Rules in mail

Hello,
I have several rules in Mail but it seems as if it doesn't run automatically. Does anyone else have this problem? I have to apply this manually. Even weirder thing is that it applies to some but not all.

Not sure if that'll do the trick. Lots of pople send mails to me (wich means any part of my adress will be included), and several of others in the To: field. I want to delete these, and send a reply to the tune of: learn to use groups (do not disclose recipients) or bbc field.

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Problem with rules in mail.app

I've just started having a problem with my rules in mail.app that I just don't understand. I have several rules that I've had working for quite a while now, over a year. All of a sudden beginning about a month ago, some of them -- different ones at different times -- stop working and the incoming mail goes into my main mail box and don't get distributed according to the rules to the appropriate mail boxes.
When I check the rules, all of which are basically the same: If any of the following conditions are met, From contains XXX, Perform the following actions: Move message to mailbox xxx, I see that mailbox XXX has changed from what it should be to some other mailbox name which is a valid name but not the one that I originally put in the rule.
To make it a bit more strange, the rule with the wrong mailbox name is not executed and the mail winds up in my main mailbox.
When I edit the rule and change the mailbox name and am asked whether I want to apply the rule and I respond yes, the rule executed and the mail that landed in the main mailbox gets distributed the way it should.
But then anywhere from a day to a week later the same thing happens, that is, the mailbox name in the rule somehow gets changed again.
Has anyone seen this behavior before and/or have any suggestions for fixing it?

Are you really on 10.8.1 as per your profile - maybe updating to 10.8.3 might help.
Have you tried rebuilding the mailbox? It sometimes helps sort out Mail problems:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11811

How can I remove a flag using a rule in Mail.app?

I'm using Mail Act-On to flag messages that are important. I also have got a smart mailbox that displays only those messages that are flagged, this is my "To Do" mailbox.
Once I've read and answered the message I want to remove the flag, preferrably via a rule using Mail Act-On as well. However in the rules dialog in the Mail.app preferences there's only the option to set a flag, not to remove one.
Can anyone help: how can I remove a flag using a rule?? Maybe via Applescript as the last resort?
Thanks for any advice Jan

Hi Jan
I haven't gotten around to put unread and unflag into Mail-ActOn but MailTags has the functionality. MailTags also allows you to mark a message unread via act-On rule.
It is interesting to note that apple doesn't include unflag and unread as the rules were originally intended to apply only to new messages (of which none should be read or flagged) with that logic, there would be no need for unread, unflagg.
@David: The reason to do it via Act-On rule would be to set up a sequence of events, one of which is to unflag, others may be to set keywords, move messages, set colors etc.
Scott

How do I create a rule in mail that only applies to flagged messages?

I would like to create a rule in mail that would delete messages of a certain age, but I need to keep some messages safe. I would like to be able to flag these or put them in a mailbox and have a rule making messages with those flags or mailboxes safe from being deleted. Is that something I can do? Thanks!

You can create a local mailbox and move the messages you want to keep there. I don't see any kind to rule you can make to move a flagged message, so you would probably have to do it manually, unless you can use other criteria to identify messages you wish to keep.
If you're using the server settings in mail to determine the age before deletion, the local mailboxes would be safe from that deletion. You can set to store messages on server for up to 30 days before deletion. This will work for IMAP accounts, but don't apply to the inbox. Just to the other main mailboxes such as Sent, Trash, etc.
If you create a rule to delete messages after a certain age (outside of what the servers would do automatically), I think it would only work on the inbox if at all, but not sure. If it were applied through all, it would delete them from the local folders also.
You can create a smart mailbox and input certain criteria such as flagged, age. You could exclude any mailbox that you don't want to include, such as local folders, by adding that to part of the criteria. You would have to delete the messages manually as they accumulate. This would be useful when you save a lot of mail, but say you only want to keep messages less than a year old. This would help you instantly see messages that meet your deletion criteria without having to manually check messages for age.

Cannot establish new Rules in Mail 7.3

For at least the last 6 months when I try to set up new Rules in Mail, they don't stay. The old ones I set up >6 months ago always appear to work, but if I define a new rule and apply it immediately it works,but next time I open Mail it is gone from the list of Rules.
Any suggestions for how to fix this? I like to filter some incoming messages into certain mailboxes using Rules but can no longer do this because new Rules have become ephemeral
TIA for any help.
Caroline

total 224184
drwxr-xr-x 35 501 20 -      1190 Jul 2 15:50 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 7 501 20 -       238 Dec 15 2012 ..
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -      9029 Jul 2 15:50 Accounts.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -       181 Dec 13 2012 AppleScriptMigration.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-------@ 1 501 20 -   2105344 Dec 13 2012 AvailableFeeds
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -     15141 Jul 2 15:40 BackupTOC.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -    354876 Jul 1 21:24 DefaultCounts
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 - 107220992 Jul 2 15:47 Envelope Index
com.apple.metadata:FileSyncAgentExcludeItem        1
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -     32768 Jul 2 07:24 Envelope Index-shm
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -   2801632 Jul 2 15:50 Envelope Index-wal
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -     32768 Jan 28 07:04 ExternalUpdates.storedata
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -     32768 Jul 2 07:25 ExternalUpdates.storedata-shm
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -         0 Jan 28 07:04 ExternalUpdates.storedata-wal
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -       915 Jul 2 15:49 FlagMailboxes.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -   1365128 Jul 1 06:58 LSMMap2
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -    137048 Dec 7 2012 MessageRules.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -    135832 Dec 7 2012 MessageRules.plist.backup
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-------@ 1 501 20 -      4615 Sep 8 2005 MessageSorting.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-------@ 1 501 20 -      4615 Sep 8 2005 MessageSorting.plist.backup
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-------@ 1 501 20 -     28672 Sep 11 2012 MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -      3944 Dec 13 2012 OpenedAttachmentsMigration.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -     18413 Jul 2 13:25 OpenedAttachmentsV2.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -      6743 Jun 23 06:59 RulesActiveState.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
drwx------ 32 501 20 -      1088 Jan 25 14:37 Signatures
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -    170952 Jan 19 2004 Signatures.plist
com.apple.FinderInfo       32
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -     25759 Dec 13 2012 SmartMailboxes.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -     25758 Dec 12 2012 SmartMailboxes.plist.backup
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -      6353 Jul 2 15:49 SmartMailboxesLocalProperties.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -      7562 Jul 2 07:25 SyncedFilesInfo.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -    134527 Jan 25 14:37 SyncedRules.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -     34724 Jan 25 14:37 SyncedSmartMailboxes.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -      1992 Jun 23 06:59 UnsyncedRules.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -      5214 Jul 2 15:49 VIPSenders.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -       944 Dec 13 2012 VersionedSmartMailboxes.plist
com.apple.quarantine       19
-rw-r--r--@ 1 501 20 -       944 Dec 12 2012 VersionedSmartMailboxes.plist.backup
com.apple.quarantine       19

How to amend Rules in Mail

I am using Mail on my Mac and also have it configured on my iPhone and iPad.
I have an alias e-mail address and set up a rule for any mails to that e-mail address to go straight into a specific folder (mailbox) within Mail.
I am now trying to amend the rule but cannot access it.
I have tried via Mail > Preferences but no rules are displayed.
I have also tried to delete the folder and then send a test mail to the e-mail address, but when the mail arrives in the inbox it just creates a new folder again.
How can I amend the rule in Mail?
Thank you

Many thanks. Would be more helpful if the rules in Mail on my Mac reflected those in iCloud but I followed your advice and made the change successfully.
Two other linked questions:
1. Why can't I access icloud.com on my iPad? (to effect the change, I had to use my Mac to go to icloud.com)
2. Can the e-mail alias addresses be colour coded so that I can easily identify incoming mail?
Thank you

Why do rules in mail preferences no longer work

I just converted to Mavericks. Now the rules for mail messages don't work. I've clicked them off and on again but no change. What else to I need to do to make the rules work?

Duplicate your copy of iTunes 10.x before upgrading to iTunes 11 (or restore it from a backup) and use iTunes 10.x to listen to (and in particular access the links in) podcasts. Further, file a bug with Apple that these links don't work when the album art is displayed in the album art mini-player.

Rules in Mail are not working!!

I set up rules in mail to moved messages after 7 days old from date send and will not apply! not working! if this can help I am using an AOL account. . . any suggestions on how to solve this issue. I am also running SL . . thanks.

Hey, Ray & welcome to the forums.
Don't set a 'rule' - go to Mail preferences/general/advanced and do it there √ instead.

When I add a rule to mail preferences, they don't work at all

When I add a rule to mail preferences, they don't work at all

One thing to remember is that mail rules are only executed on incoming email. To run a rule against existing email, Mail > Message > Apply rule.
Captfred

TS3276 Setting Rules in Mail, and misunderstanding the terms.

Just tried, for the first time, setting a Rule in mail to deal with holiday messages. Thought sending it to 'Every message' would be appropriate, as couldn't make sense of any other options. Now EVERYONE, who ever sent me a message has received the absence message, some people hugely multiple times. They would be correct to be very irritated.
Anyone else every done this?

Hi Redkite7,
Welcome to the Support Communities!
The following article will provide some information about sending automatic replies.
Mail (Mountain Lion): Send automatic replies
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11760
I gathered this information from the Help menu in the Mail application for you:
Send automatic replies
You can create a rule to have Mail automatically reply to incoming messages.
Choose Mail > Preferences, and then click Rules.
Click Add Rule and type a descriptive name for the rule.
Set the conditions necessary for the rule to apply to a message.
From the “Perform the following actions” pop-up menu, choose “Reply to Message.”
Click “Reply message text” and enter the text for your reply message.Mail will include the text you enter, along with the full text of the original message, in the reply that it sends.
I hope this information helps ....
Have a great day!
- Judy

How many rules will Mail allow???

That's the question... How many rules will Mail allow??? I can't find any documentation indicating a quantity. I can not save more that six. Am I missing something?

What was occuring. I was able to save and apply a rule once. If I closed mail, the rule just dissapeared. I was able to replicate this time and time again. I post4ed this question once before on 5/10/13. https://discussions.apple.com/message/21985327#21985327 . Because I received no response to that querry, I posted this again. Thank you for your repsone. I'm not sure what has occurred but I am able to make additional rules, save apply them; quit the application and upon re launch they are there. I have no explination as to what facillitated the change. Thank you for your response and querry.

Restoring Rules in Mail 6

I made a mistake (helped by nont weel described new functonality): Upgrading from lion to ML I accidentally activate the "document & data" sharing on icloud. This synced the rules of mail 6 of one of my user in icloud. Then in theother user I lost my hundred of rules built in years of work...
I my backup I found the "MessageRules.plist" file but the new mail uses three file to accomplish the job....
file://localhost/Users/macbook/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/RulesActiveState.plist
file://localhost/Users/macbook/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/UnsyncedRules.plist
file://localhost/Users/macbook/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/SyncedRules.plist
After a few try I realized that the file to modify is "UnsyncedRules.plist". I've been able to add a rule (ONLY ONE) from my backup files opening the UnsyncedRules.plist and the MessageRules.plist with XCode draggin it from the second to the first one...
That worked but only for one rule...
Adding other rules causes mail 6 not to recognize the file formatting and report an error or simply rewrite the file from scratch...
I've made a try also with text wrangler but with bad result....
How can i solve (without loosing the email downloaded in this 2 weeks)?
In order to not mistake anymore, where can I find an updated explanation of the meaning of "Document & Data" sharing in iCloud?
Thanks

I had to do the following to restore the signatures and mail rules:
1. Quit Apple Mail
2. Turn of these settings: System settings / iCloud:
    [ ] Mail
    [ ] Documents & Data
3. Copy the old Rules to the new location:
     cd /Users/phil/Library/Mail/V2/MailData
     cp "/Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/RulesActiveState.plist" .
     cp "/Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/SyncedRules.plist" .
     cp "/Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/SyncedRules.plist" UnsyncedRules.plist
     cp "/Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/MessageRules.plist" .
     rm -rf Signatures
     cp -r "/Volumes/TimeMachine/Backups.backupdb/Computername/Latest/Macintosh HD/Users/phil/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Signatures" .
4. Restart Apple Mail. The old rules and newly copied rules are both there. So I deleted the old rules.
5. System settings / iCloud:
    [ ] Mail
    [x] Documents & Data
6. As old rules moved mails to wrong mailboxes I had to identify these old wrong mailboxes and apply the restored rules to them.
If Apple Mail didn't find the old (wrong) mailboxes it created it new and placed the emails in there. So no emails were lost!
See also "iCloud problem with Mail.app": https://discussions.apple.com/message/20670006#20670006#20670006#20670006

Can Rules in Mail be viewed in Alphabetical Order? How is this done?

Can Rules in Mail be viewed in Alphabetical Order? How is this done?

The default tables in the "Blank" templates in numbers contain one Header Row and one Header column. These rows and columns have special properties, including the ability to be 'frozen' in place as the rest of the table is scrolled.
Place your headings in a Header Row or a Header Column.
In the Table menu, you'll find "Freeze Header Rows" and "Freeze Header columns."
"Freeze" does not apply in Print view, where Header Rows and Columns are repeated on each 'page'.
Regards,
Barry
PS:For more on header and Footer rows/columns (and other features of Numbers), read the first four chapters of the numbers '09 User Guide. You can download the guide via the Help menu in Numbers'09. search "freeze" for more on freezing header rows, etc.

Rules hang mail

Rules hang Mail.
I have a lot of rules and a several hundred mailboxes. When creating a new rule, Mail will intermittently hang when opening the preferences panes with rules, choosing the destination mailbox, or applying the new rule. I notice in the Activity Viewer has many many mailboxes that are briefly noted as "writing changes to disk". When creating a rule is successful, these flash up and quickly go away. When Mail hangs, the progress bars are various states of frozen stripes (like normal barbershop poles but stuck) or not displayed at all. I get the beachball and the Force Quit menu shows "(not responding)" . I've left it overnight, so this doesn't recover. After a reboot, I can make a few rules, but it will eventually hang. A reboot sometimes (but not always) allows a few more chances to make rules, but lately has been hanging as soon as I open the Prefs pane.
I've deleted many old rules and used Rebuild on almost all mailboxes (50 at a time not to hang Mail again), but no success. Why do rules cause Mail to hang?
Running up-to-date OS 10.6.7 and Mail 4.5 (1084).

Hi Stanley,
In the Mac Mail Menu Bar click Mail/Preferences. Make note of all your preferences under each tab.
Quit Mac Mail.
Go to ~/Library/Preferences and move this file com.apple.mail/plist to the Trash
Relaunch the Mail application.
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Rules cause Mail to crash?

This problem actually started some time ago, on a different Mac. I had a 17" G4 Powerbook. It was running 10.4.2 when the problem first appeared, and was eventually upgraded to 10.4.9. The problem is that when I turn on even a single Rule in Mail, Mail crashes on launch. The rule I tested this with is simple: If I receive mail from <domain>.com (where <domain> is a standard domain name) move the mail to a designated folder. The solution to the problem was simple: I turned rules off.
After a couple of years without rules, recently, I upgraded to a MacBook Pro. I transferred all my files over, of course. I thought, "Hmm, I sure miss using rules to sort my mail. Maybe that pesky problem has gone away." I turned on a single rule.
It worked! I was very pleased. At some point, though, I quit Mail. When I relaunched it - BAM! - Mail quit. I went through the Reopen/Relaunch loop, and was able to get Mail to open eventually. It seemed it downloaded a few additional emails each time. (I get a lot of mail.) Once I was able to get it to launch without crashing, I turned the Rule off, and Mail works again.
I tried a test: I turned Rules back on, checked for new messages, quit, then relaunched Mail. Mail doesn't quit if there are no incoming messages when I open it. I have a feeling it only crashes if there is a piece of mail that conforms to the rule, but perhaps not.
I've seen a few other posts in these forums going back to early 2006 on this topic, not one with a single reply.
I have a feeling there is a plist file I can delete to fix this problem... but which?
I've rebuilt my mailboxes and also deleted old pre-Tiger mbox files. I have mail folders as large as 2.49GB, but the mail is divided into subfolders within those, and no subfolder is larger than 1GB. I do not as a rule keep mail in the mailboxes themselves; it is all sorted into folders.
Should I go into the subfolders as well to delete the pre-Tiger mbox files? (I have not yet.) Also, the procedure for cleaning pre-Tiger mailboxes didn't mention the Incoming_Mail and IncomingTable_ofContents files, but I assume those should be deleted as well. (I've left them for now - they are small and I am scared.)
I know Mail was probably not intended for the volume of mail I end and receive, but I really don't want to switch to Entourage! I'm spoiled!
Thanks in advance for your help, and thanks to Ernie and David for the replies to other people's posts that got me this far.
Cheers,
David
MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.10) Mail 2.1.1
Powerbook G4 17 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

You can get rid of the file where rules are stored so that Mail creates it anew as follows:
1. If you have a .Mac account and .Mac synchronization of Mail data is enabled either in Mail > Preferences > General or in System Preferences > .Mac, disable it before proceeding.
2. Quit Mail if it’s running.
3. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/.
4. Move any MessageRules.plist (Mail 2.x) and/or MessageSorting.plist (Mail 1.x) files to the Desktop. This is where Mail stores all the rules, including the rule that governs what the junk filter does.
5. Open Mail. As a result of having removed the rules files, the junk filter will be disabled now. You may want to either tell Mail to go offline immediately after opening it, or shut down the Internet connection before opening Mail, to prevent it from downloading anything until the junk mail filter has been enabled again.
6. Go to Preferences > Junk Mail and enable junk filtering.
7. Go online again if you went offline in step 5.
8. If the problem is fixed now and .Mac synchronization of Mail data was enabled at the beginning, enable it again, go to System Preferences > .Mac > Advanced, click Reset Sync Data, and choose the appropriate options to reset the Mail data stored on the .Mac server with the data locally stored on the computer, i.e. sync data must flow from the computer to the .Mac server.
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user’s home folder. That is, ~/Library is the Library folder within the user’s home folder, i.e. /Users/username/Library.
<hr>
> I do not as a rule keep mail in the mailboxes themselves;
it is all sorted into folders.
What do you mean? Messages can only be stored in mailboxes and nowhere else. Mailboxes may appear as generic folder icons in Mail, but they’re still mailboxes and you create them by means of Mailbox > New Mailbox...
> Should I go into the subfolders as well to delete the pre-Tiger mbox files?
You can certainly delete them if you want, but they have no bearing on this.
The only items within a mailbox (i.e. within an *.mbox or an *.imapmbox folder) used by Mail 2.x are Info.plist and the Messages folder. Any other files you may see there are almost certainly Mail 1.x files that Mail 2.x leaves there after the conversion. This is poorly explained in Mac OS X 10.4 Mail: Some mailbox files used by Mac OS X 10.3 are not deleted after importing. The article only talks about mailboxes in ~/Library/Mail/Mailboxes/, but the same can also be said about mailboxes in “POP-”, “IMAP-”, or “Mac-” account folders.
As long as you keep a backup copy of the old files for a while (at least, until you’re sure everything was converted properly), they can safely be removed from the Mail folder. OnyX has a Cleaning > Misc > Temporary and obsolete items option for getting rid of all those files.
Note that if you see strangely-named Messages-T0x... folders, these aren’t old files from previous versions of Mail, but rather an indication that there is something amiss. More specifically, these are temporary folders created by Mail 2.x during an import or a reindexing process (e.g. rebuilding a mailbox) that Mail should have deleted when done.
<hr>
When an application crashes (i.e. quits unexpectedly), the system writes information about the state of the application at the moment of the crash to a log file. That information is called a crash report and makes troubleshooting easier. If Mail keeps crashing, proceed as follows to find and post the relevant part of the crash report here:
1. Open ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Mail.crash.log. The whole crash log appears in a Console window (you can also open that file with any text editor). It may contain many crash reports. We only want the latest, which is located at the bottom of the file.
2. Look for a line that begins with “Date/Time:” as close to the bottom as possible, and another that says “Thread N Crashed:”, where N is a number. Select everything from the “Date/Time:” line down to (and including) the lines immediately following “Thread N Crashed:”. Copy that text and paste it in your post. Do not post the whole crash log, and do not include anything beyond the lines immediately following “Thread N Crashed:” either, just the relevant part.
Take a look at the following thread for examples of what a crash report looks like:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=466701

Rules in mail

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