How to change default e-mail account

Question

Level 1

108 points

How to change default e-mail account

I have 4 mail accounts configured in Mail.app. When composing a new message, it will default to the account for the currently selected mailbox, which is great. However, when no particular mailbox is selected (when viewing the combined Inbox for example), it defaults to one particular account. I want it to default to a different account. How can I tell Mail.app which account to use?

Changing the order of the mailboxes doesn't make any difference. There is a preference that would allow me to have all new messages come from a certain account, but I don't want that. I want it to default to the current mailbox if there is one. I just want to change the default when there is no current mailbox selected.

There's gotta be a way to do this, right?

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Sep 17, 2016 6:52 PM

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Answer 1

leroydouglas

Level 10

200,220 points

Sep 17, 2016 9:21 PM in response to Andrew Shalit

Mail>Preferences>Accounts (select your primary account)>Account information>AccountType IMAP your "email address"

In your list of aliases move to the top of the list your main email address.

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Answer 2

Andrew Shalit Author

Level 1

108 points

Sep 18, 2016 8:19 AM in response to leroydouglas

When I go into:

Mail>Preferences>Accounts (select your primary account)>Account information>

I do not see "Account Type IMAP". There is drop-down menu with the e-mail address for that account, and I could add additional e-mail addresses but there's nothing there to reorder.

By the way, I am actually using OS X Sierra in case that makes a difference. These support forums did not let me choose Sierra so I chose El Capitan. I guess Sierra hasn't been added to the support forums yet.

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