Numerous times, friends have sent me email containing “adult” photos. How can I keep photos attached to emails from automatically being saved to the images folder? I would hate for one of my young family members who have access to my Mac Pro to see those images.
Even though you aren’t explicitly saving the images from within Mail, the application is saving and indexing those images (in ~/Library/Mail) for faster retrieval in the future. If you are using POP-based email, the images will be downloaded and stored on your Mac regardless, just as your email messages are, but if you have IMAP-based email, you can limit the local storage to just the messages and not attachments.
When you exit out of the preferences, you will be prompted to save the new settings.
Open Mail and navigate to Mail > Preferences > Accounts, and select the account that you wish to limit storage on. Next, click the Advanced tab. Under “Keep copies of messages for offline viewing,” you’ll see a drop-down menu with various options. To keep a local copy of the messages, but not their attachments, select “All messages, but omit attachments.” Or click “Don’t keep copies of any messages” to disable the local storage completely.
Optionally, if you’re concerned about security, you can create a separate user account for other family members. You can do this by visiting System Preferences > Users & Groups, and clicking the + (add) button. Then, be sure to secure your own account with a password.
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jimmyrourk
December 05, 2011 at 10:22am
This article is a FAIL. We don't need to know your Porn problem or your friends. Or how to enable others to hide. Why would you post a article like this, in which young teenagers read?
pollixx
December 06, 2011 at 1:59am
The article is not fail. He was using it as an example. I actually found this to be helpful because I don't need attachments offline. However, I do need the actual contents of the email. So this information was helpful to me for my travels away from the internet. GREAT ARTICLE!!
jimmyrourk
December 06, 2011 at 7:58am
I agree, it was very helpful, but maybe didn't need to be put in the context of "Adult" images. Me response was harsh, but only because I have seen so-called "adult images" destroy many friends and their families.
That said, you are right - the point of the post was well intended and very helpful. Putting it in the context of hiding Porn - not so much.
Thanks for the feedback on my post.
corybohon
December 06, 2011 at 8:14am
Sorry if this post offended you in any way. That definitely was not the intention. All Ask questions are worded just as readers send them in.
