I’ve had a Yahoo email address for a very long time, and I still use it some. Maybe not my best choice, but that’s a different discussion.

Very recently, Yahoo has changed up its web-based interface, and it stinks. A lot. It’s cheesy and cartoonish, and overloaded with “features” that just get in the way. Oh, and it wants to offer me a summary of each message, as if I can’t read my email myself.

It’s stupid. I’m done with it.

As I’m using this MacBook a lot more, I figured I’d try out the built-in Mail program, simply pointing it to that Yahoo address. Having used it for all of ten minutes now, I sorta like it. It’s basic and simple, and that’s what I’m looking for. (This is probably where I should say that I do use Thunderbird on the PC in the house.)

What I can’t get seem to master, though, is having the built-in mail program NOT change each message’s status to “read” when I preview it. Often I like to leave messages marked as “unread,” so as to get my attention again when I come back to my email later on. I’m not one of those zero-inbox people, unfortunately.

I’ve been all through Mail settings, and I just don’t see a setting for this. Am I overlooking it? And should I go consider Thunderbird or some other email program instead of Apple’s Mail program?

Thanks, all.

I use the native mail program and love it.

My Apple emails, old comcast email addresses, Gmail addresses etc. handles them all.

I am not sure if you can make it default to not showing as read once you open or preview but you can on a per email basis (or multiple if you select multiple emails) either ”flag” them with a marker (multiple colors to choose from) or set them back to “Unread” status.

I use it for 3 different email accounts. Super easy to use.

I use Apple’s built in email client on my MacBook. It’s basic and reliable.

But most of my emailing is done on my iPhone, where I use my email server’s web interface. It’s excellent. That service is fastmail.com

I’ve been using Apples mail app for several years. Get my gmail, cox mail, and icloud mail on it. It’s simple, it works, and it does what I need.

I use native Mail on my Macbook Air for 4 personal accounts, but use Outlook for Mac for work e-mail and calendar.

You might consider getting an iCloud email address.
A couple of years ago I looked into getting Proton Mail for its end-to-end encryption. But when I did the research, it appeared that Apple’s built-in e-mail system has all the security I need.
I have a G-Mail account, but I never consider that it has the same security as my .mac (=.iCloud) email.

And another feature I love about Apple's Mail app vs Outlook is I don't get advertisements.

Dan, have you tried this?

https://support.apple.com/guid...-unread-mail0025/mac

I don't know which operating system you are using, so you may have to change that at the top.

Yes, I have been using Mail on my iMac for years, no complaints.

Absolutely. Does it have flaws? Absolutely. My only reason for using it is because I have five different emails for various companies and various purposes and this is simply more convenient having them all in one spot however it does seem every time they make a new iOS it creates new bugs in the Apple mailbox, so in my case, it's a love-hate relationship.

I think you have to go back and mark it as unread

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
having the built-in mail program NOT change each message’s status to “read” when I preview it. Often I like to leave messages marked as “unread,” so as to get my attention again when I come back to my email later on.

I manage my email the same way, but on Outlook on the PC.

What I do there (maybe there's an option on the Mac to do this also?) is

a) set up the reader so there's a big 'preview' pane, then

b) set it up not to mark email as read automatically.

As stuff comes in, I read using the preview pane. Stuff that needs further attention gets left alone, and I mark the rest as 'read'.

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
b) set it up not to mark email as read automatically.

This is exactly the setting I’m looking for, and haven’t yet found.

I use Thunderbird as my main mailer. I also use Apple Mail and VM in Emacs from time-to-time, and, in a pinch, Unix command line mail(1).

The last is also very handy for sending yourself the output of some complex or long-running process. Pipe to mail rather than to a file without having to cut'n'paste anything.

quote:

Originally posted by petr:
Dan, have you tried this?

https://support.apple.com/guid...-unread-mail0025/mac

I don't know which operating system you are using, so you may have to change that at the top.

Not what I'm talking about. Microsoft is pushing ads into the current version of Outlook at the top of your email list. You can still delete them, but the next time you open Outlook you'll have a new Microsoft approved advertisement at the top of your email.

On a tangent, Apple Mail has also been the only mail server I've seen that can also unsubscribe you from chain emails instead of digging through an email and jump through whatever hoops a data broker put in to keep you on a mailing list.

^^^^Sorry. Wrong Dan. I meant OP Dan.

^^ Copy.

quote:

Originally posted by petr:
Dan, have you tried this?

https://support.apple.com/guid...-unread-mail0025/mac

I don't know which operating system you are using, so you may have to change that at the top.

Hi, Pete! Glad to hear from you.

Thank you for the link. That article sort of addresses what I’m looking for, but not exactly.

The booger of [Apple] Mail for me is that when I preview a message, it instantly gets marked as read. I don’t want a message to actually be marked as read until I open the message (rather than just previewing it).

- - - -

This MacBook is running on Sequoia 15.6, by the way.

quote:

What I can’t get seem to master, though, is having the built-in mail program NOT change each message’s status to “read” when I preview it. Often I like to leave messages marked as “unread,” so as to get my attention again when I come back to my email later on. I’m not one of those zero-inbox people, unfortunately.

I'm looking at Apple Mail on my MacBook Air running 15.2.
Unread messages have a blue dot next to them; the message is in the right hand window where I can read it, without clicking on the message to open it. After clicking on the preview, the blue dot disappears, but if I right click and scroll down, I can "mark as unread", then the blue dot reappears. Is that what you're seeing?