Mail allows you to set a flag (in various colors) on individual emails. But the display of the mailbox in general doesn't show those flags, you have to open up the individual email to see it.
In past versions, you could look down the list of emails in the box and quickly see which ones were flagged. How can I turn that column back on?
iMac 27″, macOS 10.15
Apple Mail. In the past, with Catalina, when you looked at a mailbox, the flags for flagged emails was in the far left,most column. That column has vanished in Big Sur.
For example I flagged the message from Apple Support about this topic -- but you can't see the flag in teh standard display.
It looks like " Column " is being used >>> https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/mail/mlhlp1052/mac
Using Default Viewing without Columns, filters etc will look like below
There is a "Flags" column in my version of Mail on Big Sur 11.5.2 (Column Layout). It wasn't there by default so I had to manually add it by right clicking on the column header, which pops up a menu with a list of columns.
On the other hand I don't see any column called "Importance" so I am a bit puzzled. What version of Big Sur are you using?
Are we speaking about Apple Mail for some other email client ??
In Apple Mail >> Default Viewing, all my Flagged email are all right there in whatever folder they reside. No External Columns required.
Sorry, not on my system. Flag do not show at all, as per the screenshot I uploaded earlier. It shows Read/unread, Importance, From, Subject, Date Received, Mailbox, and Keywords. No column for flags.
Yes, that's true -- I was using Column view as I have always done for many years now. Apple has apparently removed the ability to select which columns are to appear, although they do let you reorganize the order of the columns.
The effect of this change is to render flags essentially useless. What I want is what I've always had, which is the ability to see my entire list of messages with the flagged ones shown as well. I understand that I can use the Flagged "smart mailbox" option to display only/all flagged messages, but that has no value for me.
The work-around is to use Importance as a flag, for that column does appear in the general list. I've moved it to the far left so that it mimics what I used to have with flags.
Dumb move, Apple. How hard would it have been to make Flagged as a column?
Tried the Column View method and as you rightly point-out the Flags vanish.
As for adding a Column in this viewing mode - honestly do not have answer or know if it even possible.
Perhaps some more Learned Contributor(s) will pickup the question with more insight
Bingo!! That did it, thank you very much.
For your question, if you don't see Importance in your column line up, go into Mail, select the View option from the banner menu, and then select Importance to be displayed. It may appear in the far right column, but you can drag it to the left if you like. (Oddly, when I added the Flags column, it appeared in the far left immediately.)
In Big Sur, the Flags are on the Right and lines up like iPhone Flags on the Right
Mail display of flags in list of emails doesn't work anymore in Big Sur
