwise nonsense like this and other similar issues popping up lately would be much less frequent.

Yeah, this is a really ridiculous change. I hate how the "Attachments" column is all the way to the right, when I want it all the way to the left! Apple needs to give us the ability of changing the column order!

The loss of customizable columns is a major blunder with respect to how I use Mail.app.

In addition, I am a late upgrader to Catalina, and if I had been aware of this issue I might have waited even longer. For sure I will not be upgrading my other computer anytime soon.

There IS a solution because I have used it successfully. Take those computers to someone (an Apple technician) who can and will install a PREVIOUS version of the OS. It worked for me a few years ago and I was very happy with the result. Of course, you would probably void your hardware warranty, I suppose, but I didn't care.

Dear Apple,

Thank you for telling me you removed a contribution from me because 'I advocated a petition'. For the purposes of clarity - I did not, have not and would not EVER advocate any form of petition. The reason is this discussion page is already a very effective feedback tool. For those of you who think what is the point - well now we have confirmation (1) Apple monitor these pages, (2) Apple care about what people write and indeed want (quite understandably) to avoid damage to the brand name (3) And demonstrate a sensitivity to the issue of Apple Mail column feedback.

However that does not alter the fact that thousands of people are unhappy, many to the point of seeking alternatives, avoiding upgrading or suggesting downgrading. History judges a company by two things its products and its relationship with its customers. A successful company requires both these things. Making Apple Mail (unexpectedly) a poor version of its previous self is not achieving either of these things.

I too am appalled at the change in Mail, particularly the inability to change column width and re-order them. I am looking for an alternative Mail program and will be searching these many comments for recommendations. Thank you, Elaine Shannon

This issue has been going on for months and a few/many OS upgrades!!! Shame, Shame on all those that created this App and those that pay no attention to Apple's most loyal consumers concerns over a very, very simple fix. "The worst thing about a mistake is when you do not fix it"

Below is copy of email that I sent to MAC WORLD magazine

Hello,

I would like to see you do an article on the new Apple Mail application in the newest operating system for apple desktops. If you would take a moment and check out the complaints that have been listed by loyal Apple customer’s On the Apple support community site concerning macOS Catalina, I think you would find an interesting article could be published. Apple is totally ignoring it’s loyal customers and have very much downgraded the mail application to the point where it is about useless.

From Gary Davison

Apple, I agree. This is nuts. With Catalina, you took away all the column options that made it easy to sort mail by to, from, date sent, subject, etc. Having to use the "sort by" drop-down menu is a huge pain in the ***. You have got to fix this. I can no longer use apple mail. It seems like someone who never used mail before designed this. This is horrible and not something I would expect to from Apple.

Further to this, the Filter by Unread toggle is on the far right of the bar whereas the Sort By is on the far left.

Trivial? Maybe, but Apple have invested very heavily for decades on UI ergonomics. The Filter by Unread and Sort by Unread are two ways of achieving the same thing, finding the message(s) that is(are) flagging up in your Unread count. Filter is more efficient, so why is it not on the left with the drop down? If the columns were customisable, however, that wouldn't matter, but you then wouldn't have space for the filter button. However, in iOS Mail, the Filter button is at the fixed bottom of the scrollable area. This is where it should be in MacOS Mail as well.

I'm amazed that having factually described my business productivity complications and issues with this downgrade in mail features, my comments have nonetheless been removed? What I see happening is that Apple is taking time and resources to remove descriptions of how and why this change has negatively impacted our day-to-day (business) activities, yet is not willing to restore the code that already exists, and/or provide some indication that it hears and is working to improve the situation? I've been a loyal Apple user and enthusiastic evangelist since the early 90's. Like many creative professionals, my entire professional career has involved working exclusively within the Apple ecosystem, which earned the lion's share of this large market by developing and refining tools that directly serve and enhance our processes. Now I'm seriously considering other choices, never thought I would. I'm recalling Apple's commercial "1984" and finding some irony in that ad and once breakthrough brand positioning today, as loyal user comments are deleted and products downgraded.

nfmc - do you mind if I post this at Tidbits.com, anomously quoting some/all of your post immediately above so it can be brought to the attention of a wider audience, including some that may have the ability to help further this cause? Of course if you're a member at Tidbits.com, you can do so, or if you prefer it not be posted, I'll respect that choice. But I think the fact Apple is censoring valid, rational criticisms of their product needs to be made known, aside from the unwise UI choices they've made in Mail but refuse to recognize or explain.

Sure? Honestly, Apple gets to decide what's factually described or not. However, I've been following this chain for months (ever since I moved to Catalina and realized my mac mail app had morphed without warning) and have been regularly seeing posts from people like me whose comments are almost immediately deleted. It's troubling because one of Apple's standout brand features to me was its responsiveness to resolving user issues, and even better, the practice of providing features that enhance usability "because they can." Apple's prowess on that count was second to none, and I'm missing this now.

The fact is, Apple did not communicate about this major change to its users ahead of its Catalina update, yet these changes have had huge, negative ramifications for so many because we use MacMail daily as an integral business tool. I don't understand why Apple would choose to disenfranchise so many users in such a fundamental way without explanation? It seems so off-brand, and user un-friendly. (Similar to when iPhoto went away, and my hundreds of hours sifting through hundreds of photos and setting up Albums vaporized. But that's another topic.)

Apparently all you folks upgraded to Catalina without investigating first. Shame on you for being anxious to jump on the bandwagon. Maybe you should have waited a year and observed the discussions (like this one) first. Can you go backwards to the previous OS? I don't know.....but I DO know that I did it (with some expert help) successfully. As one commenter mentioned, this has happened before with Photos, so we shouldn't be surprised that Apple operates in its own 'silo' without securing feedback from people who use their Mac for business (instead of games and other nonsense).