{"id":52846,"date":"2026-08-05T17:11:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=52846"},"modified":"2026-08-05T17:11:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:11:24","slug":"mail-attempting-to-sync-previous-recipients-despite-setting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/05\/mail-attempting-to-sync-previous-recipients-despite-setting\/","title":{"rendered":"Mail Attempting to Sync Previous Recipients Despite Setting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Johnson<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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Nonetheless, when I send an email in Mail app, from a non-iCloud account to an non-iCloud account, Mail immediately triggers an iCloud connection, as revealed by Little Snitch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

What could Mail be querying and saving in CloudKit when I’ve disabled Mail in iCloud?<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

As you can see in my screenshot at the beginning of this blog post, I have Contacts turned off<\/em> in iCloud settings, so my Previous Recipients list should not<\/em> be synced to iCloud. Nonetheless, I followed the commenter’s suggestion of logging in Terminal. I saw log messages that referred to com.apple.mail.recents<\/code>, which might indicate Previous Recipients and would certainly explain why this happens when I send an email.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

I do object to notifying Apple that I’ve just sent an email. That in itself seems like a violation of my privacy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The settings are confusing, even more so than with System Preferences. If you go to System Settings ‣ Apple Account<\/strong>, it shows a round rect that says Mail<\/strong> and shows the Mail icon. If you click this, it lets you uncheck Sync this Mac<\/strong> for iCloud Mail<\/strong>. This mirrors the iCloud Mail<\/strong> checkbox that you get when you click See All<\/strong> to see the full list of apps. I don’t like how the top-level name and icon suggest that you’re going to a settings sheet for the Mail app, but then it actually gives you iCloud<\/em> settings.<\/p>\n\n

Importantly, there’s also another<\/em> Mail<\/strong> checkbox in that list. It’s easy to miss because, first, why would you expect to see two<\/em> Mail<\/strong> checkboxes?<\/p>\n\n

And, second, it’s not obvious that there are actually three<\/em> lists: a bunch of “favorite” system apps, in non-alphabetical order, for some reason including lesser ones like Freeform<\/strong> and Image Playground<\/strong>; followed by a second list of system apps in alphabetical order; and then a third list of alphabetical third-party apps.<\/p>\n\n

Mail<\/strong> is in the second list, along with (to me) other top-tier apps like Books<\/strong> and Maps<\/strong>. Anyway, this second Mail<\/strong> checkbox controls the syncing of non-mail Mail data such as rules and smart mailboxes. But not, apparently, according to Apple<\/a>, the previous recipients.<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n