Comments on: Delete Mail in OS X Mountain Lion the Smart Way, Like Outlook

By: Deborah

Deborah — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:44:15 +0000

I think mail in OS X is a disaster. There are so many better features in Outlook that you’d think Mac would try to imitate. This ascending/descending issue in deleting mail is a huge annoyance. I thought there was a preferences option to change this, but alas, no. I actually go back and forth between Outlook for Mac (which I love, but which often crashes) and MacMail, but I have mistakenly deleted many emails in Mail in error because it goes the other direction (up, instead of down). That is NOT INTUITIVE, and Mac developers of Mail should be totally trashed for this stupid decision.

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 21:05:03 +0000

Count me also as an annoyed user. I understand (now) the algorithm used, but when you have many emails of which you only have read some selected ones, trying to delete things in the middle of the list is annoying and error prone.
I don’t (and can’t) keep track which one is the newest unread. My fingers want a mechanical action.

By: Carlos

Carlos — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:06:21 +0000

I’ve been on Mac since 2000. Now I’m seriously considering going back to Windows because of this kind of Apple stuff.

By: Wes

Wes — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:17:42 +0000

Yup, this is annoying as hell. Whoever thought this was a good idea should be fired!

By: David

David — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:41:48 +0000

It’s not deleting forwards or backwards, but rather Mail will delete “towards” new messages, so it can change direction at any time.

For example, say you have three messages, A (1pm), B (2pm) and C (3pm). If all three are unread, and you delete B, the cursor will end up on C. If all three are read, and you delete B, the cursor will end up on C. If A is read, and C is unread, and you delete B, again the cursor will end up on C.

However, if A is unread, and C is read, when you delete B, the cursor ends up on A (!)

So the problem is not so much that the delete goes “up” or “down”. The problem is that the direction is dependent on the messages AROUND the message you are deleting! If you are deleting a bunch of messages by hitting delete a few times, the delete can actually change direction halfway through.

I can’t even imagine how someone thought this was a good idea.

By: cobold

cobold — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 22:09:30 +0000

Just double-click-and-hold, then drag across the messages to select. Guess this was introduced to get rid of the “move or select?” problem.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 11:32:42 +0000

I like the mail sorted newest to oldest and like the selection to be down to an older message instead of jumping up to an email I’ve already read.

The main issue, the inability is no longer there to select a preference setting. I also agree with one of the commenter, I hate the new single entry txt box in Safari. My can’t go straight to a site any more, Google always displays a result list and not it is a two effort to go to a site.

Apple if you want to make a change, please have a preference to allow an older method. Please Stop forcing your way way on to people…

By: Renaldo

Renaldo — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 20:53:27 +0000

Chiming in as well. Googling around to find a quick fix and found this page. Seems the majority of ushate the change. This is definitely not an improvement. It actually !@#$ everything up. WTF!

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 23:02:37 +0000

I hate the new delete feature as well. Can someone help me figure out how to delete multiple emails at one time?
It used to be so fast to clean up an in box.
This is driving me nuts

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:04:02 +0000

You can have the scroll bars always show – it is in the General preferences panel.

I also hate the change in direction of deleting – I have lost emails that I need.

By: brian

brian — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:24:44 +0000

anyone figure out how to turn this off?

By: Anthony

Anthony — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 23:19:49 +0000

Count me with those perplexed by this change. Yes, deletion direction mirrors the last navigation direction, which is entirely counter-intuitive, and against the way that most software works, where the next item selected is the one lower on the list, not higher.

More recent messages are more urgent. I desperately want a way to restore the previous behavior. Had I known of this stupidity I would have stuck with Lion.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 21:54:51 +0000

This “it” decides how you want to move after delete is so annoying. If you are moving with the arrow keys, that dictates where you go next. If a message is unread, then that decides how you want to move.
OSX is getting so much like Windows, each upgrade takes away control and creates frustration. Did Apple hire Bill Gates?
Maybe it is time to switch to Outlook and give up on Mail.

By: pwb

pwb — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:23:11 +0000

The new “after-delete” behavior is strange. Like many people, I sort mail in descending chronological order and read my email upwards from the oldest unread message. In the old Mail, after deleting it would always move up one message. What I believe it does now is move up when the next message up is unread but move down if the next up message is read. This is very annoying. I always want to move up one message after deleting.

This setting doesn’t seem to do anything anymore: IgnoreSortOrderWhenSelectingAfterDelete

By: brian

brian — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:47:45 +0000

please let me know if you find out.