hodes4286
Level 1 (4 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Default Mail Application

There is a bug in the workflow for configuring a default Mail application. The setting for default email reader is inside the Mail application. Which would be fine, except that you are unable to access Mail preferences without an active account.

 

Okay, I'll set up a Mail account to access the preferences, change my default email reader to Outlook. Everything works perfectly, and all mailto links are now opened in Outlook. I delete the account that I configured just to access the preferences, and suddenly, all of my mailto links are opening in Mail again. Even the ones I click within Outlook.

 

In order to not use Mail, I have to maintain an active account in Mail. This seems insane. Want to start using it again? No problem. Delete all of the accounts so that it's unusable and it will become your default email reader again.

 

Can this workflow be fixed in a future update?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Sep 9, 2016 9:02 AM

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hodes4286

Q: Default Mail Application

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  • by mwegner,

    mwegner mwegner Sep 9, 2016 10:52 AM in response to hodes4286
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 9, 2016 10:52 AM in response to hodes4286

    I set Thunderbird as my default mail reader w/o ever opening Mail.app. Unfortunately, I forget exactly how I did it. :-) I think I started by going inside Thunderbird -> Preferences -> Advanced where there is an option under System Integration to set Thunderbird as the default.

     

    As for asking about whether this can be fixed, I think you are asking the wrong people. This is a community of users, I don't think Apple monitors this.

  • by hodes4286,

    hodes4286 hodes4286 Sep 9, 2016 11:02 AM in response to mwegner
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 9, 2016 11:02 AM in response to mwegner

    Darn. That's okay, I was mostly just venting anyway! Thanks for the tip.