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jasnw

jasnw

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 15, 2013
1,062
1,139
Seattle Area (NOT! Microsoft)
Just upgraded to 'Low' Sierra (from El Cap) and am working my way through fixing annoying changes. One I can't figure how to fix is with Mail. I use the 'classic layout' with the Inbox sorted by date received (ascending so that the latest Mail is at the bottom). Prior to the upgrade, when I'd open Mail the Inbox view was such that it was positioned showing the bottom of the mail list so that new mail was showing. Now, the Inbox view is at the top of the mail list and I can't find a way to change this back to the way it was. I've gone through lots of reboots (for other things) and stop/start of Mail, no change. I suspect it's a tweak in a plist, but not sure what it would be. Any ideas?
 
mail.png
 
Didn't get to try it. I had already fallen back to El Capitan for a myriad of other (small-but-annoying) issues when I saw your answer. I've filed this info away for my next attempt, however.
 
Out of curiosity I booted into the disk image I made of my Sierra installation before I fell back to El Capitan to try out your suggestion. That drop-down menu you show does not appear in the Classic view I use. So no, it won't work for me, and this issue is still one I need to resolve before moving to Sierra (or High Sierra, for that matter). I suspect this is something that requires a plist file tweak to fix.

Booting back into El Cap.
 
jasnw said:
That drop-down menu you show does not appear in the Classic view I use.
Click to expand...

That particular drop-down menu icon isn't there, but you can still do it by either clicking the "Date Received" column header to have it switch sort order on-the-fly, or by going to the menubar to View>Sort by item and choosing "newest messages on top."

Maybe I'm not understanding what you're trying to do here, but if I am understanding you correctly then all I can think of is that you're not looking in the right place—because it is there (see screenshot below).

mail-sort.png
 
I can get the sort order to come out the way I want (oldest on top). The problem is getting the list positioned within the visible window such that the 'new messages' end of the list (the bottom) is visible. When I open the Mail app, or click back to the Inbox from another mailbox, the view is always of the top (oldest) end of the list. I've never had this problem on previous versions.
 
Ahhh. I see your problem now. To be honest, I never noticed that your preferred viewing method was even an option. I don't have a solution for you, but it seems to me that it would be easier to just not fight the way it is and view the list with the newest email on top.

While this particular situation MAY just be a glitch with your setup, it's been my experience that Apple doesn't go back on most most things like this.
 
Tried comparing the com.apple.mail.plist files earlier today. A number of differences, but none I can link to this behavior. The only other option I see is to delete the plist file and redo all the settings. Not a step I'm really wanting to try given all the stuff that needs to be reset. This may end up happening anyway, since my solution to multiple odd post-upgrade behaviors is to do a clean install and then reload apps and redo settings manually. In which case I skip Sierra and wait for High Sierra to stabilize. Another reason to dislike rushed annual OS upgrades.
 
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