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Can I write an e-mail, but send it out 2 days later?

I need to delay sending an e-mail for a day, is that possible?

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016), iOS 10.2.1

Posted on Mar 7, 2017 8:02 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Mar 9, 2017 10:00 PM

You can do this, courtesy of Automator. If you plan on doing this and your mac is to be unattended by the time the message is to be sent, read the note below about GateKeeper.


1) Create a new "Calendar Alarm":

User uploaded file


In this, add two actions: "New Mail Message" and "Send Outgoing Messages". Fill in the details.

Then go to your Calendar and adjust the date and time.


User uploaded file


NOTE *** GateKeeper ***


The first time this workflow is run, GateKeeper will kick in and ask you if you want to run this application (because that is what it is, and that is how GateKeeper works).

If your mac is unattended, and this happens, the workflow will not run and the message, of course, will not be sent.

To avoid this, do the following: use this technique to send a message to yourself, and schedule it for, say a minute from now. GateKeeper will do its thing. Allow the application to run. Then go back to Automator, fill in the desired message details, and reschedule the Calendar event to two days from now. It will then run and GateKeeper will not interfere, since the application has been run before.

5 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Mar 9, 2017 10:00 PM in response to garyfromnv

You can do this, courtesy of Automator. If you plan on doing this and your mac is to be unattended by the time the message is to be sent, read the note below about GateKeeper.


1) Create a new "Calendar Alarm":

User uploaded file


In this, add two actions: "New Mail Message" and "Send Outgoing Messages". Fill in the details.

Then go to your Calendar and adjust the date and time.


User uploaded file


NOTE *** GateKeeper ***


The first time this workflow is run, GateKeeper will kick in and ask you if you want to run this application (because that is what it is, and that is how GateKeeper works).

If your mac is unattended, and this happens, the workflow will not run and the message, of course, will not be sent.

To avoid this, do the following: use this technique to send a message to yourself, and schedule it for, say a minute from now. GateKeeper will do its thing. Allow the application to run. Then go back to Automator, fill in the desired message details, and reschedule the Calendar event to two days from now. It will then run and GateKeeper will not interfere, since the application has been run before.

Mar 7, 2017 11:56 PM in response to garyfromnv

There is a possibility that one may be able to use another email client

and write an Apple Script to automate a time delay send later function.


How To Schedule Email On Your Mac - MakeUseOf

Apple's Mail app doesn't come with a ... How To Schedule Email ... that doesn't

mean you can't prepare messages in advance and send them at a later point in ...

User uploaded filemakeuseof.com/tag/schedule-email-mac/


macos - How can I send a mail message later? - Ask Different


I'd last read about this in a topic where someone wrote a script to use

with an email client Eudora (2005) or the current Apple mail application.

{So the following example was likely used with Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.x}

"delay sent" for Apple's Mail application...


A product by name SendLater for mac, was inexpensive for flat $12.

but later morphed into a monthly subscription; now it appears to be

https://www.mailbutler.io/ re-named 'mailbutler' ~ & costs a lot more.


There may be some scripts already written by someone, or you may be

able to experiment with partial pre-made samples, to see what you get.


The Automator in Mac OS X can be used toward that end; mentioned

in the Make Use Of article linked above. Sample scripts used to be in

the support folder in previous Mac OS X for Automator experimenting.


An example of someone's attempt of writing script looks rather daunting:

Apple Mail Automation - a discussion from seven years ago in ASC.


https://duckduckgo.com/?q=delay+apple+mail+via+automator&t=ffsb&ia=web


And retail software available from third-party makers that can send an

email at pre-programmed or set time intervals, can cost a bit of money.

Of the paid ones, some of them are subscriptions; free ones went away.


So you could carefully look into pre-made applications and note where

the downloads are hosted from; because some of them may add bad

additions to software that could contain malware, adware, etc to avoid.


15 Automator and AppleScripts You Can't Live Without | TechRadar


Or see what you could make of Automator. ~ Used to be gmail had fair

add-on to 'send later'. Haven't looked lately to see what google's up to.


In any event...

Good luck & happy trails! 🙂

Mar 8, 2017 12:17 PM in response to garyfromnv

All the other suggestions listed are valid ones but you might want to look first at this one -


https://www.mailbutler.io/en/#SendLater


This is a plugin for Apple Mail which adds the ability to send at a later date to Mail itself. This obviously makes it a more elegant approach.


The main drawback apart from having to pay for it, is that each time Apple issue a new version of their software this typically breaks compatibility with existing versions of such plugins. Whilst they will likely issue a new version of the plugin in-between you might have a gap and obviously some hassle.

Mar 8, 2017 2:33 PM in response to John Lockwood

That was among first items found when looking into this

and stated above the need to subscribe to use it..


"A product by name SendLater for mac, was inexpensive for flat $12.

But later morphed into a monthly subscription; now appears to be

https://www.mailbutler.io/ re-named 'mailbutler' ~ & costs a lot more."


So the choices still remain between using some existing software to

facilitate this action, or pay to do something similar. Automator and

Apple Scripts look 'least costly' over a decade-worth of monthly fees.


Good luck & happy trails! 🙂

Can I write an e-mail, but send it out 2 days later?

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