I updated to Catalina today. However, when i open the mail account, I no longer see the headings for the various columns. Can anyone assist as to how to get back the headings? The Classic view option is no longer showing up in Mail.

Please put the column headings back in Apple, this is a simple and efficient way to organise email matters. The bright spark who thought it was good idea to omit them in Catalina must still using paper mail.

It's been months since I updated to Catalina and I cannot get used to Apple's new simplified format. It does not work for me in my business. Is there a better platform to get Apple's attention on this matter?

I updated to Catalina months ago. Everything has been fine until this morning when I opened my mail app. The format/layout was totally changed. At first I blamed my son for changing some settings. Now that I've done some more research I realize this happened because someone thought it was "better". And, as I'm reading more about it I don't understand why it didn't happen when I first updated to Catalina.

This is VERY frustrating!!! I too try to be organized with my mail and this new format is terrible. I see that even though people have been voicing frustration for months nothing has been done. Which probably means nothing will be done.

Can anything be done to get back the previous layout?

Where has the "From" column gone? It is not a choice for an additional column in the View dropdown menu.

The way I have my tens of thousands of emails stored in Apple Mail depends upon the To, From, Subject, Date & Time Sent and Received, and Size columns being there and being resizable, just like they always have until MacOS Catalina.

Has the decision maker at Apple lost their mind?

My work depends on Apple Mail, and now they have willfully and significantly reduced its functionality.

I did submit a complaint to Apple using the link in a comment below, but I need this glaring deficiency fixed NOW!

Thank you for this explanation. Only problem for me with that is the Sender name and other columns are so abbreviated that it is sometimes hard to read. I still can't understand how they can take away so much useful functionality and for what reason. Definitely more cumbersome for my business use!

The text of my message disappeared when I added a photo. Here is the text of my reply to you:

Thanks but if I understand you correctly my Message Pane is already at the bottom. What I assumed the "Classic View" is is what the many previous versions of Mail used to be, with column headings (now there are none) and the ability to have "To" and "From" columns in "Sent." Is there any way to revert to that old version of Apple Mail. I need to see a column showing me who I had sent emails to — not that they were sent by me (which is useless — I already know that they were from me). I have tens of thousands of stored, sent emails from my work, organized into subfolders. I am a journalist and write a weekly column (AutoMatters & More on the DriveTribe website). For example, I need to see who I've sent each week's column to. Can you help me with that? An AppleCare Senior Advisor told me that functionality is no longer available in Apple Mail.

What Apple did in this matter with Apple Mail makes no sense to me either. They've removed basic functionality that was a part of Apple Mail for decades, and there is no way that we can even get an explanation from the people who affirmatively made the decision to do that. Not even an AppleCare Senior Advisor can communicate with these people, isolated as they choose to be in their ivory tower. I am extremely disappointed in Apple's lack of transparency, common sense, reason and especially its commitment to the success of its customers.

Hi Jeff - by chance (or luck), I was trying to figure out a bug I was having in Mojave and stumbled upon this Catalina issue a number of months ago. I live in the classic layout with 8 different email accounts. I work in my mail like an excel spreadsheet to sort and file and delete and find, etc. With this functionality gone, I will lose my mind so I have been avoiding the upgrade, hoping Apple gets wise and puts it back. Your reply here is helpful which makes it seem like some of the classic view is achievable but with a lot more annoying steps. I was wondering if you noticed if any of the updates since October make it better? Thank you.

Hi Michele,

I, too, need the old functionality of Apple Mail for my thousands of work-related new and stored emails, but I have not seen any return to that functionality.

Before I "upgraded" to MacOS Catalina I did not know that doing so would remove so much of the functionality of Apple Mail that I need and depend upon.

I wonder if I should try to return to MacOS Mojave on my two computers. I worry that trying to do so could cause problems with other applications and hardware that have been upgraded for Catalina.

Hopefully Jeff will have better news to share with us. Why didn't Apple just leave Apple Mail alone? As the saying goes, "if it is not broke, don't fix it."

Jan

Updating to OS Catalina has been a disaster for me. The loss of Adobe CS6 Photoshop and Illustrator, together with MS Word were NOT mentioned in the pre-installation Apple spin, and now I find the 'Classic Mail' function is no longer available. If there are advantages to installing Catalina, they're hard to find and certainly do not outweigh the negatives.

Here's my vote asking Apple to please put the column headers back in Mac Mail. There are enough reasons to switch to Outlook already, but I'm trying to hold out because Mac Mail is infinitely better for searching. It is a real hassle to be unable to change the width of the columns. What could possibly be the benefit of this change? Don't make things LESS functional for the sake of a clean look.

So, it's been a whole year since this question has been posted and there is no solution to this problem yet (yes, Apple, it's not afeature - it's a problem!!!) neither have Apple taken any time to give their users some explanation.

I have been using Apple computers since the early 1980's (Apple IIe) and I have always enjoyed their love for users and their focus to usability. I am very much afraid that this advantage is getting lost during last few years (after Steve Jobs passed away maybe?). Apple is slowly turning into a Microsoft enforcing their products to their customers and ignoring their views & opinions.

So sorry.

Panos.

Thanks for the tip, Jeff. Actually, I am a bit reluctant to upgrade to Big Sur yet: I think it's too early (upgrading to Catalina proved to be quite an adventure for me - I had to try 3 times before I got it right). God knows what kind of "improvements" Apple has hidden in their newest release (which they'll surely "fix" in the next release) - I'd rather stay with Catalina and show patience with Mail weirdness for the time being - let's first see how Big Sur works out for afew weeks before jumping in.

I did contact Apple. I upgraded to Catalina last night and this will not work for me at all. Thanks for the link!

View menu, Metadata > Titles

This doesn't help us when we're in All Photos view. It's super useful to be able to see photo names in this view.