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Mail - Classic view in Catalina

Am i dreaming, or have they fully removed Classic view? It's no longer in preferences. You can now select "Use column layout" and "Show date and time" in the View dropdown, but the "sort by" remains a drop in the top right, rather than the columns becoming clickable in the active view. So to actually sort by something is now at least 3 clicks rather than one. Has anyone figured out how to undo another incomprehensible design-dumbing-down decision? Or is that it: we pretend our insanely expensive laptops are ipads now? Every single update provides a depressing development for anyone who has owned a mac since they were actually macs......... our baby just woke up from the machine gun fire coming from this ridiculous "pro" keyboard.....

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Oct 22, 2019 12:03 AM

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Posted on Oct 29, 2019 2:42 PM

I agree. I don't do iPads (the rest of the family does), I do big spanking desktops, but for years now the software that drew to me the Mac ecosystem is getting dumber and dumber.


The changes to how we sort and view our mail make no sense to me. It's a deliberate dumbing down on the options we have.


Classic view is the only way I use mail, never ever liked the replacement viewing mode.

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Oct 29, 2019 2:42 PM in response to Jules HL

I agree. I don't do iPads (the rest of the family does), I do big spanking desktops, but for years now the software that drew to me the Mac ecosystem is getting dumber and dumber.


The changes to how we sort and view our mail make no sense to me. It's a deliberate dumbing down on the options we have.


Classic view is the only way I use mail, never ever liked the replacement viewing mode.

May 29, 2020 9:56 AM in response to Jules HL

Usually when Apple release a new OS there is a ripple of feedback, which dies-away, once people get used to the changes and things settle down. This time --- with Apple Mail --- things are different. For many, the ability to size and order columns in Mail appears to have been a really crucial aspect of its functionality. For me, it just doesn't look right, I want my dates on the left, that to me seems logical, intuitive and the way I like it.


Like many of us, I simply cannot see what the problem was? This was not a complicated aspect of the programme and its replacement with one column / one size / one order /no option feels like a retrograde step in app development. We know that the guys at Apple read these discussion forums, so its a surprise that there have been a couple of upgrades which have ignore the criticism and the honest feedback from their customers.


We want customisable columns in Apple Mail back. For many it is a deal breaker ! Give feedback directly to Apple, on their facebook / twitter sites as well as directly >


https://www.apple.com/feedback/mail.html


If we want customisable columns back let's keep asking for it!!


Aug 3, 2020 3:06 PM in response to Daniel Kaplan

I just called AppleCare and had a long discussion about this. The expert was unable to duplicate the behavior on his Mac, but he agreed with what I was seeing on my Mac.


After trying _many_ times to move the divider back up so that message content is displayed, we concluded that on my Mac it is sometimes reliable but sometimes unreliable, and it's hard to see a pattern in the (mis)behavior. Using the command key doesn't seem to correlate with whether dragging the divider up works or not. Holding the bar for awhile before dragging also doesn't seem to correlate.


We also identified a second bug: After successfully dragging the bar back up so that message content is displayed, often the content pane says that no message is selected, even if a message in the list pane is already selected. Selecting a different message and then going back to the message in question seems to rectify this.


He suggested reinstalling the OS to see whether that makes a difference. Whatever we learn, it is worth reporting on the Apple Product Feedback website https://www.apple.com/feedback/.


It is well known that the Apple developers don't pay attention to these discussion boards! To bring a problem to their attention one _must_ post it as Product Feedback, at the above URL. If you see something, say something.


Jan 13, 2020 7:12 AM in response to Guy Emerson

you can see the message size column under View Show message size. but no way to move the columns. So I've got message size, then date/time. Why can't i move the size right to the end (as i've done in all my mail client for literally the last 25 years), it's taking up valuable space. right in the middle in between Subject and Date .... it's just weird. Has nobody at Apple looked at this and said WTF?

Jan 13, 2020 7:14 AM in response to jaffamuffin

And the bit on information that I do need to see often is 'attachments' the little paper clip. It SHOULD be at the left within the first couplf of columns, i.e. read/unread, importance, paperclip NOT all the way to the right hand side at the end likly to be hidden by the window width. It's bonkers. Mail.app used to be very nice. Now it's infuriatingly weird and backwards.

Jan 28, 2020 3:18 PM in response to Jules HL

I initially thought (two months ago when I got my new MacBook) that I might get used to this change in Mail. But I find myself wanting to see those column headers nearly every time I use Mail (not just to trigger a sort). It is basic functionality. Imagine speadsheets without the column header showing. For that matter, ANY table without column headers. A table is basically defective without them.

Mail - Classic view in Catalina

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