Moving mail rules

Hello, can I move mail rules (actually smart mailboxes) from one computer to another? via copying a plist, or icloud, etc?
I had little luck getting an answer on this. One person replied in the icloud forum saying he didn't think so.
I have way too many smart mailboxes to create them again manually in my new computer.
Currently they are in an old MacBook Pro running Lion. I want to move them to my new iMac running Mt Lion.
Thx,
Alberto

The only reliable way to do what you want is to transfer the folder
~/Library/Mail
in your home folder, which contains the whole Mail database.

Similar Messages

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.

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Transfer Mail Rules from Leopard to Mountain Lion

I have succesfully moved my mail, mailboxes and folders from my old Power PC to my new iMac by moving my Library>Mail folder from one to the other.
The only thing that didn't carry over were my Mail Rules.
Is there some other file I'm missing?
Thanks,
- Peter

Mail rules are stored in your user Library/Mail/V2/Mail Data/SyncedRules.plist or at least they are on my computer.
To make your user library visible:
Hold down the option key while using the Finder "Go To Folder" command. Enter ~/Library. If you prefer to make your user library permanently visible, use the Terminal command found below. It does work with Mountain Lion.
http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/22/access-user-library-folder-in-os-x-lion/
You might want to bookmark the command. I had to use it again after I installed 10.8.2. I have also been informed that if you drag the user library to Finder it will remain visible.

Mail rules -- apply only to inbox or all mailboxes?

I've done a major revamp of my Mail application. I used to have a dozen or so mailboxes, and some had rules that would move newly arrived messages from my inbox to a designated mailbox.
I've now opted instead to use a dozen or so 'smart mailboxes.' I've moved all my messages back to my inbox and deleted the dozen or so mailboxes. The smart mailboxes nicely filter the messages as I've constructed the smart mailbox rules. However, I still have two mailboxes whose content isn't easily filtered via smart mailboxes.
Now, back to my inbox .... It's got a few thousand messages. My goal is to create a mail rule in preferences that would move anything older than 30 days into secondary mailbox. If I write this rule and run it, does it apply ONLY to my inbox? Or to the inbox and any other mailboxes?

I played around with it and found out that my rule to move older docs to a separate folder only runs on my inbox, as I had hoped.

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

Modifying existing mail rules now even worse with Mavericks 10.9.1

Mail nightmares continue with Mavericks update 10.9.1 installed. In fact, the nightmare gets bigger. The story goes like this.
Prior to Mavericks, I created a stack of rules to move Mail messages from the Inbox to designated Mailboxes, e.g. messages from Friends would be moved to a Friends mailbox. Everything worked fine.
Along comes Mavericks, and when I Edit a rule to add a new recipient, and Apply that rule change to Move existing messages to another mailbox, messages would be Copied instead of being Moved, even though Move was the only action selected.
Now with Mavericks 10.9.1, nothing happens when I Edit an existing rule and then Apply the rule change to an existing message. The messae just sits in the Inbox and does not appear at all in the Mailbox I want to move it to.
How do I modify mail rules to move a message to another mailbox, then apply that rule modification to existing messages?

Hi BG 29,
Unfortunatelly you are not the only one with this problem. I am in the same situation with the exception that once I create the rule the new incoming messages will go to the designated mailbox. If you want to create a new rule, the message will just copy, not move to the mailbox. I contacted Apple support and a representative called me back and asked me to do all kind of stuff, but no luck. I was hopping that the update to 10.9.1 will solve this, but again no luck. I gave up in trying....I am waiting for the next update and hope for the best.

Outgoing Mail Rules

I have just moved back to Apple mail and one of the things I find most frustrating is not being able to get out going mail rules to work. I want to copy or move messages sent to certain people into a particular folder. These work a treat in Entourage, but Mail seems to ignore me. It has been suggested I use smart mailboxes, but this includes too much information by including all mail icluding cc's.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Brian
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8) Apple Mail 2.1

Mail applies rules automatically to incoming messages only. There are at least three ways to work around this limitation:
(1) Apply the rules manually by selecting the messages in the Sent mailbox and doing Message > Apply Rules.
(2) Go to Preferences > Composing and check Automatically [Bcc] myself, so that the rules are applied automatically to the copies received.
(3) Use Mail Scripts’ Filter Sent Messages script to make Mail apply the rules automatically to your sent messages as well.

My Mail rules keep "breaking"

I'm using Mail on OS X 10.4.10, with the Mail Act-On plugin installed. (This lets me trigger specific rules with key shortcuts.) I have 4 IMAP accounts in Mail, one of which is .Mac. The others are on my own server, provided by a hosting service.
I have set up several rules to automate moving messages from one folder to another. But each time I start Mail, it changes several of the rules, so they don't point to the mailboxes I want. Rather than pointing to the mailboxes under the "Inbox" at the top of the list, some of them point instead to IMAP boxes at the bottom of the list (featuring a grey globe with the @ symbol). The problem seems only affect the accounts that are on my IMAP server, not the .Mac account. Other rules that don't point to mailboxes in the Inbox don't have this problem. Any ideas about what could be causing this?
Thanks,
Jack

I had Mountain Lion on two Macs. Mail rules were set up on a third Mac running Lion. I migrated everything on the Lion Mac across to a new iMac running Mountain Lion so now I have Mail rules on a Mountain Lion Mac. At least I should have. Several times a day the rules disappear. I assume this is iCloud synching messing up. I keep re-entring the rules but they vanish again and I'm getting tired of the game.
Large chunk of my Safari bookmarks bar also disappear at random intervals. It seems that iCloud can handle two Mountain Lion Macs on the same Apple ID, but can't cope with three.

New Switcher Mail Rules Question

Hi everyone. I jsut switched and in setting up Mail I want it to move all mail from a specific account to a Folder( don't want to use the inbox for this account). When I setup the rule to move all mail from account X to folder Z, Junk mail rules are no longer followed. I want it to do the message moved based on the account, but I STILL want the JUNK rule to be active so it filters the junkmail then does the message moving.
Make sense?
Hope someone can help.
Lawrence
Macbook pro yo! Mac OS X (10.4.6) all pimped out

Lawrence,
I had been thinking, already, about what to do if this did not work. It occurred to me that the Junk filter might be putting the messages in your other mailbox, INSTEAD of the Junk mailbox, and not as a result of your Rule to move the messages.
One way to test this possibility would be to remove your Rule to move the incoming messages, and see where the Junk filter would then place the junk messages. Your folder would still be available, and if junk mail still found its way there, we would know the answer. In this approach, you could later rewrite the Rule, and have it apply to all messages already in the Inbox.
The other approach would be to change the preferences for Junk, to go back into Training, which should remove the Junk folder. Quit Mail, and then reset Junk to be in Automatic, which then would create new Junk folders.
Still another approach would be to remove all Mail Preferences, and set things up again (but not losing any mailboxes) -- I do not like this approach, for now.
Ernie

Mail Rules don't work in Mavericks

It seems with the update to 10.9 Mavericks Mail rules no longer work. My email address was harvested by spamers and I have been using rules to weed throught the 100's of emails that I receive each day.
Russian Brides, Vigra, Learn a new language get moved into the trash when delievered. Now nothing happens.
I just tried to write a new rule and when I clicked the Prefs pannel I got the spinning cursor. After waiting for some time I did a force quit only to find that Mail was not responding.
Anyone have any ideas? I did not see any major changes with Mail and Mavericks so I'm not sure why it's been effected.
MD

You might condider using an Applescript with Mail Rules.
Here's one that I use (Use whitelist to not move to spam):
(Just edit to your junk or whitelist)
Note: The Applescripit must be saved to: ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.mail/
The rule:
The AppleScript:
using terms from application "Mail"
          on perform mail action with messages theMessages
                    tell application "Mail"
                              repeat with theMessage in theMessages
                                        set theSender to (sender of theMessage)
                                        set theReplyto to (reply to of theMessage)
                                        set theSubject to (subject of theMessage)
                                        set theHeader to (all headers of theMessage)
                                        set theContent to (source of theMessage as string)
                                        set theAccount to (account of mailbox of theMessage)
                                        if my blacklist(theSender, theReplyto, theSubject, theHeader, theContent) ¬
                                                  and not my whitelist(theSender, theHeader) then
                                                  my moveToJunkFolder(theMessage, theAccount)
                                        end if
                              end repeat
                    end tell
          end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from
on blacklist(f, r, s, h, c)
          if h contains "X-YahooFilteredBulk" or ¬
                    h contains "Received-SPF: fail" or ¬
                    h contains "Received-SPF: softfail" or ¬
                    h contains "Received-SPF: error" or ¬
                    h contains "Received-SPF: permerror" or ¬
                    h contains "Received-SPF: temperror" or ¬
                    h contains "streamsendbouncer@" or ¬
                    s contains "[Bulk]" or ¬
                    f contains "Vigra.candianmeds.com" or ¬
                    f contains "[email protected]" or ¬
                    f contains ".cz" or ¬
                    r contains ".ma" then
                    return true
     end if
end blacklist
on whitelist(f, h)
          if f contains "aicpa" or ¬
          f contains "eWeek.com" or ¬
                    h contains "from macbook-air.local" then
                    return true
          else
                    return false
          end if
end whitelist
on moveToJunkFolder(m, a)
          tell application "Mail"
                    try
                              set the read status of m to true
                              set the junk mail status of m to true
                              set theAccount to (account of mailbox of m)
                              set mailbox of m to (mailbox "Junk" of a) -- Move to "Junk"
                    end try
          end tell
end moveToJunkFolder

When are Mail rules applied?

OS X Mavericks 10.9.3, Mail 7.3
I have created several Mail rules, including one the delete unsolicited mesages either from certain senders or to certain addresses. The rule reads like:
If 'any' of the following conditions are met:
'From' 'is equal to' 'Online Casino'
'To' 'contains' 'fax@<mydomain>'
<several more similar>
Perform the following actions:
'Delete Message'
Unfortunately the rule does not appear to be applied: these messages are moved to my Junk folder, from where I delete them using 'Erase Junk Mail'.
I am confused
Andrew
PS I have not read or downloaded these messages from this IMAP server on another device

Mail rules only apply automatically to the Inbox when email arrives. If your email provider is marking them as spam, it may be moving them to the Spam (Junk) folder on their server. Rules won't fire on those.
You can apply rules manually, but you have to select all the messages you want to check, then choose Apply rules from the Message menu.
Also, there is a setting in Mail's Junk preference to trust junk mail headers. In that case, if someone marks the message as spam, Mail will move it to Junk, but not mark it as junk. I'm not certain, but I don't think rules will fire on those, either.
And, I forgot about the Filter setting as Csound1 has pointed out.

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.

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)

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

How to copy my mail-rules to my other MAC

HI,
I have a MAcAir and Macbook Pro. On my MacAir I created a bunch of rules to keep spam out of my mailbox (not an iCloud mail) and would like to copy these rules to my other MAC.
Can anyone tell me how to do this without re-typing everything?
Thanks in advance and a happy new year!,
Frans

It looks like Mail rules are kept in this file
~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/SyncedRules.plist
Here's a hypothesis: You could try making a copy of this file from the first mac and inserting it in the same location on the other mac. You will need to restart Mail on the second mac after doing so.
Be sure you don't delete the file that's already there in the second mac - just move it out to your desktop as I'm not sure that this will work. There may well be machine or address specific data in the file, but give it a try and let us know if it works out.
If it doesn't, then just delete the file you copied over from the second mac and put back the one you moved to your desktop.

Moving mail rules

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