Mac Mail Exchange Alias (email address field greyed out)

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Level 1

17 points

Mac Mail Exchange Alias (email address field greyed out)

When I respond to an email with 'reply al'l the mail server sends an extra copy to my inbox. I noticed that the mail server utilizes a different email address for my account (or at least an additional email address). Typically you can fix this by entering in the additional email addresses as alias into the email adress box under preferences, accounts... Well, that's only if the email adress field is not greyed out. When you create an account with exchange it prevents you from adding anything to the email address field (as it is greyed out).

Does anyone know how to add an alias in mac mail when using an exchange account?

Thank you,

Matt

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Nov 29, 2011 7:39 AM

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Answer 1

astiocle

Level 1

4 points

Nov 29, 2011 8:07 AM in response to MattyMC

I've just run in to the same problem but for my VP (of course). You were able to edit the email address for the account in Mail on Snow Leopard, but it looks like Lion gave us this new "enhancement." The people I support who upgraded from 10.6 to 10.7 have multiple addresses in the greyed out field and are not including themselves when replying to all.

I was able to get multiple addresses in to the field by removing the Exchange connection in Mail, then re-setting it up giving it the actual Exchange email address and the alias that we use. Setup completed fine, and I was then given the option to send from either of the addresses in a dropdown on new messages, but it did not fix the "Reply to all" issue.

If anyone else has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Dan

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Answer 2

MattyMC Author

Level 1

17 points

Nov 29, 2011 8:18 AM in response to astiocle

I can confirm that this issue cropped up with Lion 10.7. Not sure why they would remove the alias capability only with exchange.

It appears there are a lot of people currently with this issue, but there has to be a work around. I have read there was a similar problem with .me/.mac mail (go figure).

A suggested workaround is to set up a different mailbox with the email address using a fake mail IMAP mail connection. The issue here is that Mail constantly gives you error messages and connection issues which make using Mail difficult and annoying. However, the reply to issues seemed to be resolved.

Maybe someone else has another workaround we could try?

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Answer 3

MattyMC Author

Level 1

17 points

Dec 2, 2011 10:32 AM in response to MattyMC

bump

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Answer 4

MattyMC Author

Level 1

17 points

Dec 13, 2011 8:50 AM in response to MattyMC

shameless bump

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Answer 5

MattyMC Author

Level 1

17 points

Dec 19, 2011 1:02 PM in response to astiocle

Hey Dan,

I finally found a solution. You can edit this file where USERNAME = users acutal account on the mac:

Close Mail.

Go to:

/Users/USERNAME/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/accounts.plist

Under this:

<key>EmailAddresses</key>

<array>

</array>

Type:

<key>EmailAliases</key>

<array>

<dict>

<key>alias</key>

<string>aliasmail@aliasblahblah.com</string>

</dict>

</array>

Save version of file.

Open Mail.

I hope this helps - it seemed to work for me.

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Answer 6

Jan 18, 2012 10:46 AM in response to MattyMC

One small recommendation...

Accounts.plist starts with an upper case "A", in case you use Terminal.

This solution worked for me as well. Thanks MattyMC!

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Answer 7

astiocle

Level 1

4 points

Mar 19, 2012 11:30 AM in response to HobbesVIII

I realized I never posted back. This did indeed solve my issue as well. Another benefit is that it added the "From" dropdown when composing messages to send from other aliases.

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Answer 8

May 31, 2012 11:55 AM in response to MattyMC

Thanks this fixed the issue I was having!

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Answer 9

Jul 13, 2012 6:24 AM in response to MattyMC

Hi,

I don't know if you can help - i am unsure as to how to do this, any chance of an idiot's guide/ sep by step?

Thanks

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Answer 10

Jul 24, 2012 2:53 PM in response to MattyMC

I've just used MattyMC's solution.

The dropdown 'From' menu in the New Message window does indeed show the newly created alias.

However upon creating a test message, the email headers in the resulting email still return the master email address and not the alias that I created.

Is there possibly a step that I missed?

Edit: Link to original thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3280729

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Answer 11

MattyMC Author

Level 1

17 points

Jul 24, 2012 3:02 PM in response to TopRamenGod

I'm experienced the same master email usage in the header. However, I am using the same outbound email server which could have this pre-set to use a standard email address format (multiple email address types for the same company as an example) - could be the same for you.

This probably doesnt help, but at least you can send email now 🙂

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Answer 12

MattyMC Author

Level 1

17 points

Jul 24, 2012 3:08 PM in response to Generalgood

Sorry about that...

Close Mail.

Basically you need to open the file listed above using text editor :

/Users/USERNAME/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Accounts.plist

replace 'username' with your mac username to find this file - above is the location of the Accounts.plist file.

open this file 'Accounts.plist' with text edit and look for this in the plist file:

Under this:

<key>EmailAddresses</key>

<array>

</array>

After you see this you need to type in (or copy and paste). Replace your alias name below where it says 'Name1' and put your email address for this alias where I have 'aliasmail@aliasblahblahblah.com'.:

<key>EmailAliases</key>

<array>

<dict>

<key>alias</key>

<string>aliasmail@aliasblahblah.com</string>

</dict>

</array>

Save version of the file.

Open Mail.

Vous la'

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Answer 13

dolphio

Level 1

5 points

Jul 26, 2012 8:24 AM in response to MattyMC

As an FYI, MattyMC's tip had fixed my problem in Lion, but since upgrading to Mountain Lion, my alias no longer appeared in Account Preferences, and I was automatically CC'd on reply-all's. Upon checking the plist file, the EmailAliases lines were still there. I then added a second address under the email addresses, and that seems to have fixed my problem.

That is, I had the address@sub.example.com address, and added the address@example.com address to solve the problem:

<key>EmailAddresses</key>

<array>

<string>address@sub.example.com</string>

<string>address@example.com</string>

</array>

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