Help! remove read receipts in Apple Mail using Terminal

It looks like many years ago I naively must have added the following to terminal…

---

defaults write com.apple.mail UserHeaders ‘{“Disposition-Notification-To” = “Name <[email protected]>”; }’

---

Having found out years later I need to remove it. Google says use….

---

defaults delete com.apple.mail UserHeaders

---

But that only returns…

—— There is no (UserHeaders) default for the (com.apple.mail) domain.

Defaults have not been changed. ——

Does anyone know the correct command to reset this?

David Owen

If you are patient, typing defaults read into the terminal will give you EVERYTHING. Parse through that with a text editor. See if you can find a key that looks likely, or has the value you noted.

Walter

On Feb 6, 2019, at 2:48 PM, David Owen <[email protected]> wrote:

It looks like many years ago I naively must have added the following to terminal…

---

defaults write com.apple.mail UserHeaders ‘{“Disposition-Notification-To” = “Name <[email protected]>”; }’

---

Having found out years later I need to remove it. Google says use….

---

defaults delete com.apple.mail UserHeaders

---

But that only returns…

—— There is no (UserHeaders) default for the (com.apple.mail) domain.

Defaults have not been changed. ——

Does anyone know the correct command to reset this?

— David Owen

Hi Walter,

There’s no match to anything useful when searching in ‘defaults read’.

However looking in mail preferences theres a .plist file… com.apple.mail.plist is mentioned…

—— Disposition-Notification-To_Name <[email protected]>ж
:
——

Do you know, can I ditch this .plist preferences to get ride of this? Would is screw things up with mail?

On 6 Feb 2019, at 20:06, Walter Lee Davis <[email protected]> wrote:

If you are patient, typing defaults read into the terminal will give you EVERYTHING. Parse through that with a text editor. See if you can find a key that looks likely, or has the value you noted.

Walter

David Owen

Have a look in ~/Library/Preferences for com.apple.mail.plist and see if the relevant key is in there. Make sure Mail is not running, then edit this file to remove that key and its value. Make sure to keep a backup of the original value, and use a programmer’s text editor to make the changes. You have to follow the rules of XML: remove a complete tag or tag tree, don’t leave any un-balanced hanging tags anywhere.

Walter

On Feb 7, 2019, at 4:43 AM, David Owen <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Walter,

There’s no match to anything useful when searching in ‘defaults read’.

However looking in mail preferences theres a .plist file… com.apple.mail.plist is mentioned…

—— Disposition-Notification-To_Name <[email protected]>ж
:
——

Do you know, can I ditch this .plist preferences to get ride of this? Would is screw things up with mail?

On 6 Feb 2019, at 20:06, Walter Lee Davis <[email protected]> wrote:

If you are patient, typing defaults read into the terminal will give you EVERYTHING. Parse through that with a text editor. See if you can find a key that looks likely, or has the value you noted.

Walter

—

David Owen

Yes it’s in there (see last reply)

in Text Wrangler it shows…

---

UserHeaders Disposition-Notification-To Name <[email protected]> ——

Would all this be removed or leave ‘UserHeaders’ in?

—

David

On 7 Feb 2019, at 13:31, Walter Lee Davis <[email protected]> wrote:

Have a look in ~/Library/Preferences for com.apple.mail.plist and see if the relevant key is in there. Make sure Mail is not running, then edit this file to remove that key and its value. Make sure to keep a backup of the original value, and use a programmer’s text editor to make the changes. You have to follow the rules of XML: remove a complete tag or tag tree, don’t leave any un-balanced hanging tags anywhere.

Walter

On Feb 7, 2019, at 4:43 AM, David Owen <emai[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Walter,

There’s no match to anything useful when searching in ‘defaults read’.

However looking in mail preferences theres a .plist file… com.apple.mail.plist is mentioned…

—— Disposition-Notification-To_Name <[email protected]>ж
:
——

Do you know, can I ditch this .plist preferences to get ride of this? Would is screw things up with mail?

On 6 Feb 2019, at 20:06, Walter Lee Davis <[email protected]> wrote:

If you are patient, typing defaults read into the terminal will give you EVERYTHING. Parse through that with a text editor. See if you can find a key that looks likely, or has the value you noted.

Walter

—

David Owen

Only leave UserHeaders there if there are other children following it. Otherwise, remove the key and the dict it references.

Walter

On Feb 7, 2019, at 8:40 AM, David Owen <[email protected]> wrote:

Yes it’s in there (see last reply)

in Text Wrangler it shows…

---

UserHeaders Disposition-Notification-To Name <[email protected]> ——

Would all this be removed or leave ‘UserHeaders’ in?

—

David

On 7 Feb 2019, at 13:31, Walter Lee Davis <[email protected]> wrote:

Have a look in ~/Library/Preferences for com.apple.mail.plist and see if the relevant key is in there. Make sure Mail is not running, then edit this file to remove that key and its value. Make sure to keep a backup of the original value, and use a programmer’s text editor to make the changes. You have to follow the rules of XML: remove a complete tag or tag tree, don’t leave any un-balanced hanging tags anywhere.

Walter

On Feb 7, 2019, at 4:43 AM, David Owen <[email protected]> wrote:

Hi Walter,

There’s no match to anything useful when searching in ‘defaults read’.

However looking in mail preferences theres a .plist file… com.apple.mail.plist is mentioned…

—— Disposition-Notification-To_Name <[email protected]>ж
:
——

Do you know, can I ditch this .plist preferences to get ride of this? Would is screw things up with mail?

On 6 Feb 2019, at 20:06, Walter Lee Davis <[email protected]> wrote:

If you are patient, typing defaults read into the terminal will give you EVERYTHING. Parse through that with a text editor. See if you can find a key that looks likely, or has the value you noted.

Walter

—

David Owen

Thanks Walter

Yes! That did it, only fully took after a restart and an alt-command-P-R

Must have been held in memory.

On 7 Feb 2019, at 13:42, Walter Lee Davis <[email protected]> wrote:

Only leave UserHeaders there if there are other children following it. Otherwise, remove the key and the dict it references.

Walter