Recipient autocomplete
As you type in To, Cc, or Bcc, Primail can suggest addresses it already knows on this Mac.
Where suggestions come from
Section titled “Where suggestions come from”Full compose can show:
- Recipient history — addresses you sent to from compose or compact compose
- Mail contacts — addresses built from mail activity and Gatekeeper accepts, not macOS Contacts and not a cloud address book
- Your own account addresses
Compact compose uses history only. It does not load the mail-contacts list.
History is remembered after a compose or compact send that reports sent, including a send held by Undo Send. That is not proof the provider has delivered the message. Inline reply does not write history.
Ranking favors recent and frequent sends.
How many you see
Section titled “How many you see”- Empty To focus: up to five frequent addresses.
- While typing: up to eight addresses in the list.
Those eight are the whole list, not eight history rows plus contacts.
Keyboard
Section titled “Keyboard”- ↑ / ↓ move
- Return or comma commits a chip
- Tab commits and moves on
- Space commits a complete address
- Esc closes the list without adding
- Backspace on an empty field removes the last chip
- The chip remove control deletes one address
What is not here
Section titled “What is not here”There is no Settings → Composer → Autocomplete switch. You cannot turn suggestions off.
Do not delete a mail database to hide one address. There is no supported per-suggestion delete control. History is local to this Mac.
Inline reply shows a fixed To line. Open full compose to edit recipients.
See Compose an email.