Question for Mac users

[Jay Jolliffe]

Is there a way to have a read receipt on your e-mail that shows when the recipient has read the e-mail.....In windows you can but on the Mac I can't find a way to do it.

[Shawn Pixley]

It isn't a Mac vs PC problem. It is entirely dependent upon your email program. I personally use Thunderbird, but it works with MS Outlook as well. What are you using?

[Jay Jolliffe]

I'm using the mail program that came with the Mac.....I don't know what it's called...

[Peter Stahl]

I'm not a Mac person but Mac's usually come with Safari for their Internet Browser. Do a Google search or maybe join the a Mac forum and search there for "Read Recipts".

[Shawn Pixley]

I don't care for the Apple mail program. I did a quick look but couldn't that preference to become active for requesting receipts.

I use Thunderbird. It is free through Mozilla. In several ways, it is better the MS Outlook. I suggest you change programs. But if you like Outlook, buy it. I prefer Macs to PC's (but can use both) but not all Apple freeware is the best.

[Eric Franklin]

The built-in mail program is called Mail which I use and it doesn't have support for receipts.

As a side note, receipts in email can't be trusted because it all depends on the person receiving the email to let the receipt be sent if the email client they are using supports it.

[Tim Morton]

The built-in mail program is called Mail which I use and it doesn't have support for receipts.

As a side note, receipts in email can't be trusted because it all depends on the person receiving the email to let the receipt be sent if the email client they are using supports it.

Mail will send out a "read receipt"...but you need to make a change via "terminal"

From an apple forum:


Yes, but it depends on a number of factors over which you have no control: the recipients' email client must support it (Mail doesn't) and have it turned on; and even if it is on, there is a way to strip out the receipt before they even read the email. Also, it will attach a receipt to all emails you send, regardless of the email address you send from.

Nonetheless, if you feel you need to do this:

Quit Mail.
Launch Terminal and enter this line exactly as below:

defaults write com.apple.mail UserHeaders '{"Disposition-Notification-To" = "user@domain.com"; }'
(where user@domain.com is the email address you're wanting receipts to) and press Enter, then quit Terminal.

Restart Mail and it should work.

[Eric DeSilva]

Is there a way to have a read receipt on your e-mail that shows when the recipient has read the e-mail.....In windows you can but on the Mac I can't find a way to do it.

In a related vein, has anyone figured out how to stop the iPhone mail program from sending receipts? I block all receipts from my email programs because it is typically how spammers validate email addresses. I find it very annoying that the iPhone doesn't allow you to stop this...

[John Coloccia]

Mac mail doesn't support read receipts. I suspect your exchange server is sending the read receipt out. It may work to disable read receipts on your desktop exchange client, but I'm not sure. Anyhow, I don't think it's the phone but rather the server. I'm assuming you're using exchange, yes?