RULES of Apple Mail

Dear Guys,
HAPPY HOLIDAYS from Hong Kong.
I have a question about finding information on the RULES page. Right now, I have about 100+ entries on the RULES page. Everytime I want to edit a specific entry, I have to scroll down the whole list slowly to find that entry with my own aging eyes. The FIND function is simply of no use on the RULES page.
I am wondering if there are ways out.
Thank you so much for your insight.
Jimmy Chiu
Hong Kong
Power Book G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Jimmy,
I agree with Austin that you probably have too many rules. I know of no way to apply the Find function to them, but you may find the following AppleScript useful to generate a numbered list of them in the order they appear in the Rules preference.
To use it, open the Script Editor application, copy & paste the text below into a new script window (⌘N, ⌘V), & click the "Run" button. A list of your rules should appear in a new Mail message window. If you find this useful, save the script to some convenient location as an application with Script Editor & you can just double-click it to generate a new list without having to bother with launching the Editor each time.
tell application "Mail"
set RulesList to ""
repeat with i from 1 to count of rules
set RuleItem to i & tab & name of rule i & return
set RulesList to RulesList & RuleItem
end repeat
set RuleMsg to make new outgoing message
tell RuleMsg
set subject to "My Rules List"
set content to RulesList
set visible to true
activate
end tell
end tell
iMac G5/2.0 GHz 17" ALS (Rev B) Mac OS X (10.4.8) 512 MB, Kensington Trackball

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Is there a way to create a rule for Apple Mail that when a certain person is a recipient, make the email plain text?

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I don't think so. Not without setting up an AppleScript and I am not proficient with those.
You can, however, set the follolwing in Mail > Preferences > Composing
Responding: Use the same message format as the original message.
But that would only be for responding to messages sent from his Blackberry.

Can't edit rules in Apple Mail.

Hello there:
For some strange reason if I try to add a new e-mail address editing a rule, well, everything seems to be ok, until I click "Apply" and nothing happens.
Any help will be welcome.
Best wishes, as always,
Federico (aka euskir)

Hello terriergal:
So far, in my case, no need to delete old rules, just to wait the new ones to be effective, and the two added were working ok.
Sometimes an interesting action before delete rules is to check if something change deleting Apple Mail preferences, or if you prefer just putting the preferences aside for a while.
Best wishes, as always,
Federico (aka euskir)

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Steps to reproduce:
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- Change the value 7 to 2. So it will be 2 months.
- Close the dialog box.
- Right click on Smart Mailbox and select Edit Smart Mailbox. The dialog still says 7. The 2 never Saves.
Looks like a bug in Apple Mail.

It's already a known bug.

Why do my rules in Apple mail keep disappearing?

Hello,
I am using 10.6.8 OS and using Apple Mail.
I am using the rules function to allow emails from certain addresses to be automatically put into folders.
Recently, the rules have started to disappear when I start up mail and I have to set up the rules once again.
Here is a screenshot.
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Thanks in advance!

First of all, you cannot control how the recipient may see the attached images that in Mail are Viewed in Place -- this is a function of the recipient's email client, and not anything you do. Some email clients refer to this as Inline View.
Embedding images is a term that really only applies to HTML documents. Mail does not support composing in HTML, but will accept to paste one in if composed in an Editor for HTML.
As to what you may be seeing as you compose, what is the setting on the Image Size button at the bottom right?
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I am trying to setup an auto response for my Apple Mail. I need to configure my mail account to automatically respond to someone when they email me. However, if that individual were to email me again, they would not receive a response because one was already sent. I know this may be slight confusing so I included a step-by-step outline below:
1. I receive an email from a client
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3. The same individual sends me another email
4. No automated response because one has already been sent to this sender.
Thanks again for anyones help and or direction!

Mail does not have such a feature. I'm not even sure there's a third-party solution for you, but check at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

Bug with rules in Apple Mail

There is a bug when it comes to rules in Mail in 10.6.4 and 10.6.5 (and possibly earlier versions of Mail as well).
Here are the steps to reproduce the bug:
1. Make sure you have an IMAP account in Mail.
2. In your IMAP account's Mailbox Behaviors, UNCHECK the box that says "Store draft messages on server". This ensures that your draft messages will be saved locally on your Mac instead of on your IMAP server.
3. Create one new rule that would ALWAYS be true of ANY new message that you would be creating in mail, such as:
"From contains (your email address)"
OR
"Sender is a member of group (name of a group that your own card is a part of)"
Don't create both of those rules... just choose one.
4. The action that the rule should perform is:
"Set Color of text (choose a color)"
Make sure that you're NOT setting a BACKGROUND color, but rather that you're setting a TEXT color.
5. Save the rule.
6. Now, create a new message and start typing.
7. Save the message as a draft once.
8. Notice that the message shows up in your Drafts folder with the text color applied that you set in #4 above. This actually is a small bug right there, because rules shouldn't apply to messages in your drafts folder, but this first bug is not a big deal.
9. Continue editing the message.
10. Save the message as a draft for a 2nd time.
11. This is where the major bug takes place. Look in your Drafts folder. Now, your message has shown up in your Drafts folder with the BACKGROUND COLOR of the message changed to the TEXT COLOR that you set in #4, which makes the message unreadable if you had chosen a dark text color. Even though you specified a TEXT color, Mail incorrectly applied a BACKGROUND color to the message.

Hey, thanks to pputnam, I just figured out a workaround to this bug!!
Because pputnam figured out that the rule "Message Type Is Mail" DOESN'T trigger the bug, I just added that as a criteria to my rule and now the problem doesn't happen!
So now the criteria for my rule looks like this:
If "ALL" the following conditions are met:
"From contains (my email address)"
"Message Type is Mail"
That is the official workaround for this bug!
Thank you pputnam for indirectly figuring out this problem.

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Hi,
unfortunately, rules in apple mail are synced via iCloud when "Documents & Data" is activated in iCloud settings. I would have thought that deactivating the "Mail" checkbox should do that, but this one seems to be related to iCloud email adresses only.
My problem is, that I need the "Document & Data" sync for other apps, but I cannot turn it on because then, mail rules will be synced too. This leads to a horrible mess as I have different rules on my private mac and on my business mac.
How can I deactivate the "Documents & Data" sync just for a single app (in this case Apple Mail) and leave it on for the others? Did I miss something, or can I just turn it on and off for all apps?
Thanks in advance,
Timo

I don't have a second computer to test, but you could use DropBox, OneDrive, Box.com or other cloud service to sync your documents and data.

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How can I remove them completely?

I have this exact same problem. I created a rule for Mail to move e-mails, with some given keywords in them, into the junk folder. Then I removed the rule completely, deleted it. But all incoming e-mail are still moved to the folder. Although I have NO rules left.

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Hi All!
About a year ago I installed Virus Barrier X6 with Personal Antispam on my 27 inch iMac. The Virus software seems great and I have no issues. The Antispam I have never installed and i have continued with the Junk options, however I have an issue with what I think is the Intego version (you may correct me) which is driving me mad!
On the left hand column of my Apple mail software is a folder headed 'ON MY MAC', called Spam. eBay messages, work messages, banking etc etc are going straight into there and I cannot seem to alter any settings.
The email is highlighted in purple and when I try right clicking, it offers only the standard options as with any other email. There are no spam options at the top of the screen, there is nothing on the Launchpad relating to it and when I search the mac (top right), there are absolutely no hits whatsoever entitled Spam or similar?
Since my recent update to M/Lion, the Intego Personal Antispam icon on Launchpad has disappeared by the way - so I cannot be sure that this is an Intego. Is it possibly an Apple generated icon?
I would be happy to keep it there if I could control it. If not, I just need rid of the thing. I cannot teach the software to learn or unlearn - so i am completely at its mercy. Your help would be very much appreciated.
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A screen shot is at this link for clarification.
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

It is caused by a rule within Apple Mail. Check Preference > Rules.
If Personal Antispam has disappeared, it's because the product was discountinued. See this link for that info plus some instructions on how to deal with what you are seeing: https://support.intego.com/entries/21639926-Personal-Antispam-Discontinued
Once Personal Antispam has been removed, you can just remove the folder manually (right click, remove).
Message was edited by: noti

How prevent shared folders to be added as attachment in apple mail?

All,
The thing just happend. One of the network users wrote a new mail (in apple's mail app) and instead of attaching one file, the user by accident double clicked the shared folder, and mail started attaching the 8.1 Gb folder. This never happend before and I like to prevent this. Should I go to server admin>afp>sharepoints? And unshare the folder? But are they still able accessing the files?
Help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Harry

Your current approach will not likely work, as there is no means to selectively set permissions for an application in the fashion that would be required here.
You'd need not only need indication of and the involvement of the active mail client, you'd also need some way to deal with either the specific type of data involved or the specific quantity involved, and I don't know of any means of communicating that across the mail client and the security system. (Blocking all access to Shared files is easy. Blocking just mail attachments? Not so easy.
I can't think of a way that would work here with a typical access control list (ACL) implementation scheme (Mac OS X has decent ACL support), short of a whole lot of kernel customizations or something like a programmable sending-related trigger scheme within mail, and AFAIK, there are no "outbound" rules within Apple mail client.
And is this case hunting fleas with anvils? (read: Something that's possible, but a whole lot of work.) How often does this particular case arise? If it's happening frequently and is not being addressed by some targeted training, then you probably don't really have a technical problem, you probably have a personnel and/or managerial problem here, and those don't lend themselves to technical fixes.
To pursue the maximum message size within the Microsoft Exchange product, then you have an Exchange qustion and not a Mac OS X (Server or client) question.
I don't run Microsoft Exchange servers, so I have no particular familiarity with the settings and options of that product. Based on some quick Googling, have a read of Microsoft's [Understanding Message Size Limits|http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124345.aspx] as a start, or Google around for the details of whatever version of Exchange is in use here.

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

How can I set up a rule to delete all messages older than 6 months left in Apple Mail's main inbox?

How can I set up a rule to delete all messages older than 6 months left in Apple Mail's main inbox?
I have created other rules to move some of my daily messages into specific folders and I don't wish to auto-delete those.
Just the general stuff that keeps piling up in my me.com main email box. Mail such as FB announcements and other low priority stuff I want to look at before deleting but don't want to keep longer than a week or month.
TIA
thokitts

Thanks, but I am looking for a more automated solution than hand marking emails as junk. I might as well move them to the trash myself.
Again, these are emails I want to receive and quickly read, but not keep longer than a week or month or so. By setting a rule to toss any older than 30 days back then my Mail program (and thus my hard drive) won't be wasting so much space. For example, currently I have over 6000 read messages, with their attachments, in my main email box. I'd rather not have to physically attend to sorting the one I don't want out.
The one I do keep for other reasons get moved into other folders.
It seems this should be possible.
thokitts

Please help with troubleshooting Applescript invoked by Apple Mail rule

I set up an account with Boxcar to get push notification of incoming email on my iPhone. I did this because I passworded my iPhone and cannot see incoming messages without entering the password. Now all I need to do is glance at the screen to see whether it's worth it or not to look at the email. In order to use the Boxcar service, I needed to set up a rule to redirect all incoming mail to my private address on Boxcar. The issues that I have are two-fold. First, I do not like blindly forwarding email content to Boxcar regardless of their stated claim that they strip out the sender and subject of a message and discard the rest. Second, if I get a large incoming email, then My method will have to send the large content out again - a waste of resources. To get around this, I tried to write an Applescript for Apple Mail that is invoked by a rule applicable to all messages. The script redirects all messages to my private Boxcar email address and strips out the content of the message. The script follows:
using terms from application "Mail"
on perform mail action with messages selectedMessages
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
repeat with theMessage in selectedMessages
set boxcarMessage to redirect theMessage
tell boxcarMessage
make new to recipient at beginning of to recipients with properties {address:"[email protected]"}
set content to " "
set subject to theMessage's subject
end tell
send boxcarMessage
end repeat
end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from
The problem with this script is that it still sends out the content even though I thought I was setting it to a single space. Other than that, it does just what I need it to do. Any suggestions on corrections, an easier Applescript, or another way to approach the whole issue? One drawback to this approach is that I need to have a Mac running at home that processes the rule for the incoming messages - probably there is no way around this?
Thanks!

That makes sense, but then that gets back to your original comment:
"redirecting the message will send the entire message, as-is."
I tried to eliminate the attachments by adding the line:
delete boxcarMessage's attachments
but it did not work - the attachments were redirected also. So here is the script as it stands now:
using terms from application "Mail"
on perform mail action with messages selectedMessages
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
repeat with theMessage in selectedMessages
set boxcarMessage to redirect theMessage
delete boxcarMessage's attachments
tell boxcarMessage
make new to recipient at beginning of to recipients with properties {address:"[email protected]"}
end tell
delay 3
send boxcarMessage
end repeat
end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from
I appreciate the input. Intuitively it seems like this is doable, but the solution escapes me.

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Can you use Apple Mail program Rules and Gmail filters together? Does the gmail filtering override the Mail Rules?

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