On a Mac when you click a link that is a mailto link it will open the default email application, which is the MacOS Apple Mail app or just Mail.app. Many times you might have another email client such as Outlook or Spark, so you will need to change the default mail client to the email application you are using. I recently changed the default email application on my Macbook Pro running Mojave OSX from Apple Mail to Outlook. This can easily be completed using the steps that are detailed below to change the default mail client on MacOS.
Configure Default Email Client On MacOS
Follow the directions below to change the default email application on MacOS from Mail.app to your primary email application.
Open Apple Mail Application On MacOS
First open the Apple Mail application by opening a Finder window, navigating to the Applications folder and double clicking Mail.app as shown in the image below.
Once you have double clicked on Mail.app it will launch Apple Mail as shown in the below image.
Open Mail Preferences
Now that Apple Mail is open click Mail in the top menu bar and select Preferences from the drop down. This will open Apple Mail Preferences to the Default tab, which is where the default email client can be selected as shown below.
Configure Default Email Reader On MacOS
As you can see in the above image the very first item that can be configured is the default email reader. This just means the email client that will be opened when another application or a link on a website references the email client on your Mac. As noted in the beginning of this article that might be a mailto link on a website that pops up a email client window with the To Field already filled in.
Now on the first line of the General tab, which is titled Default email reader, click the arrows next to Mail.App to open a selection of the available email applications on your Mac. This selection window should look something similar to the image below.
In the image above I have selected Outlook since that is my primary email application. Make sure to select the email application from the Default email reader selection that is your primary email application. Once selected the default email application will save automatically.
MacOS Configure Default Mail Client
Now that you have made the selection you can close out the Mail Preferences configuration window displayed below.
You can also close Apple mail and then test whatever made you want to change the default email application on your Mac again to verify that it now opens your preferred email client, which in my case is Outlook for Mac.
Click here for more information about Apple Mail on MacOS or click here for more macos related articles from Question Defense.
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