Rules: can Mail move messages if they are 'X days old'? Seems not!

Question

Hi,
I set up a bunch of rules on Mail, to move messages that were sent from certain people and that had been in my Inbox for a certain minimum period of time into special folders so as to automate the cleanup of my Inbox to some degree.
For example, the rule for messages from my work is as follows.
If ALL the following conditions are met:
From Contains (name of company mail server)
Date Received Is Greater Than 3 Days Old
Perform the following actions:
Move Message to mailbox Work
Right, so this works the first time I write it, and never again after that. I would have thought that whilever the rule was active, if Mail ever detected that there were messages from work that had been sent more than 3 days ago, it would automatically move them, but it doesn't. Since setting the rule up months ago it only ever worked the first time I wrote it and it asked if I wanted to apply it.
What am I doing wrong? Or is what I'm asking for not actually possible with the rules?
Cheers,
Owen

Answer 1

Hi Owen
rules are applied 1: when mail is received, 2: (optionally) when the rule is first set up, and 3: if messages are selected & the 'apply rules' menu command chosen.
to apply rules to messages you’ve already received, select the messages in the viewer window and then choose Message > Apply Rules.
A smart mailbox will evaluate constantly, although I appreciate that's not the same thing.