How can I disable Mail.app when I click on an email address?
By default, clicking on an email address from another mac app (such as Slack) launches the Mail.app application in a compose view to that email address.
I would like to disable this - I never use the Mail.app and most times I encounter an email address I'd like to copy/paste it somewhere else, not compose an email to that person.
Is there a way to disable that behavior?
Solution 1:
Notwithstanding any sneaky Terminal commands I know not about, OS X will always have the need to open some app upon clicking an e-mail link. Literally any app of your liking will do.
Such an app might be an app you don't mind being opened. Like… the Finder!
-
Open Mail Preferences and go to the first tab, General. Choose the pop-up menu for Default email reader and pick Select….
-
Choose Macintosh HD (or whatever you've renamed your boot volume to) → System → Library → CoreServices → Finder.app.
Try it out! (I can't post
mailto:links here though. 😕)
If you work with spaces or full-screen apps, clicking a mail link might switch spaces. But at least no apps are launched. On my computer, not even a new Finder window is opened.
Solution 2:
Had the same problem here, but decided to do a little more. Instead of opening the "Finder" app, I used the "Automator" to create an application that literally does nothing!
The key is to save the Automator project and them put a command on it that will close the same Application you're editing! Them just set it as the default mail application. This way you won't have to worry about some application opening when you click in the address.
I made a simple tutorial with some screenshots if you want to check it out: