In Mavericks and before, Mail.app used to have data detectors. They allow you to select dates, addresses and other things to make iCal events etc... These seem not to be working for me in Yosemite, and I've not been able to find out how to enable them.
I have tried:
defaults write com.apple.mail DisableDataDetectors NO
And I've looked in Preferences but still cannot get them to work.
iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
Back up all data.
Triple-click the line below on this page to select it, then copy the text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
~/Library/Containers
In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return. A folder will open. Inside it there may be subfolders with these names:
com.apple.DataDetectors.DataDetectorsActionService
com.apple.DataDetectorsDynamicData
Move those items, if they exist, to the Trash. Log out or restart the computer, then empty the Trash and test.
I've tried this, twice, but it doesn't get the data detectors working.
Please follow these directions to delete the Mail "sandbox" folder.
Back up all data.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail
Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select
Services ▹ Reveal
from the contextual menu.* A Finder window should open with a folder named "com.apple.mail" selected. If it does, move the selected folder—not just its contents—to the Desktop. Leave the Finder window open for now.
Restart the computer. Launch Mail and test. If the problem is resolved, you may have to recreate some of your Mail settings. Any custom stationery that you created may be lost. Ask for instructions if you want to preserve that data. You can then delete the folder you moved and close the Finder window.
Caution: If you change any of the contents of the sandbox, but leave the folder itself in place, Mail may crash or not launch at all. Deleting the whole sandbox will cause it to be rebuilt automatically.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select
Go ▹ Go to Folder...
from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.
@ Linc Davis,
dude, THANK YOU!!! i've been having this problem since 2 updates ago. it finally bugged me enough to google about it. got to this post first (thankfully), tried trashing these two data detector containers, restarted, & voila!!!
just wanted to say thanks!
✌
FYI: it stopped working again for me, so i tried Linc's second suggestion. seems to be working again, but FYI, doing this resets all your preferences & any customizations you've done to your interface. not a big deal, really. just so you know (if anybody else ever reads/needs this).
@LincDavis,
ugh, it's stopped working again. seems like every time i trash these things, it works for about a day, then it stops working again.
any other thoughts/suggestions?
THANKS!!!
FYI!
i just discovered that by tapping on a link in an email, with 3 fingers, that this feature works (shows you the webpage in a popup).
so maybe Apple changed how they do this, but that little square with a triangle/arrow in it still shows up when i mouse-over a link, and clicking that still does nothing. but tapping the trackpad with 3 fingers does what that used to do.
Data Detectors don't show up in Mail
