How do I stop Mail on OSX from automatically selecting the next email?

Question

How do I stop Mail on OSX from automatically selecting the next email?

If I read one email, and then archive or delete it, Mail automatically selects the next one and marks it as read even if I never interacted with that second message at all! It's very frustrating. What if I want to read one message, archive it, and I don't want to read the next one until later? Can't *I* be the one who decides when I want to read the next message? Right now I am afraid I might miss a message because it is marked as "read" even though I've never looked at it.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Jul 30, 2014 2:07 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

brenden dv

Community Specialist

Aug 1, 2014 8:35 AM in response to furiousbalancing

Hi furiousbalancing,

With regards to deleting messages in Mail, you may find the following portion of the following article helpful:

To prevent the next message from being automatically selected (and marked as read), hold down the Option key when you delete a message.

Mail (Mavericks): Delete messages

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14900

You can also use Command-Shift-U to toggle a message between Read and Unread (command should be the same in Mavericks):

Mail (Mountain Lion): Keyboard shortcuts

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11679

You can also close the Preview portion of the Mail window, which should then require you to double-click on a message to open it and have it show as read (it appears the double click on the seperator may no longer work in Mavericks, but you should still be able to drag it to make it disappear):

Mac OS X Mail: How to show or hide the preview pane or mailboxes drawer

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2583

Regards,

- Brenden

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Answer 2

Aug 1, 2014 12:17 PM in response to brenden dv

Thanks, that is helpful.

I'd prefer to just leave the Preview pane open. Unfortuantely for archiving, holding Option doesn't appear to do the same thing as when deleting. So instead, I've modified the keyboard shortcuts for "Archive" and "Mark as Unread" in such a way that I can at least hit them easily in rapid succession.

Thanks,

Julian

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