PSA: Apple Mail Incorrectly Parses Addresses in Signatures as Missing Recipients

With the release of macOS Ventura last month, Apple updated its stock Mail app with several long-awaited features, including the ability to remind you if you forget to add an attachment or recipient. However, it turns out that Mail incorrectly parses email addresses included in signatures as missing recipients.

mail missing recipient
"The new feature that is currently bothering me is Mail's new ability to remind me if I forget an attachment or recipient," writes 512 Pixels' Stephen Hackett, who was first to highlight the problem.

"Gmail and others have had this for years, and it's honestly great," he says. "It's just too bad that Mail doesn't seem to understand that some people put their email addresses in their email signatures."

"As you can see in this screenshot [above], Mail has started warning me every time I send a message that the email address in my footer has been left off the recipient list.

"This is a shockingly dumb catch on Mail's part because the application should know what I have set up using its own Signatures feature. It's literally right there in the app's own settings."

email signatures pane

Hackett has filed feedback with Apple to hopefully address the problem in a future update, but until then it's worth bearing in mind that Mail will continually bug you to add any addresses in your signatures as missing recipients before it lets you send messages on their way.

Related Forum: macOS Ventura

Popular Stories

iphone 16 display

iPhone 17's Scratch Resistant Anti-Reflective Display Coating Canceled

Monday April 28, 2025 12:48 pm PDT by
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors. Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
iPhone 17 Air Pastel Feature

iPhone 17 Reaches Key Milestone Ahead of Mass Production

Monday April 28, 2025 8:44 am PDT by
Apple has completed Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) for at least one iPhone 17 model, according to a paywalled preview of an upcoming DigiTimes report. iPhone 17 Air mockup based on rumored design The EVT stage involves Apple testing iPhone 17 prototypes to ensure the hardware works as expected. There are still DVT (Design Validation Test) and PVT (Production Validation Test) stages to...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Blue

20th Anniversary iPhone Likely to Be Made in China Due to 'Extraordinarily Complex' Design

Monday April 28, 2025 4:29 am PDT by
Apple will likely manufacture its 20th anniversary iPhone models in China, despite broader efforts to shift production to India, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In 2027, Apple is planning a "major shake-up" for the iPhone lineup to mark two decades since the original model launched. Gurman's previous reporting indicates the company will introduce a foldable iPhone alongside a "bold"...
iphone 17 air iphone 16 pro

iPhone 17 Air USB-C Port May Have This Unusual Design Quirk

Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years. iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack) At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...
apple watch ultra yellow

What's Next for the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3

Friday April 25, 2025 2:44 pm PDT by
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too. 2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3 Apple didn't update the...
AirPods Pro 3 Mock Feature

AirPods Pro 3 Just Months Away – Here's What We Know

Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 13 New Features

Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iPhone 17 Pro on Desk Feature

All iPhone 17 Models Again Rumored to Feature 12GB of RAM

Tuesday April 29, 2025 3:36 am PDT by
All upcoming iPhone 17 models will come equipped with 12GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence, according to the Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station. The claim from the Chinese leaker, who has sources within Apple's supply chain, comes a few days after industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max will all be equipped with 12GB of RAM. ...

Top Rated Comments

m_emelchenkov Avatar
33 months ago
What's the idea to add own e-mail to signature if it is already in the "From" field?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scrl Avatar
33 months ago
I think it's worse than this. I'm getting bugged when I merely mention another email address in a message, because Mail thinks that address should be a recipient too? WHY? I often want to mention another email address but not include them as a recipient. There really ought to be configurable rules around all this...
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NightFox Avatar
33 months ago
I don't even understand the point of this feature. It's really useful when an email client notices you might not have included an attachment you refer to, but I'm struggling to think of an instance where I would want to include the email address in the message body of someone I'm actually sending that email to. There maybe be niche cases, but I'd suspect that 99.9% of the time that's not something you would be wanting to do.

I'm sure someone will come up with a valid example though.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BF1M Avatar
33 months ago
The worlds most advanced os can’t do the most basic task correctly. Color me shocked.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MYZ Avatar
33 months ago
It's difficult to believe that zero people at Apple put their emails in their signature.

So then the obvious question is, why wasn't this easily caught earlier?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Detektiv-Pinky Avatar
33 months ago

What's the idea to add own e-mail to signature if it is already in the "From" field?
Some people still print emails, or forward them to other people and not always is the 'From' field preserved in this context. It makes sense to have your address embedded in the signature.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)