Mail Rule seems to be confusing messages

This script extracts email addresses from the body of a message and resends the message to each of the extracted addresses. It works well when one message arrives at a time. However, when several messages arrive at once, it often sends a message to the wrong address. The script is very straight forward, yet I am not sure what is going on. Any ideas?
property debug : false
property choAddress : "[email protected]"
using terms from application "Mail"
 on perform mail action with messages theMessages for rule theRule
 tell application "Mail"
 repeat with aMessage in theMessages
 -- Extract addresses from message content
 set messageContent to aMessage's content
 set messageSubject to aMessage's subject
 set mAddresses to my extractAddresses(messageContent)
 -- Build a unique list of addresses
 set uAddresses to {}
 repeat with mAddress in mAddresses
 set mAddress to contents of mAddress
 if mAddress ≠ choAddress and mAddress is not in uAddresses then set end of uAddresses to mAddress
 end repeat
 -- Forward messages to each extracted address
 repeat with uAddress in uAddresses
 set newMessage to make new outgoing message at the beginning of outgoing messages with properties {sender:choAddress, subject:messageSubject}
 tell newMessage
 make new to recipient at beginning of to recipients with properties {address:uAddress}
 set content to aMessage's content
 if debug then
 set visible to true
 else
 send
 delay 1
 end if
 end tell
 end repeat
 delay 1
 end repeat
 end tell
 end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from
on extractAddresses(mContent)
 try
 -- Thanks Nigel Garvey
 set extractedAddresses to paragraphs of (do shell script "echo " & quoted form of mContent & " | grep -Eo '[[:alnum:]][^[:space:]<>@\":;]+@[^ <>\"]+[][:alpha:]]'")
 on error
 error number -128
 end try
end extractAddresses

Sorry but my AppleScript is too rusty to wade through your script. However, a while ago I wrote a script to extract email addresses from an emailed web form with a defined format and send a reminder 4 days later with a specified message.
I opted to use a mail rule to put a copy of specified messages into another mail folder - this may be more reliable for you.
For my 4 day delay I set a 'Users Daemon' to run an AppleScript every hour. This is more efficient and reliable than setting delays in AppleScript.
The most tedious task is parsing for all possible email formats - check email RFCs if you doubt this.
This script was not completed but the sections I tested on Leopard worked well. Here is the incomplete script - just in case you find something useful:
tell application "Mail"
set fourDays to 345600 -- normally 345600 but can be 0 for testing
 repeat with lastMsg from (count messages of mailbox "Pending") to 1 by -1
try
 set thisMsg to message lastMsg of mailbox "Pending"
end try
if (current date) - (date sent of thisMsg) > fourDays then
set txt to content of thisMsg
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"Email id"}
set newRecipient to paragraph 3 of text item 2 of txt
set html to source of thisMsg
 set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"<body bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\" text=\"#000000\">"}
set bodyPlus to text item 2 of html
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"</html>"}
set oldBody to text item 1 of bodyPlus
set newMsg to make new outgoing message with properties {sender:"[email protected]"}
tell newMsg
make new to recipient with properties {address:newRecipient}
 set subject to "Your Heating Oil Order"
 set html content to "<html><body bgcolor='#FFFFFF' text='#000000'>

 
<hr style='color:pink; background-color:pink; height:4px; width:60%; text-align:middle'>
 
Thank you for placing your heating oil order with us.
I would appreciate feedback (good or bad) about how your oil delivery went.
Please contact me if you experienced any difficulties with your order.
 
Sincerely, 
 
Peter Pan
 
<hr style='color:pink; background-color:pink; height:4px; width:60%; text-align:middle'>

 " & oldBody & "</html>"
send -- normally send but can be set to save to put email in Drafts for testing
end tell
delete thisMsg -- normally delete thisMsg but can be removed for testing
end if
end repeat
end tell

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Mail Rules Stopped Applying to Sent Messages Since October 15th 2013.

Has anyone had a similar experience, or has anyone some idea of what could be done to return the applicability of rules to sent items?
I'm using OS X's native mail client, Mail. I'm now on Mavericks but the rules that had been working for over a year suddenly stopped working on sent items on the 15th of October 2013 before I upgraded, when I was still running Mountain Lion, so it's not Mavericks' fault.
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to suggest any ideas they might have.

Thank you for the link - I had found and read that particular article while doing google research into the problem - it was only after I couldn't find a solution to (or even an explaination of) the problem that I posted this question - it's a very clear article though so I was happy to read it again.
I understand that people using Mail to handle their Gmail accounts do have all sorts of problems related, perhaps, to not having fully understood carefully researched workarounds that I remember reading and instigating for myself about 3+ years ago. As I said, this resulted in a setup that has had the flexibility to adapt itself flawlessly to my varing requirements since. Perhaps I was fortunate in this regard and I expect that, by striving to achieve my requirements by structuring mailboxes and rules to be as simple as possible, I avoided the vicissitudes that you and I have both read about.
I made no changes to my Gmail accounts, nor to Mail itself, that could have precipitated the cessation of my rules' influence on sent messages. I never use Gmail itself in fact - I only ever send and read through Mail.
I know I posted this question under the 'Mavericks' section but, as I tried to make clear, the problem was not caused by upgrading to Mavericks - it started before then. I had not tried any of the betas, nor did I knowingly install any upgrade of Mail prior to the change in behaviour (I upgrade manually).
In short, whilst I would not expect Mail to apply rules to messages sent directly with Gmail (since Mail would have to read them back in again through IMAP, successfully recognise them as 'sent' and then retrospectivly apply rules), I do expect it to be able to continue applying rules to its own sent messages.

Mail activity seemingly stuck on incoming messages

On my Mac at work, My Mail Activity 'window' (the new one under the Mailbox list) continually shows "Incoming Messages", with a progress bar that never gets completed, even when I am not receiving any messages. The number of messages (e.g., '84 of 85', '88 of 89', etc. ) gradually climbs higher and higher. Clicking the "X" does nothing. This starts about five minutes after I load Mail, and doesn't go away, ever. At the same time, the 'old' Activity window (Command-0) shows no activity, except when I am obviously sending or receiving messages. This doesn't seem to affect performance, but it's really annoying. What the heck is this indicator window doing, and why won't it stop? I'm running IMAP, but I access the same mail account at home, with the same OS, and don't see any Mail Activity weirdness at all. Anyone have any ideas?

I am having a similar problem. Mail locked 4/30/2008, all emails vanished, the loading spinners just spin on emails, it says it is downloading, but a few emails in the bar stops moving left, it drops to 0 KB/s, the spinners keep spinning, and it won't download any mail on pop accounts. On accounts with no new mail, they spin and stay spinning, and then it won't allow new accounts that have been taken online to download. There is no apparent way to get them to stop spinning, including clicking the (x) box to the left of the blue download bar. I also then can't quit mail, so must force quit it. I can send test messages between accounts, and sometime they show up on the pop accounts, but the spinners keep spinning, even when it says there is nothing to download. Other functions work during this time, except quitting.
However, for reasons I can't explain, it still does fine with my .mac account, which is my only imap.
I reloaded mail from time machine from a previous day when it worked: didn't help. I did the same with the .plist mail library thing: didn't help. I reloaded all my messages, and at least they are staying put for the moment, but 1.5 days of emails seems to have vanished. Help! I need to have mail working.
I spent 45 minutes with my local internet provider's tech support: they are baffled.
Thanks, Daniel

Mail Rules not applying to Sent folder

I have rules set up to color code my e-mails. They work fine in all my mailboxes (Inbox, Trash, personal folders), but do not work properly when applied to my 'Sent' folder (the messages all turn orange). What's the problem?
I have Gmail being forwarded to the Apple Mail program using IMAP settings.

there is no problem. Mail rules work on incoming mail only. if you want Mail rules to apply to sent messages you need a 3rd party plugin. MailActOn
http://www.indev.ca/MailActOn.html
can do it.

Mail rules are not applied to IMAP subfolders

Hi
I've set up a mail rule to run for 'Every Message' which runs an applescript of mine.
The issue I have is that the script is only called for mail in the root of IMAP accounts and not mail in subfolders.
I've searched google and the forums but cannot find any explanation. Can anybody here help?
Thanks,
Jason

I should point out that the new mails in the sub folders were put there by a sieve script on the server.

How do I make a Mail Rule action bounce a message

Is there a way to have a Mail Rule action bounce a message?
Thank you in advance.
Jeff

paste the following into Applescript Editor and save it as a script
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ADD8E6;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
using terms from application "Mail"
on perform mail action with messages selectedMsgs
repeat with msg in selectedMsgs
tell application "Mail"
bounce msg
end tell
end repeat
end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from</pre>
then have your Mail rule execute this script.

Mail rule message content as variable

I run a minecraft serer, and i need a way to promote a player when they fill in a form on the website. Every time a player filles in the form, I get an email like this:
New application for member:
Naam: <name of the pearson>
Username: <minecraft username of the person>
Skype naam: <skype name of the person>
E-mail: <email of the person>
Nieusbrief: <Whether they want to get the newsletter or not>
I know there is a way to setup a mail rule that runs an applescript, and from that I can run a shel script, but is it posible to feed the playername to the shel script script as a variable? So from the mesage body to the apple script, and from the apple script th the shel script. First problem I face is getting the username to the apple script. Then there is the second problem: I know there is an run-shel-script thingy, but i'm not sure how to pass the variable on from the apple script to the shel scrip. (I don't have anny experience with apple scripts...)
Anny help is appreciated.

Hi Stefan,
Thanks for your reply. I am glad to hear that I am wrong again )
In your opinion is it possible to force the Outlook Exchange server to add the content attachment every time? I mean by doing some configuration on it...?
The reason why we would like to do this is because when - in the content tag of a Mail Package message - we have MIME message parts that are of content-type text/html we are having problems in decoding the html back to a readable format.
To do this we use the apache QuotedPrintableCodec Java class.
This works fine when the content type of the message is just text/plain but we get an exception when we try with text/html.
The exception we get is:
org.apache.commons.codec.DecoderException: Invalid URL encoding: not a valid digit (radix 16): 13
I don't know if this is because of the two character sets we have in the payload (utf-8 and iso-8859-1) or if it is for other reasons...
If you could help me figure out how to forward any HTML email to another system in a readable format it would be great.
Thanks for your support,
Aldo

Using Mail Rules, how do I remove from inbox my moved messages?

My goal is decluttering my inbox, so all mailing list group messages go to their respective mailboxes, and my general inbox only shows personal messages.
In Mail 7.0 under Mavericks, I can use Rules to move a message to an IMAP folder on a remote server or to a mailbox folder on my Mac. An example would be moving to a folder all the mail from a particular sender, like a Yahoo group, so I can go to that folder and see in on eplace all the mail related to that sender.
However, when a message has been moved to another folder, that mail message remains in the general inbox. I want such moved messages to vanish from my general inbox at the same time as they are moved to distinctive mailbox folders by the Rules filters.
Smart mailboxes may help, but my attempts so far have not made the moved messages leave my inbox. I may well be missing something, though.
FYI, under Mountain Lion, using Mail Rules, I was able to move some specific types of mail to a mailbox folder on my Mac, and in those cases the mail did vanish from my inbox. The problem was the this rule protocol worked in a few cases but not in most of the others, so the results were inconsistent. Also, moving the mail to a folder on my Mac consumed disk space, so I would rather move messages to a folder on a remote mail server, so my computer keeps more free disk space, but I do not know who to make such moved message leave my inbox.
I am wide open to experienced users sharing your wisdom.

Install this add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/

Export mail message as PDF Applescript for mail rules

I have looked everywhere for this and found nothing. I don't have 40 hours to learn applescript myself but from the little I do know this should be possible. Probably easy.
I want to created an applescript to run as a mail rule. I want the script to export the message as a PDF and move that PDF to a specified folder. Hazel can take it from there.
for instance:
Fedex sends me a email message that my shipment has been delivered.
mail rule kicks in and runs the script
script creates a PDF of the message
message is moved to "fedex delivered" folder

I found a workaround, though there must be something neater.
I added this before my script
tell application "System Events"
          tell process "Mail"
                    tell menu bar 1
                              tell menu bar item "View"
                                        tell menu "View"
                                                  tell menu item "Sort By"
                                                            tell menu "Sort By"
                                                                      click menu item "Subject"
                                                            end tell
                                                  end tell
                                        end tell
                              end tell
                    end tell
          end tell
end tell
then the same except "Date" instead of "Subject".
My script does what i want now.

Applescript process message body from mail rule help please

Would someone be kind enough to help me figure out how to do this? I've been reading for hours on other posts and I can't get this to work.
Here is an example:
I would like to set up a mail rule to run an applescript that searches the body of the email for "-Front Door- Open". I then want to parse the body and sets myDevice= "-Front Door-" and myState="Open". After I have these variables set, I want to make an call to something like https://foo.me.com/api/token/${state.accessToken}/smartapps/installations/${app.id}/Notify?device=${myDevice}&type=ContactSensor&state=${myState}
I understand how to do the mail rule, I just can't figure out the applescript part of it.

The script works just fine - at least, as designed if not as expected.
When the script runs, Mail and/or AppleScript looks for a perform mail action handler. If that is found, the commands within are executed.
If there is no perform mail action handler then the script is run as-is (i.e. as if you clicked 'Run' in AppleScript Editor).
And that's exactly what's happening here. In the first case (that works) the script is running because there's no (visible) perform mail action handler.
In the second case where it apparently doesn't work, there is a handler, so that handler is being executed. Any code outside that handler is ignored (unless it's called from within the perform mail action handler.
Since your 'say' command is outside the handler, it is ignored. However, if you move it inside the perform mail action handler you'll hear your speech.

Multiple Mail Rules

Hi All
I have a domain which forwards all e-mail to one e-mail address so anything @exmple.com goes to this e-mail address. For a decade I've use MS Entourage to sort e-mails and redirect them to specific e-mail addresses, but since Lion doesn't support Entourage and the new Outlook doesn't support redirects in e-mail rules I moved to Apple Mail and I'm testing at the moment. My rules are quite simple and seem to work OK but I have issues when two rules apply to one e-mail i.e when 2 or more recipients match in my rules for example:
If I set 2 rules
If - All Recepients are equal to [email protected] - Mark As Read - Redirect to [email protected]
If - All Recepients are equal to [email protected] - Mark As Read - Redirect to [email protected]
If I send an e-mail to both [email protected] and [email protected] Mail deals with them and redirects but as the [email protected] is above [email protected] in the rule list it sends 2 e-mails to [email protected]
With Entourage (an Outlook) there was a tick box to allow other rules to be applied to the same message (you still get a list of rules with the top ones having priority) but Entourage would redirect 1 e-mail to [email protected] and 1 to [email protected]
As far as I can tell Mail will apply multiple rules to the same e-mail unless you set a rule with Stop Evaluating Rules in it. It redirects 2 e-mails but only to one e-mail address.
Is it because both addresses end with @example.com?
Thanks
Ben

OK, glad to say that I think I figured it out. It is a lack of rules set up by me with my domain name host (Network Solutions) - now completed.
My confusion was:
1. Both my Macs filter the offending emails just fine... I thought the email on the iPhone was being filtered thru them. That was dumb!
2. Verizon is my internet provider, and I do have verizon.net emails.
3. Mac.com is hosting my web site... but....
4. Network Solutions provides my domain name, pointing to Mac.com with domain masking.
Whew, I think I have to many cooks in the kitchen - especially when I keep burning the water.
Hope this helps someone else - (probably not to many folks here as complicated)

Please Help - Same issue for years - Mail rule switches itself!

This issue has plagued me with Apple Mail for years and I would like to finally resolve this to keep my sanity. Please help!
We have used the MobileMe family account (5 pack) for awhile and both my wife and I have our own unique email address that is set and we also have one combined account that we use as well. I have some rules in place to help keep the mail organized. Often we will get 1 e-mail for both of us (i.e. a message about a group we are both in or a sports team for our children) - it is sent to our joint account and then the Mail rule will handle putting them in both our boxes.
There is the one rule that keeps changing itself! It's maddening. Here is what I want to occur:
1. I get an e-mail to our joint MobileMe account.
2. The rule will move that specific message to my folder and then place a copy of that message in my wife's folder.
That's it. That's all that I want it to do.
Here is what I put in the mail rule description to make that happen:
IF "any" conditions met:
"Any recipient" is equal to "joint account e-mail address"
Perform following actions:
"Move message" to "my mailbox"
"copy message" to "her mailbox"
"Stop evaluating rules"
That's it. Here is where the problem ensues. This rule will actually work correctly for 1 or 2 times. Then what happens is somehow this rule actually changes itself and when I open up the rule description it will actually show:
"Move message" to "my mailbox"
"Copy message" to "my mailbox"
Ugh. So I end up getting two copies of the same thing and have to physically move it over. It seems so simple and I can't understand why it keeps switching itself.
I've had the issue ever since we had our family account and back to the Tiger operating system. I would love to get this fixed for good!

I may well have missed something, but it seems to me that the command to Copy to her mailbox should come before the command to Move to your mailbox. That way the source remains available until the final Move step. I cannot say why the Rule construction would change by itself, but I can see the possibility of confusion if the Move comes before the Copy.
Ernie

Mail Rule Not Working

I have a rule that is not working in Mail.app.
It's a mailing list that I am subscribed to which I want deleted at certain times. Upon arrival, I would like it deleted.
I've tried several simple rules that all do not work for this list alone. I've sniffed the subject, which has a list tag shoved in there: [thisList]. I've tried a header field called List-ID and provided a CONTAINS for the actual email address of the list. I've also tried sniffing the list address as a recipient. In these trials, I've only used one qualifier, and only one process, to delete the file.
It is a GMail address, which shows up in a folder that is a GMail rule to pull out my lists. So it shows up twice, once in this folder, and once in All Mail. This is an IMAP account into my Mail.app.
So now I have 2 messages in my Gmail lists folder, the same 2 in my All Mail, and 2 in my Smart Mailbox which is showing the very 2 are in the filtered Gmail mailbox.
Upon choosing Apply Rules, they finally go away.
Is there a way to get Gmail systems to work with IMAP properly without having multiple boxes show up? That integration is confusing and problematic when trying to apply smart mailboxes on the Mac end of things, as GMail messes up the number of mailboxes where certain messages are showing up. I've tried turning off certain mailboxes being shown on the Gmail side, but I can't seem to make a Gmail address work well with IMAP.
Any insight or advice appreciated.

Google supports the IMAP protocol, but has a number of proprietary additions/extensions/implementations that it uses to support google-specific functions. While these add a lot of functionality when using Chrome and Google's webmail applications, they sometimes cause odd problems that people have to deal with. Rule management might be one of these.
Another thing to keep in mind is that rules in Mail are automatically applied to incoming messages only, and not to mail that has previously been downloaded. That is, you cannot have a rule automatically delete or label month-old mail without specifically invoking it on the current mailbox or message selection.

Setting up mail rules on icloud

I have just migrated from mobileme to icloud - a scary exercise which seems to require quite a lot of tidying up. Here are some questions relating to using mail.
This is what I would like to happen:
1. When I read a message for the first time - whether on my Mac, iPad or iPhone, I want it to be moved to a number of mailboxes I have set up (or to trash).
2. When I read the same message later on one of the two other devices, I would like to see it mark as read and filed in the appropriate mailbox
3. When I send a message or reply (on any of the three devices) I would like my message to be moved to an appropriate mailbox, rather than remain in Sent.
4. When I set up a mail rule on iCloud I would like the same versatility as on my current Mac mail rules, with interaction between the rule and the address book, ability to have boolean rules with lots of either/or/and components. For example, on my Mac I have a rule moving all messages from anyone in my Family group in the Address book to a mailbox called 'family'. I have a rule which says if the subject contains x and if the sender is y then move the message to mailbox z. I have another invaluable rule which moves any message from a sender not in my Address book to trash. Once a day I skim through trash to pick up any messages which should not be there and then can empty the remainder with one click.
So--
1-3 Am I right in saying these can be done? (I'm not sure whether the To: rule works - if it does, that is an improvement over the Mac mail rules).
4. The mail rules on iCloud seem incredibly limited compared with those on Mac Mail. Am I missing something? How for example do I set up the three examples I have given? (A related question - can Trash be moved to iCloud and how does it get emptied.)
Sorry for this collection of questions. What I wanted from iCloud was that I can continue to manage my email in boxes and trash, as at present, and that when I am away from base and my iMac, I see all my past correspondence for the year, and that I dont have to housekeep mail three times on the three devices. I do hope this will be possible and appreciate anyone pointing me towards tips/answers to my requirements.

Yeh thats where they make the big bucks.... we have managed up until not to share apps, either a 2nd account or my wife just goes without the cloud
I'm still confused as to how i can setup my [email protected], can i have both the iPad & iPhone on the same @me.com email address. Dis regarding the 2nd phone at the moment. presume i had [email protected] on both ipad & iphone i should receive emails at both devices

Apple Mail Rules dont apply when mail is READ on other devices!

Hi,
I use IMAP settings on Apple Mail (v4.5) and also check my emails on the iPhone (iPhone also set up with IMAP). However if i have read an email on the iPhone then when i switch my computer on the incoming Apple Mail Rule that applies to that sender does not seem to work. It keeps the mail within my Inbox and does not transfer the mail/message to the desired folder.
However, if the same sender sends me an email which i do not read on the iPhone and then switch my Apple Mail ON, then the mail is automatically transferred to the desired folder.
It looks like the problem is only with READ mail and not UNREAD mail.
Is there a fix for this? There seems to be a lot of people having the same issue and was wondering if there is any work around on this?
Would really appreciate any help from anyone on this.
Regards,
Jay
PS: I recently moved from Outlook 2011 on MAC to Apple Mail as i heard is a far superior mail application and works smoothly. So far everything about Apple Mail has been correct, it is a fantastic app, however this Rule problem is pretty basic and surprised that Apple still has not fixed this.

Hi Glenn,
Many thanks for this. Unfortunately i dont have this facility on the server as we are using a simple opensource mail delivery and storage service, so the rules would have to be set up on the computer.
I was using Outlook 2011 and prior that was using Entourage 2008 and both worked well with the IMAP rules. Nothing was ommitted and everything READ or UNREAD was imported and the rules applied. It's only in Apple Mail that these rules dont seem to work.
Is there no other work around? No Apple Mail Add-Ins? I see quite a number of people complaining about the same problem and i'm surprise that Apple has not found a solution for this.
Anyway, thank you soo much for your reply. Much appreciated.
Regards,
Jay

Mail Rule seems to be confusing messages

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