Hello, in Mail application, when I select an email, it automatically turns to read, even if I don't open it.
Very disturbing as you need to reset mails to unread all the time.
Is there a way to change that?
Thanks
MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
I filed a bug report about this in 2006.
You have at least two ways to work around this bug:
1. Create a rule that flags all incoming messages. Pick a specific color so you can use the flags for other purposes.
2. Purchase Mailhub. It has a ton of features but I only use the one that tames the read/unred flag.
I completely agree. I've just moved to MacBook Pro and am very disappointed my email is all marked as read. If I delete one email, it automatically goes to the next email and marks it as read. FRUSTRATING!
although I don't use Mac Mail in most any email program that I have every used there is a setting to mark mail as read After X Amount of time. That time period can be increased, in most email programs, to something like multiple minutes, like 10 or 20 minutes, so no email get auto marked as read if you just click on it.
Surely there has to be a option like that in Mac Mail. If not switch to some other email program that does allow that option to be set.
This is Thunderbird set for 20 minutes.
Yes it on a Windows PC but that same option is available in Tbird on OS X.
Or scroll down with two fingers on your trackpad, just like you would in Safari to scroll down a page, which will not result in "selecting" any message until you actually click on it.
Matt
If the message pane is visible, yes, clicking on a mail preview for more than a second or so is considered "reading" it.
If the message pane is not visible (ie, slide the divider all the way to the right), selecting a message in the list will NOT mark it as read. You have to double-click the message and open it in a new window for it to be marked read.
The choice of how you want the mail displayed is yours, but if you want the message pane open, don't select emails unless you intend them to be marked read.
Matt
I filed a bug report about this in 2006. It's apparent that Apple is never going to fix it. I have since found hints that Apple uses Exchange internally, so they might not even know about it first-hand. The one part of the Enterprise market that Apple hasn't cracked is Apple. There is a cottage industry of Mail plugins that can fix it, such as Mailhub, and there are alternative email clients on the app store.
Hi fmontrelay - I know your post was ages ago but any chance you found a way to stop the Mail application from automatically turning mail to read when you are just scrolling through? It makes me crazy and I don't see any updates since 2013. Thanks!
I am used to this behavior in Windows and MS Outlook. One can set this option for yes, no or in seconds. Nice and easy. This works well for me, as it apparently does for many, many others.
Since biting the 'Apple' I am looking for this behavior. It would be nice. Though it might be proprietary in Outlook and Apple may be unable to add this functionality without licensing or litigation.
😟
Matt, this works but, frankly speaking, this is very far fetched solution...
Hope Apple will consider this as a bug and will at least introduce an option not to mark a message as read when selected.
When you use the pane, you simply scroll down the message list using arrows or mouse, until you find the ones you want to open. Once you open them, it's normal that they are marked as read. If not, they should simply stay as unread.
Looks like the program was developed by someone who never uses it...
Thanks anyway.
(btw, this is an option in outlook...)
Thanks Matt but does not help. I scroll down the list to see what's in the messages. If important or urgent, I open the message and if not, i keep it unread to open later.
So, I need to select. This is probably the most common way of using an email client.
Once again, this was developed by someone who does not use email a lot.
There is a strange thing on Apple's side. On the one hand, they develop outstanding HW and some outstanding SW (itunes, iOS...); Price level justifies that top level SW should be developed. On the other thand, basic things like email handling is completely negelected. I guess it would be very easy to compare with a sw like outlook and to emulate the functionalities.
May be technically true. I am quite sure we all want a better (Outlook) way we want to manage the amount of attention we give to each item. Meaning: Unread indicates I will deal with it later.
I'm not disagreeing with the method you're using - all I'm saying is that if you're "scrolling down the list to see what's in the messages", then yes, that involves reading the messages. Scrolling while selecting, which is what you're doing, will refresh the message pane (the right-hand pane), and Apple Mail has no way of knowing whether your eyes are actually looking at that pane. (Removing the message pane removes the doubt.)
If you don't want to read the actual message, and the 2-line preview in the central pane is enough to help you decide whether to read it or not, use the two-finger scroll. This will not refresh the message pane, and if the 2-line preview interests you, you can then click on the message to select and read it.
Don't forget that you can use flags, instead of read/unread status, to highlight messages that are important enough to be addressed later. Right-click a message preview to select a flag, or shift-cmd-L to assign a red flag - you can use the Keyboard preference panel in System Preferences to assign shortcuts to the other flag options.
There's now a "Flagged" mailbox by default in Apple Mail, though you can set up any smart mailbox to do a similar operation.
Matt
Matt's suggestion, while you don't seem to like it, is the only option that will work with your current behavior. If you need more than two lines in the preview, you can set up to five in the preferences. Hide the message pane and just scroll through the preview list.
There isn't another way to get what you want. When you show an email in the message window it is marked as read. There is nothing you can do that will change that. There are no preferences, hidden or otherwise, that you can adjust to have it not mark the message as read.
Well I just fired up Mac Mail and there is no option to not mark messages as read for X amount of time.
Just another reason not to use the built in, not very good for anything IMHO, Mac Mail.
There are several very good mail programs for Mac OS X. I suggest you dump Mac Mail and fine one that works better for you. There is no reason for you to uses any program that doesn't work the way you want it to.
Good Luck & Best Wishes.
fmontrelay wrote:
Anyway, I can see that there is no way out.
Have you considered the "retro" route of using the classic layout (in Preferences> Viewing)? If you use that layout & pull the bottom of the message list all the way to the bottom (so that no selected message is showing), you can browse through the list without selecting anything.
You only will see the info that layout shows in its columns, but that may be enough to see which messages need immediate attention. Double-click on one & it will open in its own window.
How to keep email unread when selected?
