Mail 6 - Change the order of email accounts

"It works for me in the mailbox list under the Inbox. However it eventually resets to the order in the Preferences<Accounts, and it is here I'm trying to rearrange accounts."

Exactly; anyone have the solution??

First of all, it's not the first account in the list as under Preferences which is the default account. In Preferences, in the Composing tab, you determine the default account under "Send new messages from:".

As far as the order of accounts in Preferences is concerned, I seriously wonder how important this is. It seems that Apple is putting itself on top of the list with an iCloud account. Well, what's the big deal?

Then, the following accounts could be in alphabetical order, but not sure. If this were the case, and if it mattered so much, then name the accounts differently, so they appear in the order you want them? But again, why? You guys juggling with the account settings all the time? Uh oh... ;)

I have an exchange, gmail and icloud account. Of course apple automatically places icloud first...which I'm okay with in the end. The mail problem is simple - If I have selected "Inbox" and not a specific account as listed before, the default is whatever I wish. For example I set it to gmail for my default, but then if I select "exchange" under inbox and hit control+N for a new message, gmail is still the default.

It comes down to this: I want to have selected "inbox" which is a unified inbox of all three of my accounts, and when I press control+N, I want that to be gmail not icloud. Apple blocks this by not allowing you to move icloud from top position. Solution? I hope I worded this clearly, I'm getting myself all mixed up by this nonsnese.

I want to have selected "inbox" which is a unified inbox of all three of my accounts, and when I press control+N, I want that to be gmail not icloud.

First, it's Command+N for new message.

And yes, it is possible.

Apple blocks this by not allowing you to move icloud from top position. Solution? I hope I worded this clearly

I think you did, and I had already tried to explain, but guess I wasn't so clear... 😉

1. Open Mail Preferences.

2. Click on the Composing tab.

3. Half-way down the window, there's the line "Send new messages from:"

4. Select the email account you want to be the default for new messages, in your case you Gmail address.

5. Close Mail Preferences.

6. Done.

Now, no matter where in mail you are, and however you trigger a new message (Command+N, toolbar icon, or in the menu bar under File), the new, otherwise blank message will be pre-set to be sent from your Gmail account.

Again and again, the order of mail accounts in Preferences under Accounts is irrelevant for this, and so is the order of accounts under the unified Inbox.

The order matters because if you read my reply carefully I don't want gmail to dominate the default while in any mailbox. When I have selected Inbox for example, and I hit command+N, I want gmail to be the default not icloud. But if I have selected Exchange for example, I want exchange to be the outgoing default. If you select under "send new messages from" - account of selected mailbox, this solves part 2 of what I said, but if I select inbox and not exchange it uses icloud. Would this not mean that if gmail were in top position, I have selected inbox, and I selected "account of selected mailbox" gmail would be the default in that case, not icloud?

I hear you, and you're seeing what the options for default email account are - under "Send new messages from:". And that's it. I think it would get very complicated for users in the preferences if it tried to achieve what you are asking for. Instead, by far the most people have indeed ONE default mail account which they use most of the time - and so have you if you're honest. It is then simple to do 2 more clicks in the message window to change the "From:" address.

In short there is no way to do what I'd like, previous versions of Mail had the capibility to rearange the accounts list within preferences, this has changed unfortunately. This is all that needed to be concluded.

And as far as honesty is concerend, I can't find place where this comes into it. I have one registered with my college used for my studies, and one gmail for everything that isn't...This is slightly off topic, but I felt it necessary to defend myself after the third passive condescending comment in this thread.

Tomf475, it looks as though this is about as far as it goes. Too bad this flexibility changed somewhere in transition to 10.8.2

I have one registered with my college used for my studies, and one gmail for everything that isn't...

Considering the many other features of mail, e.g. Smart Mailboxes, regular mailboxes and rules, IMHO you're making your life unnecessarily complicated, eventually demanding from Apple to adjust to this and your way of thinking. Sometimes it helps to try understanding the way the software is "thinking", and adjusting yourself can result in major simplification and improvement. Just my 2 cents. 😉

LousyFool wrote:

I have one registered with my college used for my studies, and one gmail for everything that isn't...

Considering the many other features of mail, e.g. Smart Mailboxes, regular mailboxes and rules, IMHO you're making your life unnecessarily complicated, eventually demanding from Apple to adjust to this and your way of thinking. Sometimes it helps to try understanding the way the software is "thinking", and adjusting yourself can result in major simplification and improvement. Just my 2 cents. 😉

How does having an email for college and other professional sources, and an email for everything else including personal use such as social media overcomplicated? Bottom line though, they shouldn't have made it so we can reorder the accounts, what benefit does this serve we the consumers?

LF has provided the answer for me. I don't really need to have the accounts in order (it seems). The prefernce under composing does what I need. That is, when I create a new message I want it to go from a particular account (selected under the composing tab should be fine). If you need to have different defaults, one work one other, maybe you could set it to the work account on your work machine and other on your other machine(s). If you only have access to one machine set it to the one most useful and 'try to remember' to change it when composing a new message. [It's the trying to remember that gets me as it was always the wrong account before].

I don't usually get on these forums, all these lttle changes Apple seems to be doing, forcing customers to be so relient on them, only proves they are abondoning Steve Jobs original ideals.

I have used Apple for over 20 years and I am now looking forward to what all the new technologies from the oposition are bringing to the table....And they are listening to their customers which Apple seem to have forgotten.

Its a very sad day when listening to the customers and guaranting your products with out a fight is no longer their concern. Ie: someing being replaced under warranty is a mission.

I read a article from forbes magazine recenlty, it will be interesting to see what will become of Apple over the next five years. Is their drop in stock a warning of things to come.

Click and hold on the account name and drag it to where you want it.