Mail app in Sonoma adds html tags to hyperlinks in outgoing mail

[snail22]

When I compose an email that includes an email address or url in the body of the message, the Mail app adds an html tag to the body of the message, like this:

What's really annoying is that it gets added AFTER I send the message, so I can't just delete it. In other words, it looks fine before I hit send, but then I check the outbox and the tag is there. And if someone replies I can see it in my original message as well.

I've found nothing on any website or forum about this issue. I feel like if it were widespread, someone else would surely have griped about it. Can anyone confirm this does or doesn't happen to them? Any suggestions for a fix? I'm running the latest version of Sonoma on a 2021 Macbook Pro M1. Thanks!

 

[snail22]

Additional info if it's useful: I have both an iCloud and Yahoo email address, and this happens regardless of which account I send the message from. However, it only happens on the Mac Mail app. iCloud webmail, iOS mail, Yahoo mail app, etc. don't have this issue.

 

[snail22]

OK I switched from "plain text" to "rich text" in Mail settings and the problem went away. Still curious if others experience this issue in plain text mode, but at least I found a fix.

 

[svenmany]

OK I switched from "plain text" to "rich text" in Mail settings and the problem went away. Still curious if others experience this issue in plain text mode, but at least I found a fix.

Just tested. I see that too. It seems to be a consequence of Apple Mail interpreting it as a link when you type it in. If I right-click on the address and select "Link/Remove Link", then the problem goes away.

 

[MacGizmo]

If you send a link as Plain Text instead of Rich Text/HTML, then the tag is necessary and is added in automatically. It's not a bug, that's the way it's supposed to work.

 

[eRondeau]

Under macOS Sonoma Mail Settings -> Composing -> Composing there's a box labelled "Add Link Previews". It's checked by default; I think it's new in Sonoma. It's not documented anywhere in Mail Help. This might be your culprit as it seems to generate an "inline preview" of the link sent. I often send email to a group of 15 friends and one day everyone who used a PC started complaining my links didn't work anymore. I went looking at my Mail settings, found this one, unchecked it, and everything went back to normal. For what it's worth...

 

[BrianBaughn]

Just for comparison…I'm in Ventura and a plain text email sent from an exchange account to a yahoo account ends up like this at the yahoo webmail site:

All I sent was "My email: joe@joe.com".

 

[snail22]

Just for comparison…I'm in Ventura and a plain text email sent from an exchange account to a yahoo account ends up like this at the yahoo webmail site:

View attachment 2370783

All I sent was "My email: joe@joe.com".

Are you also using the MacOS Mail app?

 

[snail22]

If you send a link as Plain Text instead of Rich Text/HTML, then the tag is necessary and is added in automatically. It's not a bug, that's the way it's supposed to work.

I'm gonna say it's definitely a bug, though admittedly a relatively harmless one. An html tag is kind of useless if its just being read as plain text. It just makes my emails look cluttered and unprofessional.

 

[BrianBaughn]

Are you also using the MacOS Mail app?

Yes. Version 16.0.

 

[svenmany]

I'm gonna say it's definitely a bug, though admittedly a relatively harmless one. An html tag is kind of useless if its just being read as plain text. It just makes my emails look cluttered and unprofessional.

I think it's a bug too.

Today, I'm retesting. It has stopped doing it. Yesterday, after typing an email address and then a space, the email address would appear as a link. I clicked on it and selected remove link. I did that a couple of times. That fixed the issue. Today, with no other settings change, the email address does not appear as a link and no mailto is added.

I do have the preferences setting "add link previews" set.