How to stop a mac mail automatically accessing email addresses

By default, macOS Mail app can automatically complete email addresses as you type, which can be convenient but also annoying if you don't want it to. Here's how to stop Mac Mail from automatically accessing email addresses:

Method 1: Disable Auto-Complete

  1. Open the Mail app on your Mac.
  2. Go to Mail > Preferences (or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd +,).
  3. Click on the Accounts tab.
  4. Select the email account you want to disable auto-complete for.
  5. Uncheck the box next to Automatically complete from.

Method 2: Disable Auto-Complete for a Specific Email Address

  1. Open the Mail app on your Mac.
  2. Go to Mail > Preferences (or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd +,).
  3. Click on the Accounts tab.
  4. Select the email account you want to disable auto-complete for.
  5. Click on the Edit button next to Email Addresses.
  6. Select the email address you want to disable auto-complete for.
  7. Uncheck the box next to Automatically complete from.

Method 3: Disable Auto-Complete using Terminal

  1. Open the Terminal app on your Mac.
  2. Type the following command and press Enter: defaults write com.apple.mail DisableAutoComplete -bool true
  3. Restart the Mail app or log out and log back in for the changes to take effect.

After disabling auto-complete, you can still use the "To" field's dropdown menu to access your email addresses manually.