Mail rules plist automatically shared/synced?

I just got a brand new MBAir that was set up from scratch (i.e., no migration assistant). I am having problems with an extensive set of rules on my Mac Pro that are now broken in Mavericks (another issue). In trying to troubleshoot, I thought to create some rules on my MBAir. I was shocked to see all my rules reflected there! I most definitely did not copy them over to this new computer. Are the rules now synchronized, perhaps via iCloud? FYI, the vast majority of my rules are associated with an Exchange account.

Ran across your post while trying to figure out why rule syncing is only working in one direction across two of my Macs. Are you using the Documents & Data syncing service of iCloud?
OS X Mountain Lion: Use the iCloud Documents & Data service

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Mail Rules gone after iCloud sync

I've lost all of my Mail VIPs, Rules, and signatures.
I had two iCloud accounts. After backing-up all vital documents and data, I put everything under ONE iCloud account. Upon doing this, all of my vital custom features (VIP list, siggys, rules) have gone missing.
I'd like to use Time Machine to go back and restore these critical aspects of my Apple Mail experience.
1. Where should I look for the original rules, signatures, and VIP list?
2. Where do I restore the old data, such that it works with my current iCloud?
THANK YOU to anyone who can help me correct this set-back!

Thank you Eric,
I wasn't clear at all in my OP, please forgive...
I do indeed see/know where my root user Library folder is. And within that folder the Mail folder, I see the V2 folder, and within that, the MailData folder, which contains all sorts of files. Several of these files indicate they have something to do with Rules, VIP lists, and Signatures. (Opening to preview these files in Time Machine even shows the data, albeit in code — of these assets as they existed when working.)
Upon attempting to restore these specific assets, the backups from Time Machine are NOT restoring the lost rules, signatures, nor VIP lists.
What's making this situation unique is this:
These sorting features WERE there when I had mail syncing under two iCloud IDs. In an attempt to "unify" my iCloud experience (across my MacPro, iPhone, and iPad) — I thought my rules, siggys, VIPs were under the "master" iCloud account. Evidently, they were not, and I deleted the account which contained these Mail function assets.
Currently I'm at a loss, as to where I can find the backup of those original assets — and where they go once I locate them in Time Machine. OY!!

Cannot sync mail rules

I have an iPhone 3G and use mobile me. The phone and my mac are all up to date. Everything syncs fine with my mac, contacts, mail, calender. The only thing that will not sync are some mails rules, even when the "sync mail rules, signatures" box is checked in the mobile my preferences. Anybody having a similar problem or know a solution?
Thanks,
Chris.

The sync mail rules, signatures is for keeping mail rules and signatures synchronized with the Mail.app on multiple Macs.
This does not apply to the iPhone and the iPhone's mail client which does not support rules.

Sync mail rules

Upgrading to Lion was not smooth on one machine. But I'm managing.
The current issue is that my mail rules are now independent. My set of rules on my Desktop and my Laptop don't sync, nor can I find a place to have them sync. As I did not upgrade the two machines at the same time (I had to find a few replacement programs for non-lion compatibility) they have some significant differences.
Short of overwriting one set with the other with the .plist file, any suggestions? iCloud does not seem to take on this issue.
Adam

I use Dropbox so have the following two aliases setup in .bashrc (actually, in .bashrc I source a bashrc that's on Dropbox so that it's the same everywhere, see further below...):
Rename these aliases to something that makes sense for you (see further below for the actual aliases):
cpmd (stands for 'copy mailRules to dropbox')
cpdm (stands for 'copy dropbox to mailRules')
I keep a template .bashrc file on Dropbox which I copy to all new macs:
mini:bash me$ cat $HOME/Dropbox/bash/template.bashrc
# .bashrc
# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
. /etc/bashrc
fi
# Source Dropbox definitions
if [ -f $HOME/Dropbox/bash/bashrc ]; then
. $HOME/Dropbox/bash/bashrc
fi
And edit only the centralized bashrc in $HOME/Dropbox/bash/bashrc, which the above sources
Terminal.app opens a login shell, which reads .bash_profile instead of .bashrc, so you'll want to use a .bash_profile that sources .bashrc e.g.
mini:bash me$ cat $HOME/Dropbox/bash/template.bash_profile
[[ -s ~/.bashrc ]] && source ~/.bashrc
For each new Mac I use, simply copy the template files from Dropbox into my home directory:
cd $HOME
cp $HOME/Dropbox/bash/template.bashrc $HOME/.bashrc
cp $HOME/Dropbox/bash/template.bashrc $HOME/.bash_profile
Now, in $HOME/Dropbox/bash/bashrc, add the following aliases:
alias cpmd="cp $HOME/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/MessageRules.plist $HOME/Dropbox/MailRules/MessageRules.plist"
alias cpdm="cp $HOME/Dropbox/MailRules/MessageRules.plist $HOME/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/MessageRules.plist"
To copy Mail's rules to Dropbox, just type "cpmd" in Terminal.
To copy the rules from Dropbox to the local Mac's Mail folder, first quit Mail, then type "cpdm" in terminal.
There are ways to automate this, or to symlink things, but I think that's dangerous since there's no file locking so instances of Mail.app on different macs could overwrite each others changes.
ETA to add caveat wrt to trying to automate this...

Mail Rules Sync

Currently I have iPhones, Macbook, Mini Mac, etc. On each of these my mail comes in without problem and are sync'd properly. I have quite a few rules set up on my Macbook Pro and would like these rules to be applied throughout all of my devices. Can I set these rules to be set up on all my iOS devices without having the manually do it on every device? I am aware that I can set these rules in iCloud, but there must be a better way to manage these rules without having the log onto iCloud overtime to make changes/improve my rules. Thank you.
Matt .D

It's not pretty and it's not sexy, but as an interim solution, you could manually copy /Users/Landis/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist from one machine to the same location on the other machine.

Work around for the loss of mail rule syncing?

Since MobileMe has been axed, mail rule syncing does not work anymore.
Is there an alternative to get mail rules to sync with iCloud or other tools? It is STUPID to have different clients using the same (IMAP) account(s) but different rule sets.

Thanks for the tip, but this does not work for me.
My impression is that Matt Parkinsons blog is (unfortunatly) wrong.
I am in front of my office iMac (10.8.2). I did change a rule, waited a while, and quit mail on the iMac.
Booted my MBP (10.8.2), opened Mail.app, and checked the rules list. The modification in the rule changed on the iMac was NOT there.
I created a new Smart mailbox, waited a while, and quit Mail on the MPB.
Checked on the iMac after opening Mail. The new Smart mailbox does not show up.
Since I am doing the "propagation of my rules" since quite some time via dropbox, I am also sure that the change dates of the three files MessageRules.plist, RulesActiveState.plist and UnsyncedRules.plist stays as is on one Mac even if rules are edited on another. The same conclusion results from searching (a copy of) the file MessageRules.plist using TextEdit to compensate for the lack of a find/search/locate function in rules with Mail.app.

1 Mail Rule automatically turns off upon launching Mail

I have recently upgraded to Snow Leopard (10.6.4) from Tiger. I moved the "Mail" & "Mail Downloads" folders, as well as the "com.apple.mail.plist" preference file, from the old system into the new one in the appropriate user folder. I also rebuilt all the mailboxes once this was done. So far, everything's there and functioning great with one exception.
The problem I am having is that every time I launch Mail, there is 1 mail rule which is turned off upon launching, forcing me to manually turn it on. It stays on until I quit the program, and the next time I launch it's off again.
I use about 25 rules total, and none of the other rules display this behavior.
Am I missing something obvious here?
Thanks in advance!

I have exactly the same problem. I have moved from a G5 with Leopard to a Mac Pro with Snow Leopard. I have about 8 rules, one of which turns off after I quit and then launch again. I have tried to recreate that rule manually and it still occurs. I think I'm going to fill out a bug report.

Using rules to automatically save attachments in Apple Mail...

Every time I get an attachment of a certain type from a certain person, I need to automatically save the attachment and run a script on it. Using Apple Mail, I've got the script part worked out, but I still need to automate the saving part... any ideas?

If it is going to be called from Mail rules, it would need to be wrapped properly. Here is the script it came from. You would'nt need the on run handler.
AK
click here to open this script in your editor<pre style="font-family: 'Monaco', 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; overflow:auto; color: #222; background: #DDD; padding: 0.2em; font-size: 10px; width:400px">using terms from application "Mail"
on perform mail action with messages theMsges
set theAttachmentPath to (path to desktop) as text
tell application "Mail"
repeat with ThisMessage in theMsges
set Attached to mail attachments of ThisMessage
repeat with ThisAttach in Attached
set FileName to name of ThisAttach
save ThisAttach in theAttachmentPath & (FileName)
end repeat
end repeat
end tell
end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from
using terms from application "Mail"
on run
tell application "Mail" to set sel to selection
tell me to perform mail action with messages (sel)
end run
end using terms from
</pre>

Why is Mail rule syncing only one way?

Odd. I've got a Mac mini and an iMac, both running 10.8.2, both with iCloud syncing Documents & Data. Mail on the mini has rules -- created on that machine -- for SpamSieve that are not syncing to the iMac; in fact, both rules disappear every few days and I only notice because spam starts piling up.
On the other hand, changes to Mail rules on the iMac are synced to the mini. The mini has been running Mountain Lion for five months; the rules only started disappearing after I upgraded to ML on the iMac last month.
Any ideas on why the syncing is only one-way?

It appears that I can't edit my original question. So here is new information. It is syncing. However, the contacts are syncing with my personal folders. The calendar is syncing from Outlook to Ipad from my personal folders. However, the calendar is syncing to Outlook in a hotmail calendar in the profile that I didn't know existed. How do I get it set right.
I tried to select the calendar. However only one calendar is available in itunes. It must be the correct calendar as it is syncing fine. So how do I get ipad to sync back to the personal folders calendar instead of the hotmail calendar in my profile?
Pastor John

Why does iCloud not sync mail rules?

This seems like a no brainer. When I view my email on my Iphone, I see all my Spam, which would already be dispatched to the Junk box on my desktop, had I looked there first. Why does iCloud not sync my Mail rules, and is there a solution for this?

It is not Mac to Mac.
Why not look up iCloud support, it was never offered as anything outside iOS 5 supported devices.
Maybe if you would stop reading into things what isn't there.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/icloud?view=overview
http://www.apple.com/support/icloud

Unable to sync Mail rules

I have activated the .Mac "sync Mail Rules, Signatures and Smart Mailboxes".
But the Mail rules on my home and office Mac are not synced by iSync.
Everything else is synced fine (iCal etc.) Any suggestions ?
PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
With the release of iSync 2 and Mac OS X 10.4, iSync no longer has anything at all to do with synchronizing .Mac data types like Mail Rules, Signatures and Smart Mailboxes. Actually, it never did have anything to do with those data types, because they were not available before the release of Mac OS X 10.4 almost a year ago.
For help with .Mac Sync issues, you should check this forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=957

Email with Mail Rules applied are automatically marked as read

I am using Mail in Mac OS X 10.5 with Gmail IMAP, and any email I receive that has a mail rule applied to it (such as, if person x emails me move email to this folder) is automatically marked as read (i.e., doesn't show up as a new message). Any email that comes into the Inbox, however, is marked as new.
The mail folder I am testing this with does not have the "mark email as read" rule applied to it, yet it keeps marking any email that goes through this rule as read. Also, no new mail sound plays after receiving these emails. In Tiger, even when an email was automatically marked as read by mail rules, it made the new mail sound.
I don't know if this is a Mac OS X Mail issue or a Gmail IMAP issue, but it's frustrating as all edit: I guess he-double-hockey sticks is a four letter word]. Is anyone having this issue and does anyone have a solution?
Message was edited by: thenotoriousxis

For me, it never counted it as new. It would just appear.
I deleted the Mail preference file and that seemed to fix some things, even though it did require me to re-setup Mail almost entirely. This morning, though, I got an email from my girlfriend that did not filter at all, even though the email address she sent from is in a rule. Might be an isolated incident, though.

Mail Rules Sync in Yosemite

My mail rules used to sync via iCloud just fine under Mavericks. The mail rules help topic in Yosemite now says that should happen using iCloud Drive; however, it's not working for me. I'm trying to sync my rules from my MBPro to my new Mac Mini. The MBPro was upgrade from Mavericks to Yosemite and the Mac Mini came with Yosemite out of the box. icloud Drive is enabled on both. When using Finder to browse iCloud Drive files, the listings seem to match and changes I make to one show up on the other relatively quickly. Mail is listed in the iCloud System Preferences list of apps that use iCloud Drive on both systems, but there is no Mail folder on iCloud Drive. Am I missing anything? As far as i can tell, everything is set up by the book. It just doesn't work for Mail.

My mail rules used to sync via iCloud just fine under Mavericks. The mail rules help topic in Yosemite now says that should happen using iCloud Drive; however, it's not working for me. I'm trying to sync my rules from my MBPro to my new Mac Mini. The MBPro was upgrade from Mavericks to Yosemite and the Mac Mini came with Yosemite out of the box. icloud Drive is enabled on both. When using Finder to browse iCloud Drive files, the listings seem to match and changes I make to one show up on the other relatively quickly. Mail is listed in the iCloud System Preferences list of apps that use iCloud Drive on both systems, but there is no Mail folder on iCloud Drive. Am I missing anything? As far as i can tell, everything is set up by the book. It just doesn't work for Mail.

How can I copy the Mail "rules" I have already setup on my old MacBook over to the new machine?

Setting up my new MacBook Pro. How can I copy the Mail "rules" I have already setup on my old MacBook over to the new machine?
Is there a file I can copy & paste?

Thanks Barry & all,
Is it enough to just copy the rule-related files ??
i.e.
Library/Mail/V2/MailData/RulesActiveState.plist
Library/Mail/V2/MailData/SyncedRules.plist
Library/Mail/V2/MailData/UnsyncedRules.plist
What you suggest copies the local mailbox content + all the settings ...
while what I need is much less... and I'd like to be able to sync rules also in the future
by copying something light and simple ... not the entire Library/Mail folder
Many thanks,
Stefania

Alternatives to Mail Rules After iCloud?

So we know that mail rules aren't included in the transition to iCloud.
What are you using as an alternative? I have 100+ rules and don't mind redoing them into a Lion/iCloud compatible application, just need some ideas. I know they'll continue to work into 2012, but the day will come when I'll have to transition.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
John

No idea about a replacement for sync, but I do have an idea for a workaround:
If Mail rules are stored here:
>Library>Mail>MessageRules.plist
Why couldn't you just manually copy that plist file from your master machine and (replacing the old one) install it in the Library>Mail folder of your secondary machine?
It seems simple -- so I must be underestimating something.

Mail rules plist automatically shared/synced?

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