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?
Another update and another wasted opportunity to fix Apple Mail Columns!!!
I know there are greater things to worry about in the World at the moment, but working from home it makes this problem more acute! There have been thousands of complaints, overwhelming criticism and negative feedback and even negative publicity in the largely supportive Mac Press and yet nothing. For heaven's sake Apple listen to the feedback of your customers - we are the actual human beings that buy your products, that pay your wages and contribute to your profits. To keep us excited, enthusiastic and supportive of Apple is surely a business priority, so for the millionth time Apple, do the right thing and bring back Apple Mail column customisation functionality.
For those that have not yet done so, please send your complaint directly to Apple at the link below or @applesupport or @apple on twitter - If you want to restore faith in a large group of angry customers - some already looking for an Apple Mail alternative - do the right thing!!
There is no solution to the issue in the thread. My suggestion to anybody who comes across this before they have Catalina, would be to not upgrade to Catalina. All new computers come with Catalina. Our business inquired about purchasing a lot of new MacBooks but with an old OS installed, and Apple said no. So we are stuck noW and may go back to PC due to myriad issues that haven’t been fixed since the October release. So again, if you haven’t upgraded to Catalina and see this thread, don’t.
It is now several months after the Catalina update and the surprise and shocking trashing of Apple Mail. The number of negative reviews, protests and complaints continues apace with no signs of it slowing down. We now have a situation where people are openly discussing alternatives - here on Apple authorised discussion forum, with no obvious Apple response. What is going on at Apple?
It now seem clear that removing the functionality of the Columns in mail (reorganising and resizing Columns to personalise your Mail Box experience) was an unpopular step and it has upset thousands of customers. After reading the contributions here it seem many users are very long term loyal Apple enthusiasts and are now disappointed that in some way their loyalty was misplaced. A really sad situation all round. Apple please respond!
In the meantime for all those above, as well as expressing frustration here, please take a moment to send your complaint directly to Apple:
Don't forget, several months ago I had the opportunity to contact a very senior Apple executive via email and he told me this column management change wasn't an oversight, was not a mistake, and was not unplanned. I was stupefied, mystified, and disappointed, but that's what he said.
Does anyone else find it strange that Apple's Mail is now more DOS-like than Microsoft's Outlook? If it wasn't so **** frustrating, I'd find it funny.
GUESS WHAT ... in Apple Music, you can sort and move columns at will (see below). Maybe we need the Music team to run Mail?
Before I retired I used Outlook (Mac) at work because it was the email client supported by the IT department. I learned then that I could use either Outlook or Apple Mail pretty much interchangeably. That remained true until Apple crippled Apple Mail with Catalina. Now Outlook has a definite advantage.
The only real strike against Outlook is cost. But since I have a MS subscription anyway, there's no additional cost. Especially after I realized there's an easy, if tedious, way to transfer my huge collection of archived ("On my Mac") email from Apple Mail to Outlook. I feel quite confident that Microsoft would not dare make such a boneheaded change to Outlook. Imagine the outcry from their huge corporate customer base.
I've been using Outlook for the past week or so and it's been ok. And it is *so* nice to be able to customize my columns again.
GaryCoyne, please submit your feedback at this link: https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html
Also, it would be a good idea for everybody following this thread to submit again if you haven't in a while.
It's interesting that, in the online "Sent" folder, Mail shows the recipient, but in every other online folder, and in every folder On My Mac (including one named "Sent"), Mail insists on showing the sender. It seems like there's some logic in the Mail app that says: (if folder is online) AND (folder name is "Sent") then show the recipient, else show the sender. If only Apple could somehow expose that as a user-selectable view option for each folder, then we'd be in business. Shouldn't be that hard.
I've submitted my feedback at https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html. I encourage everyone else to do the same.
I had problems after using Migration Assistant to a new MacBook Pro 16" also (different ones but iCloud related). I was able to fix it by deleting my account and restoring it from backup. In your case, I'd consider removing your Account from Apple Mail and then recreating it.
This has been said many times but bears repeating. If you want Apple to pay attention, use this web site:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/
Adding to this discussion may make us feel good but it is a waste of time.
I am subscribed to this chain in hopes someone has a useful conversation with Apple and reports it here. Sometimes, we actually learn something new on this forum but lately, this chain has turned into a lot of complaining about the same thing. Senior Level Techs all say to use the feedback site and post complaints there, not here! Yes, Mail has been turned into a crappy program but this site is not the place to get action. If everyone here were to use the following site, we might get somewhere. Or, call Apple tech support and give them an earful. Good luck to us all!
Our business recently attempted to purchase several iMACs for our office, but under the condition that they come installed with the OS prior to Catalina--specifically so we would have an earlier version of Apple Mail. Apple wouldn't do this for us, so we didn't make the purchase.
So just a heads up, you can't purchase a new MAC with a previous OS installed. You can roll back to a prior OS if you have your computer backing up to a Time Capsule or something similar.
But yea I hear you--we are in a record keeping business and the archive function changes, which don't allow us to see who we emailed and when, are not compliant for what is legally required of us by law. Thus, Apple Mail is no longer able to be used by our business simply because of this one simple, incomprehensible, feature removal. The same is the case for anybody in real estate, law, medicine, finance, or any fiduciary duty field. Any such businesses can no longer use Apple Mail for archiving as this one feature change makes it incompatible with record keeping laws.
You would think that would get the attention of the higher ups at Apple, but here we are--9 months after Catalina with no fix in sight, no responses by Apple to our issues other than to delete our posts, and no official explanation why this was changed.
I agree that Apple is being arrogant in forcing "improvements" into our lives. Reminds me of the worst of Facebook. But, complaining on this site has not seemed to have provoked any kind of response from Apple. Neither has posting on Apple's feedback site. So, in the interest of doing all we can, how hard can it be to email something like this to media outlets that just might pick up on our outrage?
To: letters@macworld.com
"Are you aware of the thousands of unanswered complaints about the current version of Mac Mail?
Check out Apple’s forum and see for yourself how Apple has changed column view so that it has become extremely difficult to find emails that have been moved to personal directories.
Not a single Apple response has appeared in this forum to address this “improvement” forced on users by Apple’s engineers. Some attention by Apple to the problem it caused would go a long way to diffuse customer anger - an anger that is growing by the day.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250711797?answerId=253142944022&login=true&page=29
Thank you for looking into this!"
I literally had to move off of Apple Mail to the hated Outlook for Mac for this reason. I need to see columns in the order I want and need a quick way to sort (the prototypical click on the column header). And the sent mail that doesn't show the TO: column may be the dumbest thing that any Mac developer ever devised.
Hallelujah, Mail Column View, as it was, is back with Big Sur! I joined the Beta Program and installed the Beta version of Big Sur and I can confirm that the column view is restored to its original grandeur. Any information that you desire is available and sortable by the same.
Maybe Apple did realize they made a blunder with Catalina and maybe they do listen to us. Possibly it was a major software change and took a lot to restore it.
I only wish they would have let us know they planned to restore Mail so we would have not had to spend so much time writing to this post and sending service requests. Also, in the introductory clip for Big Sur, it would be nice if they highlighted the return of the column view as originally designed.
A message to Apple:
"Please do not be so distant from your loyal customers and fans!!!". You could have responded to this thread to give us hope.
While I appreciate and agree with your enthusiasm, I disagree with this answer being marked "solved". If it were solved, it would be fixed now, not in a future major OS version.
I'm really frustrated and disagree with Apple's policy of changing virtually nothing in their apps within a major OS version. Sure, I agree that major app upgrades or additions belong in the new OS... that's how you get people to upgrade. But they should be willing to do minor updates to the apps within the OS to give people minor fixes/changes they need now!
Two examples of this would be the columns in Apple Mail, and the magnifier for text selection in iOS. When Apple makes a change to Apps which come with a new OS, it's always possible that there may be a strong dislike and pushback on that feature. If it's relatively small (as these two are), make the change in a security update for this OS! Don't make users wait for a year when a new OS version comes out to see the restoration or correction to the new "feature"!
This is a major reason I tell my clients to avoid many of the apps which come with OS X – 3rd party apps (for example: Evernote instead of Apple Notes, BusyContacts instead of Apple Contacts, MS Word instead of Apple Pages, etc.) are updated on a much more frequent basis as new features or fixes become available, while you have to wait a year for a new Mac OS to see changes, even small ones, within the Apple apps.
These changes may be small, but the lack of the iOS magnifying glass is way harder and drives me crazy on an almost daily basis, and the lack of the columns in Apple Mail presents a major problem in trying to organize or find emails!
Please Apple, do minor updates to the Apps which come with OS X within an existing OS! Don't make us wait for a year for these minor, but important changes! (And God forbid if the change isn't in the next OS, we've got to wait another year hoping for a change!)
What do you guys think?
Thanks. 😉 😎
catalina mail column view
