Smart folder seems dumb

Maybe it's me...
I've tried entering every possible variation of subject line into a smart folder in Mail, to move messages from a certain email discussion list to that folder. Nevertheless, many messages, seemingly described accurately in the smart folder's inclusion criteria, don't make it to the smart folder.
Is this a known issue?
The larger problem is that the filter for the smart folder doesn't seem to have a "reply to" criterion. Some email discussion lists are best identified by their reply-to addresses.
Am I overlooking something? Suggestions?
Thanks in advance,
Tim
533 mhz dual CPU G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I just complain on support forums to fill up my
otherwise empty life.
The email address is always the same, but the recipient's
name is inconsistent, depending on how the user enters it.
I don't fully understand this. What does being inconsistent mean here? If participants must send their messages to [email protected], there is no way to be inconsistent about that. Unless the list server suppresses that address from the headers, then a single condition specifying [Any Recipient] [Contains] use-revolution (or [Any Recipient] [Contains] lists.runrev.com) should work...
No matter how I enter the "any recipient" field, many
messages stay in the in box instead of getting sent
to the smart folder.
Well, they shouldn't be sent to the smart mailbox, but they should definitely appear there...
It doesn't seem like so many similar criteria should
be necessary.
Agreed. A single condition is all that should be needed. I don't understand why it doesn't work for you.
Even when "any recipient" meets one or more of these
criteria, the message often remains in the in basket.
The messages shouldn't remain in the Inbox often. They should remain there always. That's how smart mailboxes work.
Some messages do get picked up by the smart folder.
Others don't. I don't see a pattern.
Could this be a Spotlight issue?
Maybe if I could get the smart folder to work right,
the "reply to" criterion would be irrelevant.
I think so.
I tried a smart folder instead of a filter. I thought
it would be easier. Maybe smart folders and filters
use different mechanisms. I haven't tried to do the
same thing with a filter yet.
Not only do they use different mechanisms (smart folders use Spotlight, whereas rules do not), but they serve different purposes as well. I you do actually want your messages to be moved out of the Inbox and into their own mailbox, that's what rules are for -- and they allow you to to specify arbitrary headers in the conditions.

Similar Messages

Dumb User - Smart Folder

Clearly, I don’t understand the whole “Smart Folder” or “Smart Mailbox” thing. Really, I’m missing something pretty darn basic. I’ve made several “Smart Folders” and then entered a bunch of conditions, and that’s it. I try to test it by sending myself a message with the criteria I set, but nothing happens. So, I figure it has to be something with the “Smart Folders” but still I’m lost. Now, I don’t even understand how to delete all this wizardry and cry for help.
Regards,
MBP-15" / 2.16 / W8612... Mac OS X (10.4.6) G4 Tower (OS 9/10), Dell 620 WorkStation (XP Pro), Gateway P4 (XP Home)

We can most definitely help out. Let's start out by you telling us what kind of Smart Mailbox you want. Then tell us how you built it. It's probably something simple and having another set of eyes look at it may help.
One thing you can test yourself is on one of the Smart Mailboxes you've created, be sure that the condition is set to "All" or "Any" based on your needs. "All" means that every test you give it must pass in order for the whole thing to be true. "Any" means if any one of the conditions is true then the whole thing is true. Having this one setting wrong can throw the whole thing off.
Bronson

How do I make a Smart Folder for Applications last opened over a month ago?

Can anyone give me some pointers on generating a Spotlight saved search/Smart Folder under Leopard that will give me all applications NOT opened in a given time period (say one month)? I can do Kind:Application and Last Opened:before a given date (1 July 2009), but I don't believe this will update as time goes by? The date is absolute rather than relative, if you will?
Attempts at using some negation of the Last Opened:within 1 month (using a dropdown "Match None of the following rules") appears not to function as I would expect. From having a dig around in the .savedsearch it seems the trouble is attempting to negate a range rather than a fixed date?
The only thing I now suspect is that I need the .savedsearch query, which looks like this:
+<string>((((_kMDItemGroupId = 8) && ((kMDItemLastUsedDate < 268063200))))) && (true)</string>+
To perhaps instead use +$time.this_month(-1)+ in place of the hard coded date, but danged if I know how to do so. Now it's late, and I'm posting incoherently to the Apple Support Forums. Any enlightenment appreciated. (Forgive me if this is the wrong forum - it's a Leopard/Spotlight issue)

If you go into Edit > Preferences, then on the General tab make sure that Ringtones is ticked and it should then appear on the left-hand side of your iTunes.

Can Aperture not be set up to show a "Last Import" smart folder?

I'm trying to make the transfer from using iPhoto to using Aperture.
One thing I found really great in iPhoto was the smart folder that was simply set to show the last import, no matter when that import was done - whether it was today, yesterday or 6 months ago.
The reason I found this so handy was because I set my iPad up in iTunes to only sync the photos from that Last Import smart folder, rather than all my photos.
That way, every time I synced my iPad, I always had my most recent photos on my iPad, no matter when the pictures were taken.
Now with Aperture, I cannot see a way to create anything similar. The best I can do is to create a smart folder with photos imported within the last month, let's say.
But the problem with that is that if I haven't imported any new photos for over a month, then the next time I sync my iPad, then all my photos will no longer be on the iPad.
If I create a longer timeframe, to let's say 3 months, then I might end up with way too many photos trying to sync across, and that's something I don't want. I could end up with hundreds and hundreds of photos, and I don't have the free space to be able to do this!
When I used "Last Import" with iPhoto, then I always only had around 50 or 60 photos, because that's just generally how many I usually imported at any one time. Sometimes it was more, sometimes less, but the average worked for me.
So to sum up: Can Aperture not be set up to show a "Last Import" smart folder, regardless of date?
Or alternatively, is there any way I could "hack" or "trick" Aperture into doing something like this so that I always have a managable amount of the most recent photos on my iPad?

Hello Brett,
that does not seem to be an easy probem as you discovered.
Some Workarounds:
You might to use a smart album rule "Import session is" instead of a date range, but that will not be automatic.
Create a folder "recently added" and keep your recent projects inside that folder; create a smart album at the top level of that folder; move older projects somewhere else.
Or enable the Photo Stream - that is the current replacement for the "most recently added" album; it will (is supposed to) always show the most recent 1000 images.
If you are familiar with AppleScript, you can make Aperture run an AppleScript on import (Import Settings) to add your imported image to an album of new images. From time to time remove the older images.
Sorry, but no really convenient way to do it..
Regards
Léonie

Smart folders seems not to work with star rating. Is there a fix?

I Rate photos with a five star rating either on iPhoto or Adobe Bridge CS5. When I create a smart folder setting the search attribute to "Rating equals 5" nothing appears on the search.

Sorry,
I think I misunderstood your question. You were talking about smart folders in the Finder and not about smart albums in iPhoto, right? "Rating equals 5" does not work on any of my machines, neither in Snow leopard nor in Lion. The problem seems to be how to represent the rating in the search string. If I search for "Rating is not 5" the smart folder contains plenty of pictures, also those with a rating of five. Does anyone know how the rating is coded to be used in a search string in the Finder?

MobileMe Gallery + Smart Folder; why doesn't it automatically update?

I used to use Photocasting on iPhoto 6. This worked great in that I published a photocast of a smart folder and any new items that matched the smart folder were automatically published.
I upgraded to iPhoto '08 specifically so that people could subscribe to an album via RSS and have it work on any computer.
Unfortunately, with iPhoto '08 the MobileMe Gallery doesn't seem to remember that it was based on a smart folder and I have to manually add additional pictures to publish in the MobileMe Gallery.
What am I missing? All I want is to have a smart folder automatically publish all new matches to an RSS feed for my friends & family to see new pics.
Please advise as to how anyone is able to accomplish this.

MobileMe galleries are separate from the album that you initially use to create them. Any photo added to the album also has to be manually added to the gallery. It's the nature of the beast. You can put in a feature request to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There's now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Create a Smart Folder with Red or Green labels.

Hi,
I want to create a smart folder with either Red or Yellow label, I tried the "option"-"+" to add ANY condition when creating my smart folder, but seem smart folder still only try to search only one type of label depend on the position of my "ANY" condition.
From the Get Info, I can see the raw query seem to be correct:
(true) && ((((kMDItemFSLabel = 6) || (kMDItemFSLabel = 2))))
Is it a bug in the smart folder?
Thanks
Kit

figured it out. Hold the "option" key while hitting the "+" for a new criteria.

Finder smart folder: "Search for:Today" has changed

I noticed today that the smart folder has changed and now only seems to be showing applications and not files also.
I'm not sure what changed it initially, but to try to "fix" it, I went to the finder toolbar and selected "Action>Show Search Criteria". What should the default settings be for this folder as installed by Mac OSX Leopard?

The default criteria for Today and Yesterday, Apple's canned searches, are "Last Opened date is today" or "yesterday" plus "None of the following are true---Kind is Folders." If your are correct and aren't returning what you want, construct your own search that does what you want, then save it as a misnamed "Smart Folder"--be sure to check the box in the Save dialog to have it appear in the Sidebar.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Sync a Smart Folder with it's contents to .mac?

Hi There,
I use Mail with a few smart folders to organise things.... not a power user by any means.
Here is a problem i'd love to find a solution for.
I subscribe to feeds in Mail.app on my main mac at work, during the day i'll flag the ones which i'd like to read further. I use a Smart mailbox to show me only flagged RSS. now, what i'd like to happen is for that Smart mailbox to sync with my .mac account somehow, so when i get home i can read the feeds at leisure...
Any Ideas?
I do know i could use a different app for my feeds, or google reader, but i like keeping things in one place as much as possible..

OK. Today, i finally found half a solution. . .
pretty simple. but works for now- unfortunately I have to manually sync...
so-
I created a smart folder with all flagged feeds in Mail.app
I wanted to view my flagged feeds on my other macs
I didn't want to use yet another piece of software, or web based app.
My simple solution is - keep a folder on my me.com server named RSS...
Now, go to your smart folder, drag and drop all the flagged feeds to your me.com folder.
head home, read feeds, unflag, or better delete when done...
now, can anyone tell me how to create a rule or some-such to make the moving of flagged feeds to my me.com account automatic?
Rules don't seem to have "flagged" only as an option.
thanks thanks thanks!

Smart folder sorting?

I have long relied on smart folders to help me find the largest files on my hard drive, letting me save space when necessary... however, I can't seem to find any size-sorting option on Smart Folders this time around (when it was really easy to find in OS X 10.4). I can sort in regular folders by size, but not in Smart Folders... anyone figure this out?

Two options:
1) Click Cmd+F. This will create a search. With the little drop down menu on the left (might start with "Kind") select "Other". A window pops up and you can select "Size" (if you use this a lot, select the tick box on the right that says "In Menu"). Then set your size and Spotlight will find it for you. Then, once the search is running/ran, click on the "Save" button, and it will save to your Saved Searches in your sidebar (which I think is a cool addition)
2) Similar to the first... Press OptCmdN (or select New Smart Folder from the File menu) just like before. In the toolbar, there should be a little gear (if not, add it to the toolbar by going to the View menu and selecting Customize Toolbar). Click on the gear and then on the option "Show Search Criteria". Repeat the second half of option 1 above and TA-DA!, you have yourself a new smart folder.

Populating Smart Folder - Bug?

There seems to have been a change in the way smart folders are populated in Snow Leopard. I like to keep a smart folder called "All Today". It is a great troubleshooting tool. For example, there is currently a Snow Leopard bug in using your mouse to select Expose "Show Desktop". With this smart folder, I can change the Expose settings and quickly see that com.apple.symbolichotkeys.plist is the possible problem file.
Unfortunately, Snow Leopard is not populating an realtime smart folder very elegantly. One has to open the smart folder, show search criteria, and toggle search locations to properly populate the folder.
For example, here is an "All Today" search criteria:
Create a new Smart Folder w/ search conditions as follows:
Kind = Any
System Files = Are Included
(Option+) ANY of the following are TRUE
- Last Opened Date = Today
- Last Modified Date = Today
Save the folder
Close finder and open the folder. You will see that the folder is not properly populated. Now, open "Show Search Criteria" and toggle Search location at the top. Now correctly populated. It is a nuisance to have to drop down the menu to show the search criteria and then toggle. This was not the case in Leopard.
Can anyone think of a work around?

Hi all,
I've a similar issue. If you create a smart folder with time based criteria it won't get populated correctly.
Say you have a criteria "last opened" in "one week"
It works as soon as you create the folder but if you open a file after the smart folder was created the new file won't be seen in the smart folder.
Cheers,
Marco

Smart Folder Question

Hello People,
I am trying to do something fairly basic with a Smart Folder but it's not working and I must be doing something wrong, here's the deal:
I have an email account called [email protected], where our software sends us error reports when the users says "report to developer". So I've got lots of error reports. (Well not that many, but I've got quite a lot)
I'd like to create a smart folder that says:
IS IN MAILBOX "XXXXX"
AND
ENTIRE MESSAGE -> DOES NOT CONTAIN "a string i'd like to place like this one".
In theory this seems easy, but in practice is not working. I seems as if the "Contains, Does Not Contain, Begins with, etc." is always behaving like "Contains".
I've placed a screnshot that shows exactly that. If you take a look at it, the message shown has exactly that string on the first line "while establishing a connection".
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/9180/errormailgk9.th.jpg
Could it be possible that "Entire Message" doesn't search message text?
Thanks

Austin Kinsella1 wrote:
Well, it is not just you - I have just tried a couple of smart mailboxes, and "does not contain" produces the same results as "contains". As far as I can see contains produces correct results.
Hhmmmm is this a bug or something we're not doing "right"?
By the way, thank you for trying

Smart Folder bug

Any time I use a smart folder, well I have only tried with one. With the search criteria, system turned on, and visibility to everything. So that I can search my whole system. Everytime I do this I cannot search anything after. Nothing, in finder or anything until I restart. Spotlight seems to work. It sometimes comes up with a few results, I didn't notice a pattern just yet, but there are very few. Once I restart it works normally until again I make another smart folder and search in it. Also I did try rebuilding the spotlight index after making a smart folder to no avail. I tried resetting PRAM, SMC, fixing my drives permissions/repairing. Nothing has worked. Please help!. Ive also noticed significant performance changes in yosmite.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of the test is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party software that loads automatically at startup or login, by a peripheral device, by a font conflict, or by corruption of the file system or of certain system caches.
Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards, if applicable. Start up in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. You must hold down the shift key twice: once when you turn on the computer, and again when you log in.
Note: If FileVault is enabled in OS X 10.9 or earlier, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Ask for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to start up and run than normal, with limited graphics performance, and some things won’t work at all, including sound output and Wi-Fi on certain models. The next normal startup may also be somewhat slow.
The login screen appears even if you usually login automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem?
After testing, restart as usual (not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Smart Folder Message Count Wrong

I have a smart folder set up to show me all flagged messages. The folder list on the left of the Mail window displays the number of messages in the folder, but it is constantly wrong. Right now, it says there are three messages but when I go to the folder there are none!
I've tried deleting the smart folder and recreating multiple time with the same problem each time.
Any ideas on how to fix this?

I have the same issue, still. Most of the replies in the forum say to rebuild the mailboxes the flagged messages are in. This does seem to work but its a hassle because if you are organised and have quite a number of mailboxes it's laborious to find the offending mailbox. Also rebuilds sometimes make otherwise read messages unread again. I've tried rebuilding the flagged smart mailbox as someone suggested but didn't reset the count for me.
Be wonderful if the powers that be could fix this issue, it's been around for a long time... I've just given up in the hope that one day it'll be solved

Smart Folder stopped working

When I first installed Tiger, I created a Smart Folder to display all the Presentations on my Powerbook. A simple "Kind: Presentations" Smart Folder did the job perfectly, displaying all Keynote and PowerPoint presentations.
Recently, this Smart Folder stopped working properly - only giving 4 or 5 results instead of the 50-or-so it returned previously. Using Spotless, I completely rebuilt the Spotlight index.
Now, my Smart Folder only displays Apple Keynote documents - no PowerPoint presentations.
Has Apple redefined the results "Kind: Presentations" returns, so as only to return Keynote results? Or is something wrong here?
(Edited to add: A Spotlight "Kind:Presentations" returns both PowerPoint and Keynote files, but not a Smart Folder!)
PowerMacG5 2x2GHz / Powerbook 12 1GHz Mac OS X (10.4.3)

I've seen people complaining about Word docs not getting classified correctly, it seems to be a result of something odd with the new MicroSoft Office mdimporter. It wouldn't surprise me at all that the peculiarity extends to presentations as well. See this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1175366&#1175366
You might try this:
Bring up a new Find window, in the criteria drop down window select Other, then in the dialog box select Raw Query. In the Raw Query field paste in this:
(kMDItemContentTypeTree = 'public.presentation')
and see if it pulls up the PowerPoint presentations. If so save it as a Smart Folder. If the MS mdimporter has been revised so that it isn't passing correct information to the Spotlight database this may not work. But it is worth a shot.
Francine
Schwieder

Smart folder seems dumb

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