In the new Mac osX CataIina I cannot find a way to change the columns viewed in Mail. You used to be able to change the field widths and add columns from the View/Columns menu. How can I accomplish this now?
Also, what does the black background TO next to the email title mean?
We are still waiting APPLE - There is no obvious reason why you have removed the functionality of columns in Apple Mail. Thousands of your customers are really unhappy with this decision and for many it renders Apple Mail a deficient program. Please restore it in the next update and hundreds of thousands of your customers will be back on board.
"Deficient" is a big understatement.
Like others here, I archive my emails (including SENT mail) On My Mac to avoid leaving it on the server. I do this by moving messages to local folders, including messages in the SENT folder.
With Mail being so crippled, I can no longer find sent messages when I need to refer to them, because there is no way to sort by "To" anymore.
It's not even possible to isolate a recipient by making a "Smart" folder because there is no filter on "To," only on "From."
Mail has been getting progressively worse and worse with each new version. The removal of these columns is a terrible decision and it must be reversed.
I have to say, this situation is eroding my trust in Apple. First iPhoto is replaced by Photos, losing my careful organization of photos. That's a BIG deal. Photos need to be archived, organized, and managed long term. Now, Mail is becoming unusable. Again, that's a BIG deal. Email needs to be archived, organized, and managed long term. Apple is making decisions with far reaching consequences without any thought.
After all this time, do you REALLY think Apple is going to respond to your questions and concerns? Seriously doubt that Apple gives a rip about this, mostly because a response brings them no more money!!
Y'all are acting like you know what you want and need more than Apple's designers do.
Trust them. They're incredibly talented and intelligent professionals and don't need your help.
We don't work in an enormous glass doughnut. We are not insanely great. We don't deserve their respect.
That is why they are ignoring us.
That's my hypothesis.
There's no revenue from Mail so why care... other than passing "the last straw" to the point that customers jump from the Apple ship. The defects in their products aren't helping either. The MacBook butterfly keyboard fiasco, only implicitly acknowledged with a switch to scissor keyboard, and now the MacBook Pro 16" video and audio issues. Quality matters.
I'm new to Mac, and just went through all the hoops to convert my mail files from PST to MBOX, and now I discover this! What a let-down. My Sent archive folder is totally useless. This had better be fixed soon.
I've waited until today to install Catalina, I had some concerns about some applications that I wanted to wait to update.
I'm looking around and see the mess that is Mail with the columns and wondering WHY? Why would they think that A) this is a good idea and B) why not make it a preference.
This is just bloody dumb.
I do hope they reconsider, I really do not like this.
Please, please, everyone who wishes Apple to understand their error in making these changes to Mail should follow the link above and give your feedback direct.
In addition I have written to the editor of MacFormat magazine to ask why they are not hounding Apple for an answer. We can all do that with Apple linked magazines. Action is required!!
Agreed. If you are in a business where record keeping is legally required (law, real estate, medicine, accounting, etc) this function in Apple Mail is now useless. To be clear, it's not simply a preference a business may wish for that they no longer have. A record keeping business can no longer legally use only Apple Mail to archive mail because the sender is missing. The function is now worthless. I don't know something like this make it past the first 30 seconds of a developer Apple Mail proposed features meeting.
I would assume it's because they have some bigger goal in mind. In my opinion, Apple abandoned the professional market years ago. Maybe they think their market consists of people who only use a computer for entertainment and social media.
I went ahead and submitted my feedback at https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html as well. I hope others will also do this. The removal of columns is terrible UX and the inability to easily find emails sent to a particular person, once they've been moved from the server-based Sent folder to local folders for safekeeping, is completely stupid design.
I wouldn't put it past them. I wouldn't be surprised if they next did something st00pid to make Terminal totally unusable. They've been dumbing everything down. Which is a terrible shame. The whole point of a computer is to be more powerful than a phone or tablet, for advanced users who do more than casually look at an email once and don't know or care if it gets lost after they look at it. But they're making things stupider and more dumbed down all the time. I switched to Mac in 2000. Might be time to start looking for alternatives again.
Just spent $3,000+ for a new Mac Book Pro 16! "Love" the Hardware and "HATE" the apple software.
• Cannot even send a message using Apple Mail and it's terrible column view
• Have to go to iCloud to send mail that I cannot send via Apple Mail.
• Been using Apple since 1980 (ish), have bought over 100 Apple products and this is the worst experience I have every had
There is plenty to be upset about with what Apple has done to column view in Mail but call Apple Tech Support if you are having problems sending mail. I have a new 16", too, and it works fine. The problem is with the arrogance in Apple's making "improvements" that we can't reject. If users are upset now, wait until the new Macs come out with Apple's new proprietary chips that may spell the end of being able to run Windows software like Quicken. (Quicken for Mac is like a toy compared with the Windows version.) I will probably hold on to my 16" Mac until it dies and then, regrettably, make the move to a PC where syncing contacts and photos with my wife's Mac will be a lot more cumbersome than it is now. Bottom line, Apple is leaving a lot of us old-timers behind and, clearly, they don't care. Either you buy their platform and live the "Apple Way" or leave.
catalina mail column view
