Apple Mail Mavericks, setup, change, install email signature
Setup, add, change, install HTML email signatures in Apple Mail Lion 10.7. Follow our easy install guide, screenshots, videos and troubleshooting.
To find out which version you are using, click on the Apple logo in the top left hand corner of the top toolbar, and select "About This Mac".
Before you start
You need to login to your Email Signature Rescue account using either the Google Chrome Browser (download it here) or Mozilla Firefox Browser (download it here). You cannot install your signature by copying it from the Apple Safari browser, as this will result in errors.
If you have been emailed your signature file, simply open it in Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
- Written Instructions (Recommended)
- Raw HTML Instructions (Advanced)
- Slideshow Raw HTML
- Video Raw HTML
- 1Step One:
Login to your Email Signature Rescue account and press the "Full Screen Preview" on the email signature you would like to install in Apple Mail on Mavericks OS X 10.9. This will open your email signature in a new browser window.
2Step Two:Now that your email signature is open in a new window, press Command + A to highlight the signature, then press Command + C to copy the signature.
Important: Do not use your mouse to highlight the email signature, only use Command + A. If you use your mouse, you may miss out on grabbing some of the HTML code.
3Step Three:Open Apple Mail (Mavericks OS X 10.9) and create a new signature. To create an email signature, go to your top toolbar and select Mail > Preferences.
then clicking on the "Signatures" tab to the top right. You should then see your email accounts in the left hand side of this window. Select the email account that you would like your email signature to be associated with, highlight it and then press the + icon at the bottom to create a new signature.
Give the signature a name and then click into the signature text box and delete all of the contents. When the signature text box is completely empty, press Command + V to paste your email signature in.
Important: The signature may not show properly when you paste it in here. It may look like a blank image or the text may look all distorted. Don't worry about this. Test your email signature is installed correctly by composing a new email message instead.
Make sure to choose your new signature too. If the box under the signature settings box says Choose Signature: "None", select the signature you would like to use from the dropdown list.
- 1Step One:
Download your HTML file from Email Signature Rescue. Open the Email Signature Rescue HTML file using TextEdit or TextMate2 or if you have different HTML reading/writing software, any one is fine.
Your file should look like this when it's open in TextEdit:
If you do not see HTML code when you open this file like the example above, you may need to change some preferences in TextEdit. This can be done by going to the top toolbar and selecting TextEdit > Preferences - Click on Restore All Defaults button at the bottom. Then under Format settings at the top select the "Plain Text" radio button. Click on the "Open and Save" tab at the top, and tick "Display HTML files as HTML code" at the top of this page. You will only need to do this, if your TextEdit program does NOT show html code the first time you open it.
2Step Two:Open Apple Mail and create a new signature. To create an email signature, go to your top toolbar and select Mail > Preferences.
then clicking on the "Signatures" tab to the top right. You should then see your email accounts in the left hand side of this window. Select the email account that you would like your email signature to be associated with, highlight it and then press the + icon at the bottom to create a new signature.
Save the signature then close the Mail program. This is important, Mail must be closed now so we can edit the email signature we just created. If you do not quit the Mail program now, it will not work correctly and you will have to start all over again.
3Step Three:Open Finder. In the finder menu options click on "Go" and then select "Go to Folder".
In the Go to Folder window enter
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Signatures
You can copy and paste the path above into Finder. Don't forget to include the ~ character in the front, it's important.
This is where you should be in Finder as pictured below.
Important: If using iCloud and you will need to locate your file here instead. (You can find out if you are using iCloud by checking System Preferences > iCloud).
~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~mail/Data/MailData/Signatures
Now find the signature you just created. The file you are looking for ends in .mailsignature. The correct .mailsignature file will be created on today's date.
For example, D879F2D5-CCA1-4BCA-AA5F-5EEB54995957.mailsignature
Open this file using TextEdit or TextMate2 (Open With > Other > Applications > TextEdit).
4Step Four:You need to now Copy (Command C) the entire code from the Email Signature Rescue HTML file (usually named something like email_signature.html) and paste (Command V) the code into the .mailsignature file.
Important! You need to leave the header text in the mail signature, do not paste over the header text. See image below. Save the .mailsignature file > Save. (or Command S).
5Step Five:If you are using iCloud, do not complete Step Five. You do not need to lock the file.
Select the email signature file in Finder. Press "Command I" and then tick the "Locked" tick box (see image below)
If you use iCloud and your HTML email signature appears blank after you have followed our instruction guide, you will need to do the following:
Go to System Preferences > iCloud
Uncheck "documents & data"
This is a known issue with Apple Mail, you can read more about it here. It looks like Apple are aware of the issue and working on it.Congratulations! You will now see your brand spanking new Email Signature when sending emails from Apple Mail Mavericks OSX.
Non iCloud Users: your .mailsignature file is saved here ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Signatures (as shown in the video)
IMPORTANT for iCloud Users
1. Your .mailsignature file is saved here ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~mail/Data/MailData/Signatures/ - not where shown in this video
2. Do not lock the .mailsignature file after you have saved it
3. If the signature keeps disappearing from Mac Mail, go to System Preferences, iCloud and uncheck "documents & data"