Can I remove Mail.app if I don’t use it?

By On · 5 Comments

Mail iconQuestion: I do not use the default Mail.app from Apple. I prefer Mozilla Thunderbird. Can I uninstall it to save space and reduce clutter on my Mac?

Answer: I personally agree with the principle. Mail.app is a decent default option, but there are other email solutions out there and I believe that many are superior. That doesn’t mean you should remove it from your Mac, however.

It may be a bit of a paradox but the very reason why you want Mail.app to stay around is to preserve your ability to control easily which application is your default for email.

Default mail reader

As you can see above, preferences in Mail.app help you to choose the “default email reader”. There are other ways, such as modifying a preference file, but doing it from Mail.app is the easier, graphical, safe choice.

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  • William Starnes

    Does “default email reader” imply that another email client can be the “default email sender” as well? It seems that mail.app insists on sending mail from FM Pro even though my university address is prefered.

  • HossB

    Apple messed up by not putting ALL preferences in the System Preferences.

  • Anonymous

    To each their own but this sort of attitude simply makes no sense. Save space and reduce clutter? Asinine in this day of almost unlimited storage. Being anal can come back to bite you in the anus too. Support forums are full of people who got into trouble by trying to delete stuff they don’t think they need or use in the name of neatness or reducing clutter.

  • http://www.fcbayerncentral.com/ Michel

    There must be a programming or scripting link between FM Pro and Mail.app for that to happen.

  • Ben

    Simply put. Yes You Can.
    From a terminal the following will kill macmail :
    sudo rm -rf /Applications/Mail.app/
    As to whether its a good idea or if you should do so then you decide.