Mail organize by conversation is very poorly implemented

In Mail organize by conversation is very poorly implemented as this is based upon the subject line. There should be an option to set it by from address, to address. Generally I find that Apple's ability to categorise data i.e. iTunes store is extremely poor, they really need to make their search and categorisation capabilities for more advanced in the options available to a user.

If I understand correctly, I am having the opposite problem:
Messages with the same subject, but with different senders, are not consolidated into a single thread/conversation.
For example, I receive many emails via a web form, where each message contains the same subject. In 10.6, these messages were ALL listed as a single thread that could be expanded/collapsed. In 10.7, they are now all separate messages in the Inbox (organized by "Conversation"), unless the same sender submitted more than once, in which case they are grouped together. What used to be a neat and condensed display is now a very long list.
I have just upgraded to Lion, and I have tried the various combinations of View by Conversation on/off, Include related messages on/off, etc., but I am unsure of whether this behavior is normal or not.
So, here's my question: When organized by Conversation, what is the criteria used to determine the threading? and, can this be changed?
It appears to be organized by Sender, but this post indicates otherwise. I like Peter's suggestion.
(And yes, I have already rebuilt the Evelope Index.)

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OS X Mail "Organize by Conversation" & attachments icon

I've got what seems like a minor gripe about OS X Lion Mail app's new "Organize by Conversation" view (but it's driving me crazy).
As far as I can tell, if any email in a conversation (thread) has ever had an attachment, then OS X Lion shows the newest message in the "Organize by Conversation" view as bearing an attachment icon in the message viewer window.
This strikes me as unhelpful. I have conversations (threads) that go back months. Just because months ago one email in the thread had an attachment, I don't want to be fooled into thinking each new message that arrives also has an attachment.
Does anybody know if it's possible to turn this "feature" off?
John

True, but that misses my point. I very much like "Organize by Conversation" view. What I don't like is a particular interface feature of "O by C' view, namely that the conversation header displays the attachment icon even when an attachment is not a contemporary part of the conversation but merely occurs somewhere in the (possibly remote) history of the conversation.
For example, one solution would be to have a greyed attachment icon if the conversation contains attachments in earlier messages only, but a black one (or a red one) if the attachment is part of the most recent message.

Mail "Organize by Conversation" has blank messages

When I click the "Organize by Conversation" in "View", all old emails are nicely organized by thread, and if I click on the 'top' part of the thread (with the triangle) I can see all of the emails, or I can click on an individual email in the thread. If I get a new email in the thread, I can still see it in the top part, but if I click on the individual email, it shows up as just a blank grey window (the color of the background in the mail view). Typically, when this happens, the "Unread" flag stays on, even though the mail has been read.
There are two ways (that I know of) to fix this once it happens: I can uncheck/check "Organize by Conversation" or I can destroy and recreate the message viewer window (Command-W/Command-0). When the message viewer window is recreated this way, the "unread" flag is correctly cleared.
This most often happens with my mail account connected to an Exchange server.
Has anyone else seen this behavior, which seems to me to be a bug.

Hmm, yes, I have exactly the same issue. Apple mail upgraded my IMAP account to an IMAP Exchange account, and now I have messages that stay unread until I unorganize/organize by conversation. Other devices that use IMAP do know that the message has been read...
Any solutions anybody?

Mail organize by conversation mixup

I found there have mixup of over hundred by the organise by conversation function. Could I really organise those and fix the one that not belong to the conversation?
Or where I could setup for the rules that belongs on the same conversation or not?

Mferchak wrote:
I have a similar problem. Since upgrading to Yosemite.
The search will return dozens of emails that are totally unrelated.
Same thing for me. Also, Mail sometime can't group messages with the same object.
didier
[OSM-talk-fr] Couche QA - zones à mapper
JB
[OSM-talk-fr] Couche QA - zones à mapper
See also Question Mail : améliorer l'organisation par conversation
PS: I tried to Rebuild the Mailbox but that's don't fix this issue.

Very poor implementation of XMLHttpRequest streaming with Safari for Window

I hope this post reaches Apple engineers. This is critical for us to resolve this. I am a member of the developer network, so if using incident support is necessary, it can be used. Do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. I have implemented a test to compare XMLHttpRequest streaming performance for different browsers. Safari for Windows 5.0.3 had the worst results compared to Chrome and Firefox. Furthermore, I think this problem was introduced after Safari 3. The test consists of a server pushing messages of about 350 bytes to the browser at a rate of about 300/s. Once server pushes 10,000 messages, it closes the connection and browser opens new one repeating the cycle. There were several problems associated with Safari: 1) Safari could not process much more then 300 messages/s, that is quite low. Chrome had no problem processing 1,000. If, for example, 500 m/s was used, Safari would quickly allocate hundreds of meg of memory and crash. 2) Safari starts with about 64MEG of memory allocated. Once the test page is opened, memory quickly climes to 150MEG and as test progresses to >400MEG. Once the connection closes, it drops to 150MEG again. Chrome's memory did not fluctuate at all staying at 32MEG for the same test. 3) CPU was steadily claiming as test progressed and then dropped as connection was reset, creating CPU spikes. It reached about 50% CPU before connection was closed. Chrome's CPU stayed at about 2% all the time. This is the code: Server. Should be run with the latest Java Tomcat 7. Configure Tomcat to use Http11NioProtocol: package test; import java.io.IOException; import java.io.PrintWriter; import java.text.SimpleDateFormat; import java.util.Date; import javax.servlet.ServletException; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse; import org.apache.catalina.comet.CometEvent; import org.apache.catalina.comet.CometProcessor; @SuppressWarnings("serial") public class WebFrameworkServletXHRReconnects extends HttpServlet implements CometProcessor { @Override public void event(CometEvent event) throws IOException, ServletException { HttpServletRequest request = event.getHttpServletRequest(); HttpServletResponse response = event.getHttpServletResponse(); if (event.getEventType() == CometEvent.EventType.BEGIN) { System.out.println("Begin for session: " + request.getSession(true).getId() + " " + response.getWriter()); response.setHeader("pragma", "no-cache,no-store"); response.setHeader("cache-control", "no-cache,no-store,max-age=0,max-stale=0"); event.setTimeout(Integer.MAX_VALUE); PrintWriter out = response.getWriter(); SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("mm:ss: "); for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++) { out.print("{\"messageType\":8448,\"requestId\":"0",\"eventType\":1,\"symbolId\" :[\"BAC.EA\",0],\"fields\":[{\"header\":"0",\"type\":6,\"data\":[3993,2]},{\"hea der\":"55",\"type\":6,\"data\":[1185,2]},{\"header\":54,\"type\":6,\"data\":[321 8,2]},{\"header\":"5",\"type\":6,\"data\":[6617,2]},{\"header\":52,\"type\":4,\" data\":[15]},{\"header\":"12",\"type\":6,\"data\":[1700,2]}]}"); out.flush(); if (i % 10 == 0) { try { //Thread.sleep(60); Thread.sleep(30); } catch (InterruptedException e) { } } if (i % 100 == 0) { System.out.println(formatter.format(new Date()) + i); } } out.close(); event.close(); } else if (event.getEventType() == CometEvent.EventType.ERROR) { event.close(); } else if (event.getEventType() == CometEvent.EventType.END) { event.close(); } } } client: <script type="text/javascript" src="log4js.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var api;
var log = new Log(Log.DEBUG, Log.popupLogger);
var byteoffset;
var perocessedMessages;
function connect() {
perocessedMessages = 0;
byteoffset = 0;
id = 0;
api = new XMLHttpRequest;
api.onreadystatechange = onreadystatechange;
api.onerror = onerror;
log.debug('connect');
api.open("GET", "http://localhost/Test/Controller", true);
api.send("");
function onreadystatechange() {
switch (api.readyState) {
case 3:
change();
break;
case 4:
disconnect();
break;
function change() {
connected = true;
var buffer = api.responseText;
var newdata = buffer.substring(byteoffset);
byteoffset = buffer.length;
while (1) {
var x = newdata.indexOf("<activ>");
if (x != -1) {
y = newdata.indexOf("</activ>", x);
if (y != -1) {
processMessage(newdata.substring((x + 7), y));
newdata = newdata.substring(y + 8);
else {
break;
else {
break;
byteoffset = buffer.length - newdata.length;
function processMessage(msg) {
var objJson = eval('(' + msg + ')');
perocessedMessages++;
//if (perocessedMessages % 100 == 0) {
// log.debug('' + perocessedMessages);
function disconnect() {
log.debug('disconnect');
connect();
function onerror() {
log.debug('onerror');
</script>

I hope this post reaches Apple engineers. This is critical for us to resolve this. I am a member of the developer network, so if using incident support is necessary, it can be used.
We're a user-to-user forum, ilyag. So it'd be better for you to use the Apple Bug Reporter if you want to ensure someone from Apple sees your post:
http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/

Search in Mac Mail not working or working very poorly

Just found this on MacRumors
Post this into Terminal to enable indexing. Why it gets turned off I don't know. I think there used to be a button for it in Spotlight prefs which isn't there now. I remember turning it off once as it seemed to interfere with the smoothness of the computer. If you had turned it off when you upgraded to the OS version where the enable indexing button is no longer there, it will stay off.
So to turn it on: enter this into terminal and enter your password.
sudo mdutil -E -i on /
It enables indexing again and fixes the dreadful search function in Mac mail.
Nige

You are confusing Google (or other internet) searches with knowledge. It's possible to find that just about anything is true with the right search.
Further, if you feel that finding someone else who said that Spotlight indexing was turned off means that your Spotlight indexing must be turned off is completely illogical. Was your indexing actually turned off? Well, we'll never know now, if you didn't check it before.
What the command you used does is: 1) erase the old Spotlight index, forcing it to be recreated, and 2) make sure indexing is turned on. Most likely your old index was damaged, so recreating it fixed your problems.

ICloud - objectively a very poor implementation: discuss

Please, no 'apple can do no wrong' comments.
We've had plenty of hype in the last several months and, seemingly, promises of things moving on significantly but really this is quite a 'half-baked' offering.
The mobileme to icloud process tells you to use your MM a/c and then you end up with iCloud on your old MM a/c (that many of us never use) and iTunes on the a/c you had a choice about and I would guess mostly based on the email a/c we really see as 'ours'. And a transition between the two? doesnt seem so!
And the the services of MM and what you get with iC. will iC allow document storage in anything but iWorks file formats? or even just a finder/explorer type fileshare?
Contacts syncing yet again creates duplicates!! how many times will I have to go through and clear out duplicate records?
Photostream - 30 days? so can we not hold our favourite photo folders in iC?
and there's more - but overall ..... its rather disappointing.

I hope this post reaches Apple engineers. This is critical for us to resolve this. I am a member of the developer network, so if using incident support is necessary, it can be used.
We're a user-to-user forum, ilyag. So it'd be better for you to use the Apple Bug Reporter if you want to ensure someone from Apple sees your post:
http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/

How to turn OFF Organize by Conversation in all mailboxes at once and set it as default?

The Apple Mail Organize by Conversation is not working properly on Mail 6.5 on Mac with OS X 10.8.4 (Mountain Lion).
How to turn off such Organize by Conversation in all mailboxes of at once and leave it off as default for past and new messages?

It works doing it with one mailbox at a time, selecting it and then deselecting "View - Organize by Conversation". A real pain and clealry impractical when you have thousands of mailboxes...
It does not work at all deselecting even all items in "Mail - Preferences - Viewing - View Conversations". After that, all the imported mailboxes have the Organize Conversation active.
Anyone knows how to overcome this? Thanks.

Organize by Conversation in Mail 6.0 not Working??

Ever since installing Mtn Lion I have noticed a real problem using Mail 6.0 in that 'organize by conversation' seems broken compared to the last version of Apple Mail.
Is it just me or have others noted the same problem? What I am now seeing is multiple orphaned posts on the same subject, and looking at the headers, I cannot see any difference between the orphaned posts and the ones that remained in the original conversation.
 Nick Andriash 
[email protected]
17" MacBook Pro, 2.3GHz Intel Core i7, Memory 16 GB, OS X 10.7.3
AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB
iPad2 WiFi & 3G, 64GB
iPhone4S 32GB

I'm having a different problem organizing my conversations, but I think you're problem can be fixed this way.
Open mail. Click Mail>Preferences. Click on the "Viewing". De-select the "Include related messages" box. I hope that works!

Why does mail insist to "organize by conversation"? I uncheck it and a few days later it is checked.

I don't want my mail sorted by conversation yet I have to uncheck the choice every few days.... why does apple insist that you organize by conversation? I hate it.

Unfortunately, something is just not right even though I pretty much always keep my Macs in good health. When I move that folder (~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail) and let it create a new one, Mail stops remembering ANY preferences. I can move and resize my windows and change my Prefs, but when I quit and relaunch Mail it goes back to some default state with none of my changes honored. Furthermore, when I search for the string "DisplayInThreadedMode" with BBEdit within that folder and all its subfolders, nothing is found.
Maybe it has to do with how many things I disable on the recent OS X versions. I routinely disable Spotlight, Notification Center, Dashboard, Auto-Save & Versions, Gatekeeper, Automatic App Termination.... you know, all that stuff that I never asked for and don't need/want ;-)
Maybe I could try re-enabling Auto-Save or something. Still, no other apps ever seem to behave strangely when I set all these "hidden preferences" to disable these unwanted OS features. Who knows, maybe the Mail team (programmers) just started assuming something was available which they didn't used to assume in 10.8.

Mac mail lion resets organize by conversation

I just upgraded my MacBook Pro (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) to Lion and there seems to be a bug in Mail where despite my repeatedly unchecking the "organize by conversation" option, it keeps defaulting back to this. I cannot figure out what to do to make it STAY unchecked -- I absolutely LOATHE "organize by conversation" and just want to use classic view without this and stay sorted by date received. Can someone please help me with this?

I found something similar to this, but I had to uncheck 'organize by conversation' for every folder. Once this was done, it stayed unchecked . But, I've just upgraded to Mountain Lion and it's worse; smart folders don't stay unchecked (neither do VIP's).
I also tried to check 'use classic layout' in preferences, but the mail program crashes immediately I click the check box

Organize by Conversation incorrectly grouping mails with same subject

I'm having a problem with the threaded view - when I create a new email, to a brand new recipient (maybe someone I've never contacted before), if the subject line is identical to some previous email, the new email is automatically added to the "Conversation".
So, for example, I have just sent an email to a client with the subject "Timesheets". After sending it, I see in my outbox that this has been joined to a previous email I sent about 3 years ago to a completely separate client, in which the subject line was also "Timesheets".
Unfortunately, I don't see that this has happened until after I've sent the email, so is there a way to fix this without turning off the "Organize by Conversation" feature altogether?

Time goes on and nothing from Apple
Don't they follow our worries?
I have Mail 6.3 and OS X 10.8.3 - the most updated versions and still the THREADS DON'T WORK as in Snow Leopard mail.
I use mail to work, have hundreds os multiple threads now

Why does Mail reply to the first unread mail in a conversation rather than the one I'm viewing?

When I have "Organize by Conversation" set in Mail and I click on the top of a conversation group which brings up all the messages in that conversation, usually highlighting the earliest unread message, which is fine behavior.
However, when I scroll through the messages to a more recent read or unread message and now have a completely different message in view than that first one, when I hit Reply, Mail replies to that earliest unread message even though it is completely not in view. This is very confusing and frustrating behavior for me since I would expect mail to respond to the message I'm looking at, not one I was looking at a few minutes ago! I can probably get around this by turning of the conversation view, but I like that part and this seems like a big that should be fixed.
Is anyone else frustrated by this strange UI-ism? Know a work around?
Thanks

Thanks for the reply CT. I forgot to say I wanted to use just the keyboard. II was using the keyboard shortcut cmd-R for reply when I was having the problem.
I think there is some set of keys that I stumbled upon once to delve into the messages in a conversation but I can't rememember it, recreate it, or always remember to highlight the message I'm looking at before I hit cmd-R.

Iphone 5s not picking up home Wi-Fi and/or very poor signals even in downtown area

Switched to Verizon and bought IPhone 5s less than 3 weeks ago. It was fine the first week then suddenly it won't recognized my home wi-fi and got very poor wireless signal. I have my old IPhone 4s and it works fine like a charm for wi-fi. It keeps reloading and not pop up any wi-fi signals. I went to the mall and normally it should pop up multiple wi-fis but it didn't. However my ipad did. I keep trying to reboot it or even reset it to factory settings and still doesn't work. Then yesterday my calls keep dropping in the middle of business conversation. This is unacceptable and no one seems to be helpful at Verizon. I even took screen pictures throughout the day yesterday to show when suddenly my home wi-fi popped up and a minute later it disappear. This also a domino effect for my photo stream, icloud back up, and most importantly my data plan. Now I can't even use my paid home wi-fi and use up all my data plan with Verizon and none of them care. I almost feel like switching to other providers. I also see that this is somewhat common to IPhone 5s with their troubled software or signal chip but not getting help from Verizon is the worst.

I downloaded the Speedtest app on my iPhone and iPad and would randomly test one right after the other. I accumulated about 5 tests a day on each device over the course of 3 days. I set up an appointment at the Genius bar. I told the Genius that I set up my phone as new and then showed him my comparisons of the Speedtest on both devices. He handed me a new (non-refurbished because it hasn't been out for long) phone, no questions. Apparently it was a hardware issue and not an iOS 8 bug.

Switching off "Organize by Conversation' so that it STAYS off.

I'm constantly wrestling with the "Organize by Conversation" item in the View menu of Mail. I turn it off in one mail box, only to find it remains on in others. I take the time to turn it off in EACH AND EVERY mailbox, and a few minutes/hours/days later it's back on. Any suggestions how to turn this blasted feature off in a way that it keeps it OFF?
Thanks.

Some idiot at Apple decided everyone needs ORGANIZE BY CONVERSATION and there is NO WAY to globally turn it off...
Anyone have a way to globally turn it off?
Maybe through Terminal?

Mail organize by conversation is very poorly implemented

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