Cannot Set Default Mail App in El Capitan

I just had the same issue and the following worked for me:

In finder, find the Microsoft Outlook app in your Apps folder and simply rename it to something like 'Old Microsoft Outlook'. Then reopen Mail and change the default mail reader to Mail.

This prevented my Mac from reverting back to Outlook as the default.

Hope this helps.

Matt

Hi All,

I've had the same problem since I installed Outlook 2016. This has just worked for me:

1. Run 'First Aid' on Macintosh HD from within Disk Utility.

2. Quit all open email clients.

3. Reopen Apple Mail then go to preferences > general > default email reader and select your preferred email client.

4. Quit Apple Mail and reopen. Check under the default email reader option - mine stuck after performing the above steps.

I assume there was some sort of corrupt preference or file, caused during the process of upgrading to El Capitan, which prevented Mac OS from being able to 'remember' your default application choice. Running 'First Aid' aka 'verify permissions' must have been able to correct this.

I hope this helps!

I'm running OS X 10.11.3, Mail 9.2 (3112) and Outlook 15.15 (151008) on a mid 2012 MacBook Air.

Finally, this helped me:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchSe rvices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -all local,system,user

Hello,

After looking into the issue further I found another way to set outlook/mail as a default outside of the annoying auto-reverting mail preferences tab. Right clicking a mail doc, open with, selecting your preferred server and ticking the box 'always open with' is just another dead end. However, right clicking the mail doc --> get info and expanding the 'open with' section gives you the same option. Selecting your chosen client will than present with a "change all button". This defaults any mail doc in future to open with your selection. You may also notice that it appears with (default) next to the client when selecting open with in future.

This worked for me on a couple of el capitan computers after restarts and other testing. This solution is not effected by whatever the default in apple mail preferences is.

I was able to set the default mail application via the Mail preference by using the "Select" (as in other application) feature and navigating to the install location for Outlook.

Thank you Linc. This command fixed the issue of Mail not saving Outlook at the preferred client.

I simply unchecked the 'Make Outlook the default application for email etc" in Outlook Preferences and it allowed Apple Mail to stay selected in Apple Mail Pref dropdown menu.

You're a lifesaver. This solved my issue, too 🙂

Thanks for posting that. It did solve the stated problem of allowing me to change default mail apps but unfortunately seems to have killed the functionality which brought the problem up in the first place. That is, I was trying to email a web page from Safari to a friend, which I do fairly regularly, via clicking on the share icon in the upper right corner of Safari. One of the options available in the menu that appears was email, and if I chose that I would get a Thunderbird mail window (switching from Thunderbird to Mac Mail was what led me to the above problem). But since I fixed the mail app switch problem using that suggestion to reset the Library, Safari no longer provides the option of sharing via email. Has anyone run into that problem and fixed it ? Thanks,

Worked great for me. Outlook 2016 latest version and Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.3.

This is the only solution that actually worked for me. Thanks.

What worked for me was to log out of iCloud as indicated here:

https://nickjvturner.wordpress.com/2015/11/05/osx-10-11-1-el-capitan-change-the- default-mail-client/

"I don't use Office, but knowing Microsoft, it may be forcing you to use Outlook as your default email reader."

You really believe Microsoft setup Outlook so that it locks you out of changing it from the default mail app?

I was able to fix this issue with the recommended Disk Utility > First Aid, wondering if it was a permissions error? Thanks for the help everyone!

<Edited by Host>

Just solved the same issue on my mac. It is the problem from Chrome, not Outlook or Mail.

1. Copy paste this in chrome browser: chrome://settings/handlers

2. Protocol handlers mail to: none

3. Open Mail

4. Mail > Preferences > Default Email Reader > (change to) Mail x.x

5. Enjoy!

I set the default mail program in Mail > Preferences and the restarted the computer and it saved the choice.