daimorgan

Q: How do I set a default email address?

I have four email addresses, three business ones and one personal address. Each time I write a new email it's sent from one of my business addresses and if I want to send the mail from my personal address I have to remember to choose the correct personal account from a drop-down box. Is there any way I can make my personal account the "default" address from which my emails are sent so that I don't constantly have to select from the drop-down box?

iMac, iOS 5.1

Posted on Dec 29, 2013 4:59 AM

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Q: How do I set a default email address?

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  • by Ralph Landry1,Solvedanswer

    Ralph Landry1 Dec 29, 2013 5:10 AM in response to daimorgan
    Level 8 (41,782 points)
    Dec 29, 2013 5:10 AM in response to daimorgan

    Open Mail, click Mailon the menu bar, Preferences, Accounts, highlight the account you want tobe the default, then under Outgoing Mail Server check Use only this server.

     

    If you want to use another mail server to send a message, in the New Message compose window, below To, Cc, Subject is the From line where you can select a different server from which to send the mail.

  • by daimorgan,

    daimorgan daimorgan Dec 29, 2013 5:17 AM in response to Ralph Landry1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 29, 2013 5:17 AM in response to Ralph Landry1

    Excellent, thanks Ralph. I also had to un-check "Use only this server" from the other accounts.

  • by Ralph Landry1,

    Ralph Landry1 Dec 29, 2013 5:51 AM in response to daimorgan
    Level 8 (41,782 points)
    Dec 29, 2013 5:51 AM in response to daimorgan

    Glad it helped...keep in mind you can always over ride by using the From pull down on a mail message...I forget that sometimes myself :-)

  • by mahalo_spirit,Helpful

    mahalo_spirit mahalo_spirit Jun 6, 2014 5:54 PM in response to daimorgan
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 6, 2014 5:54 PM in response to daimorgan

    This solution didn't work for me, but the following solution from about.com did work:

    Specify the Default Account in Mac OS X Mail

    • Select Mail | Preferences... from the menu.
    • Go to the Composing category.
    • Select the desired account under Send new messages from: (or Send new mail from:) (under Addressing:).
    • Close the preferences window.

    Specify the Default Account in Mac OS X Mail 1.x

    • Select Mail | Preferences... from the menu.
    • Go to the Accounts tab.
    • Click on the account you want to make the default and
    • keep the mouse button pressed.
    • Drag the account to the top of the accounts list.
    • Release the mouse button.
  • by jaconnellsr,

    jaconnellsr jaconnellsr Nov 10, 2014 10:18 AM in response to mahalo_spirit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 10, 2014 10:18 AM in response to mahalo_spirit

    Mahalo_Spirit,

     

    just a quick note to say thank you for this posting. it helped me a great deal.

     

    Joseph

  • by haleyw1791,Helpful

    haleyw1791 haleyw1791 Nov 28, 2014 10:31 AM in response to daimorgan
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 28, 2014 10:31 AM in response to daimorgan

    To specify a default email account in Mac OS X Mail:

    • Select Mail | Preferences... from the menu.
    • Go to the Composing category.
    • Select the desired account under Send new messages from: (or Send new mail from:) (under Addressing:).
    • Close the preferences window.
  • by wsager,

    wsager wsager May 5, 2015 8:15 PM in response to Ralph Landry1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 5, 2015 8:15 PM in response to Ralph Landry1

    I have no from line on my mac mail emails... and I can't choose which email account I want to use.  Sometimes I have my email rejected because it was sent from the wrong email... but I don't know how to change it... there is no From option.

  • by rrleninger,

    rrleninger rrleninger Sep 8, 2015 9:36 AM in response to mahalo_spirit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 8, 2015 9:36 AM in response to mahalo_spirit

    This one worked.  Thanks!!

  • by afrogypsy,

    afrogypsy afrogypsy Oct 26, 2015 5:59 AM in response to mahalo_spirit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 26, 2015 5:59 AM in response to mahalo_spirit

    Thanks, this helped me.

  • by kakadais,

    kakadais kakadais Feb 28, 2016 5:04 PM in response to daimorgan
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 28, 2016 5:04 PM in response to daimorgan

    I don't know much of the specification for mac version,

    every version has their own methods to do this.

     

    For me, in Yosemite

    1. drag is not working

    2. outgoing server use this only options doesn't work properly.

     

    for no.2,

    if I disable that option on specific account, then when I reply on that account, I expected that account should try to send the other account, but that was not.

    it tried to use it's own send server

     

    I'm the only one who has this problem?

     

    ps. what I want is, sending all accounts' mail reply from the one account

  • by Paul Boyer1,

    Paul Boyer1 Paul Boyer1 Mar 15, 2016 5:49 AM in response to daimorgan
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 15, 2016 5:49 AM in response to daimorgan

    This does not work in OS 10.11.3, at least not for me.  There is no checkbox for “Use only this server.”

  • by Twinklyx,

    Twinklyx Twinklyx Apr 13, 2016 11:47 PM in response to Paul Boyer1
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 13, 2016 11:47 PM in response to Paul Boyer1

    Hey, I had the same problem, there was no checkbox for "Use only this server".

    In addition, when I compose a new email, there was no "From" that I can choose to select.

    Lastly, I couldn't drag and drop an account that I want to make as default account.

    I'm using OS El Capitan, and Mail v9.3.

     

    But, I managed to solve my problem, by going to Mail > Preferences > Accounts.

    I clicked on each account that I do not want to be default, and under the tab "Account Information", I unchecked "Enable this account". This will inactivate the account.

    I repeated the above step for all accounts that I do not want to be default accounts.

    So the only account left active is the default account I want.

    Then I went back to each deactivated account, and re-activate them again by checking "Enable this account".

     

    Then for some magical reason, the checkbox for "Use only this server" appeared. And the "From" in composing a new email also appeared. And the composing new email auto selects my chosen default account as default. And, be clicking on the "From", I can choose manually another account to send from in my composing new email.

     

    YAY!!

  • by wakesurfVT,

    wakesurfVT wakesurfVT Apr 24, 2016 7:23 AM in response to Twinklyx
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 24, 2016 7:23 AM in response to Twinklyx

    This worked for me - I'm running El Capitan 10.11.4

     

    I unchecked the 2 accounts I didn't want to send from...then went back and re-checked them.

     

    Then went to Accounts > Composing > in the Addressing section, I was then able to select the correct account for the "Send new messages from:" field