Recently, a friend of mine who shall remain nameless (cough…Kerry…cough) sent an email to someone that was intended for someone else. Her scenario was fairly benign, but I’ve heard stories of dire consequences for making a mistake like this. (Inappropriate email to your boss, anyone?)
It’s easy enough to do—Apple Mail autocompletes email addresses* that you’ve used before (whether or not the person is in your Address Book), so by just typing one letter, you could potentially select the wrong address if you’re moving too fast.
Here’s how to delete an address from auto-complete:
- Start typing the recipient’s address or name in a new message.
- Select the desired address from the auto-complete list as if you’d compose an email to them.
- Click the small down arrow in the recipient.
- Select Remove from Previous Recipients List from the menu.
You can also search for the unwanted address directly in the previous recipients list: - Select Window | Previous Recipients from the menu in Mac OS X Mail.
- Highlight the address you want to remove.
- You can highlight multiple addresses by holding down the Command key.
- Click Remove from List.
You can also use the Previous Recipients window to eliminate old addresses. Click here to view the step-by-step the process.
*There is a setting in Mail Preferences that is checked by default called “Automatically complete addresses.” You may uncheck this if you’d prefer (though it is very handy as long as it uses only email addresses you want).