Reply-To address is used when you want the replies to your emails to be delivered to a different email address than the one you send the email from. For example, if I send an email from sarayoo@ domain.com to someone@ gmail.com. When someone@ gmail.com replies to my email, I want the reply to be delivered in someone-else@ domain.com and NOT sarayoo@ domain.com.
In my earlier article, I explained how to set reply-to email address in Microsoft Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Outlook 2010. In this article, we will see how to do the same in Mac OS X Mail application.
Configuring reply-to in Mac OS X Mail is different from how it is done in Outlook on a Windows computer. In the Mail application in Mac, you can either have an option to choose reply-to for a single mail or you can have the same configured for all email you send out, as a default setting. In the first case, reply to the particular email only will be delivered to reply-to address, where as in the second case, replies to all emails you send out will be delivered to the reply-to email address.
How to Set Reply-To for a Single Email in Mac OS X Mail
Step 1:
Compose a new email in your Mail application
Step 2:
Click on View menu at the top, select “Reply-To Address Field”
A Reply To field will appear below To / Cc fields. Type your reply-to email address here. The reply to this particular email will be delivered to the email address you just typed.
How to Set Reply-To for All Email You Send Out in Mac OS X Mail
Step 1:
Run Terminal (Go to Utilities >> Terminal)
Step 2:
Type “defaults read com.apple.mail UserHeaders” (without quotes) and Enter
This is to check if any reply-to address is already configured. Most probably you will get an error: “The domain/default pair of (/Users/User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist, UserHeaders) does not exist“. This tells you that there is no reply-to address configured yet.
Step 3:
Type “defaults write com.apple.mail UserHeaders ‘{“Reply-To” = “[email protected]”; }’ ” (remove the ” ” at the beginning and end, after }’ ). Replace [email protected] with the email address where you want the reply to be delivered. Click Enter.
Step 4:
Type “defaults read com.apple.mail UserHeaders” (without quotes) and Enter to verify the repl-to address has been entered correctly. You should get a message similar to the screenshot showing the reply-to address you entered.
Step 5:
Send a test email to one of your other email addresses and try replying to the test email to ensure the changes are applied.
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