After installing the MacOS Big Sur upgrade, I was dismayed to find that the beloved red flags in the left column of Mail, which I'd used a lot to indicate messages I needed to do something with, had disappeared.
When I clicked on "Flag" in the menu bar, a flag would appear in the email message itself, but not next to it as was the case before Big Sur.
Thankfully, a bit of Googling revealed a simple fix. Just right-click the "Subject" box near the top of the screen and make sure "Flags" has a check mark next to it.
Once it does, voila, the flags appear as before. Here's a screenshot of some flag-happy messages in my inbox.
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Thank you very much for posting. Mystery solved!
I don’t see where the “flags” appear when clicking the Subject box.
Oh, you have to hold down the “Control” key and “Subject” to get the dropdown menu.
Kathy for me I right click on the Subject box and get the dropdown menu. Regardless, be sure “Flags” in the dropdown menu has a checkmark by it. Then click on the red (or whatever other color) icon in the Mail menu bar at the top of the screen when a message is highlighted and a flag will appear in the farthest left hand column in mail, which has a little flag above it.
I believe the process may differ depending on your particular combination of devices. I was not successful with the right-click method was able to use the control key.
Brian,
Thanks!
I’d just Big Sur updated on my laptop and the ability to flag disappeared exactly as you described…..and following your steps solved the problem ! ….all the more satisfying since as a total non tech architect/ painter this is the first time I’ve ever Googled a laptop problem and had the satisfaction of resolving the issue; rather, than relying on the usual fallback of waiting to have a younger staff member ” take care of it tomorrow.”
Jon Gregg
p.s. This is also the first fan letter I’ve ever written Grazie Signori !
OMG thank you SO much for that tip. I was so dismayed and disappointed in the new mail, but you FIXED IT for me!
OMG!!!
Thank you for the getting my flags back!!! I almost gave up!
Perfect. Thanks for that. It felt alien not being able to scan highlighted emails.
This has been driving me crazy! Thank you for the solution.
WTF? this function is so hidden it’s stupid
Thank you! I hate these updates when things look so different!
Lifesaver! Thank you so much
thank you.
Thank you so much! I just finally updated and panicked when I didn’t see my flags!
THANK YOU!!!!! It’s been driving me mad!
Thank you so much. I searched all the Apple help sites for the last 3 hours and nothing helped. Yours worked perfectly. Thank you! Thank You!! On my MacBook I found If you use 2 fingers (on the track pad) when you tap on the subject bar will bring up the options to add the flag and other options. Using only 1 finger to tap on the subject bar does nothing.
So grateful to have found this ! Just migrated from Mojave to Big Sur and was really struggling with Mail (which I use professionally).
So thank you very, very much and regards from London UK. : )
So relieved to have my flags back. Many thanks.
You are amazing! Totally worked for me. Thanks!!!!
Thank you so much – I have just updated to Monterey and had the same problem – but your solution also works for Monterey! Why do Apple have to complicate an easy task?!
Brilliant!.. Lost without my flagged column after upgrading to Monterey.
Using those flagged folders is not the same!
Thank you so much for the tip.
Thank you so much. I just downloaded Monterey and the same thing happened. It feels good to have my trusty flags back! I love Apple but they perplex me sometimes.
Much appreciated.
Thank you so much for this! Amazing it’s not available in the apple/mac info anyplace (that I could find).
Another pathetic interface improvement from Apple has sucked twenty minutes from my life.
Oh. Thank you. I’ve struggled with this for over a year until I found this post. The people at Apple never stop fixing what isn’t broken.
Thank you!!
Thank you!!! I spent hours trying to figure this out!