Mail Previous Recipients List only shows today's recipients

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Mail Previous Recipients List only shows today's recipients

In the Mail application, when I choose Window/Previous Recipients, the list shows only those recipients from emails I sent out since the last time I started up Mail application. However, when I begin to type in the To: box in a new email, a longer list of recipients shows up.

It appears the actual list and what shows up in Window/Previous Recipients don't agree.

This is a problem because some of the email addresses that show up when I begin typing in the To field are old ones that I'd like to get rid of. However, the method I used to use, going to Previous Recipients list and deleting them, won't work because they don't show up there.

This may have begun when I upgraded to Mountain Lion, though I'm not sure that is the case.

My husband is another User on the same computer, and he is not having this problem. The problem must be related to some file associated with my user being corrupted and rewritten new, or something like that. However, the only references I can find for a corrupt Previous Recipients file suggest going to Library/Application Support/Address Book and deleting a file MailRecents-v4.abcdmr. I cannot locate the file, or an Application Support folder for Address Book or Contacts.

Any help would be appreciated.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Oct 13, 2013 1:25 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 13, 2013 1:42 PM in response to mbolsinga

Rebuild your mailbox > Mail (Mountain Lion): Rebuild mailboxes

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Answer 2

Linc Davis

Level 10

210,461 points

Oct 13, 2013 3:03 PM in response to mbolsinga

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/MailRecents-v4.abcdmr

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services ▹ Show Info

from the contextual menu.* An Info dialog should open.

Does the dialog show "You can read and write" in the Sharing & Permissions section?
In the General section, is the box labeled Locked checked?
What is the Modified date?

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Open a TextEdit window and paste into it ( command-V). Select the line you just pasted and continue as above.

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Answer 3

Oct 13, 2013 5:12 PM in response to Linc Davis

Linc,

I did what you suggested, and was able to find ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/MailRecents-v4.abcdmr

I can read and write to the file, and it's the box labeled Locked is not checked.

The Modified date is 12/11/2009, as is the created date.

I thought this file was no longer in use in Mountain Lion. Should I move it to my desktop, then open Mail to see if a new one is created? I don't care if I lose the previous data.

Marcia

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Answer 4

Oct 13, 2013 5:14 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

To: Carolyn Samit - That action rebuilds individual Mailboxes. I'm trying to replace/rebuild, find my Previous Recipients. I don't think that's going to help, though I'll try it later if something else doesn't resolve it.

Thanks,

Marcia

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Answer 5

Oct 14, 2013 9:28 PM in response to mbolsinga

I was able to resolve my problem.

It ended up that a symlink (symbolic link - kind of like an alias) that points to the Previous Recipients file was messed up. Therefore, it could never find it. The file never got updated (it had an old date on it).

I followed the terminal instructions given by rootami in this support discussion:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4197018

I then deleted the old file ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook/MailRecents-v4.abcdmr

When I reopened Mail, a new MailRecents-v4.abcdmr was created. And from then on, Previous Recipients were being kept in the list.

Now when I type in the To: field, addresses from both my Address Book and Previous Recipients list show up.

Thanks, Linc, for pointing me in the right direction as to what file was being used.

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