Get rid of Apple Mail and its Databases

I don't like Apple Mail and want it off of my computer... every last bit of it. I am running Mail 7.2 and OS X 10.9.2. and it is absolutely incompatible with GMail. I have now installed PostBox 3 and it is a dream as an email client. So how to I get rid of Apple Mail and its databases from my Mac?

Solution 1:

I am pretty sure that OS X will not let you delete Mail.app from within the Finder (although you may be able to force it from Terminal). I would not recommend deleting the app from the /Applications folder, since it is considered a part of the OS.

However, there is no reason why it has to live on the Dock, and for the most part if it's not somewhere where you keep seeing it, that's the most important thing it (unless you are really pressed for space on a small SSD, for example).

You can delete the mail files (your mail database, all the settings) by going into the ~/Library folder and finding those. Please note that deleting all your mail data will of course delete all your mail data (which is a bit like the "warning: contains nuts" sticker on a packet of nuts, but it's worth mentioning!).

The mail files all live under ~/Library/Mail/V2, and it's possible that mail attachments are stored separately in ~/Library/Mail Downloads.

Solution 2:

You can disable the Mail.app as Default mail client and stop using it.

In Firefox browser for example, go to the preferences and applications. The select which mail client is to be used.

If you have made any email accounts remove them and it will stop bothering you. As others have explained removing it by force is possible but there are possible problems with that since it is a part of the OS X.