How to Disable “Follow Up” Mail Suggestions on Mac
One of the polarizing Mail for Mac features is “Follow Up”, which are suggestions on emails that Apple Mail thinks you should follow up with. The idea behind “Follow Up” suggestions in Mail is pretty simple; if you haven’t received a reply or heard back from a particular person or email, the last sent message will appear at the top of your Mail Inbox with a “Follow Up” tag attached to it. This feature has caused some confusion for people, because it sends old emails to the top of the inbox, which can make it appear as if the email is new or got a reply, when in fact it did not.
While some users may appreciate the nudge, others may find the Follow Up feature to be unwanted or annoying, and thus want to turn it off in Mail for Mac. That’s exactly what we’re going to show you how to do.
How to Turn Off “Follow Up” on Mail for Mac
- Open the Mail app on Mac if you haven’t done so yet
- Pull down the “Mail” menu, and choose “Settings”
- Under the General tab, uncheck the box next to “Follow Up Suggestions”
- Close out of Settings, the change takes effect immediately
Now you will no longer see the “Follow Up” suggestions, and old sent emails will no longer show up at the top of your email inbox.
Whether or not you like this feature likely depends on how much you want your apps and computer to remind or nudge you to do things, even things that are not necessarily relevant. Significant numbers of sent emails do not actually require a follow up, but the Mail app will often think they do, and because the messages appear at the top of users inboxes, it can give the false impression that a new message has been received. That has also led some users to believe that new email messages are not being properly loaded, when in fact there is no new email message to load, and they may even end up sending another email that is not necessary (if you act quickly, you can unsend the email however).
Like any feature, you can always re-enable the Follow Up feature if you find that you did like it after all, or that you want to give it a try again. Perhaps combined with Apple Intelligence writing emails for you you might find the feature to be more useful.
Why are old sent emails showing at the top of my Mail inbox?
If you see old sent emails appearing at the top of your Mail inbox, despite not having a reply, then this is likely the Follow Up feature.
The settings toggle for this feature describes Follow Up Suggestions as “Mail will remind you about messages that haven’t received responses.”
If you disable this feature, old sent emails will stop appearing at the top of your email inbox in the Mail app.
While this particular article is covering Follow Up Suggestions in Mail for Mac, the same feature exists on iPhone and iPad as well, where it can also be disabled or enabled depending on your preferences.
Do you enjoy the Follow Up suggestions feature in Mail for Mac? Did you disable this feature? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
