Products · Product
Mail.app
Raised as a usability problem by 33 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2009–2025), in 32 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Deleting thousands of messages in large mailboxes is very slowUnreviewed
20092026- Mail.app has many annoyances with large IMAP folders2018-06-08
- Feels more sluggish than an older e-mail client on far slower hardware2017-04-16
- Native mail client slows to a crawl with a large mailbox, maxing out RAM2016-11-01
Search fails to find an email visibly on screenUnreviewed
20092026- Search fails to find an email that is visibly on screen2024-12-09
- Searching email is almost totally broken since macOS 112023-05-24
- Search is slow and incorrect, forcing a fallback to Gmail's web UI2020-07-12
Deleting an email must be repeated several times to fully remove itUnreviewed
20092026- Accidental click on notification's delete option permanently removes the email with no recovery2013-10-26
- Deleting an email requires repeating the action multiple times to fully remove it2012-07-23
- Delete key doesn't trash Gmail emails, forcing a multi-step menu workaround2010-11-06
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 33 complaints
- Can't share an email message directly; sharing requires workarounds like printing to PDF2025-10-16
- Search fails to find an email that is visibly on screen2024-12-09
- Can't tell whether toolbar labels are verbs or nouns, or what the arrow means2023-11-16
- Searching email is almost totally broken since macOS 112023-05-24
- Setting text is confusing about how the native and web cursor styles differ2022-02-02
- Mail.app unexpectedly activates and fills half the screen during full screen use2021-12-21
- Setting up a Teams or Zoom call from an email takes many more steps2021-08-30
- Can't get Mail.app working with Exchange shared mailboxes2020-10-04
- Search is slow and incorrect, forcing a fallback to Gmail's web UI2020-07-12
- Has problems and seems to be getting worse, so the user stopped using desktop clients2019-07-08
- Claims some messages are unread when they aren't2018-09-24
- Commenter finds the app's user experience terrible, without saying what goes wrong2018-09-08
- Mail.app has many annoyances with large IMAP folders2018-06-08
- Freezes or misbehaves on bulk deletes and moves, making users afraid to move emails2018-04-11
- Feels more sluggish than an older e-mail client on far slower hardware2017-04-16
- Native mail client slows to a crawl with a large mailbox, maxing out RAM2016-11-01
- Can't see which mails are unread among thousands, and select-all doesn't work to mark everything read2016-03-18
- Buggy and broken in too many ways to use2016-01-06
- Mail.app is slow to start and hangs when email rules send notifications2015-01-04
- Mail.app shortcuts are annoying and the app feels slow2014-05-12
- Moving mail to another folder leaves a copy in the inbox, and deleting that copy deletes the moved one2013-10-26
- Accidental click on notification's delete option permanently removes the email with no recovery2013-10-26
- Search in Mail.app is unreliable and sometimes returns odd or wrong results2013-07-18
- GPG signing breaks after OS X upgrades because GPGTools releases lag behind2013-05-21
- Mail spontaneously corrupts messages and passwords, and is unreliable on good days2012-09-14
- Repeatedly asks for password and fails to retrieve mail with two-factor auth2012-08-07
- Deleting an email requires repeating the action multiple times to fully remove it2012-07-23
- Pasting text into new messages drops the newlines, with no obvious cause2011-04-15
- Delete key doesn't trash Gmail emails, forcing a multi-step menu workaround2010-11-06
- Slow IMAP sync runs every time it opens, so the user waits2010-05-23
- Mail.app is too slow to delete thousands of messages in large mailboxes2009-10-29
- Refresh gives no feedback on whether accounts are checking, so mail silently stops arriving2009-08-11
- Same emails group into different conversations in each client, infuriating when switching between them2009-02-09