Smart Folders Problem

Ok, heres my set-up
I have three smart folders set up that work fine
2 have rather unimportant E-Mails
the other one has important info
I want to set up a smart folder that displays all e-mails that ARE NOT in the 2 unimportant mailboxes
I tried theses conditions
" Contains messages that match all of the following conditions:
Message is not in mailbox-"unimportant mailbox 1"
Message is not in mailbox-"unimportant mailbox 2" "
THE PROBLEM IS
it lets messages from "unimportant mailbox 2" into that smart mailbox
can anyone show me some way of doing this?

Same problem with my setup (the which looks quite like you).
My rule is : 'Show every Note that doesn't contain "myText" '
The result : the smart folder contains the messages that do contain "myText"
I also tried the reverse (meaning : 'Show every Note that contains "myText" '), and both smart folders contain the EXACT same data.

Similar Messages

I lost the capability of using Outlook 2011 Smart Folders after my Mountain Lion 10.8.2 install

After my OS 10.8.2 upgrade from Lion 10.7.5, I noticed an immediate problem with Outlook 2011 attached to our Exchange Server. 1) I rebuild My Identity two times using the Microsoft Database Utility Program, 2) I re-Indexed my whole Hard Drive Volume using Spotlight's Privacy Feature (actually inputing the volume in the Privacy screen, then immediately removing it to start the indexing which took 24 hrs.), and 3) I removed and added back the Outlook .plist files located in both Preference Folders (Home-User) and System.
All email Smart Searches stop at the date 10/5/12 the day I finished my Mountain Lion Install. I cannot add Outlook Smart Folders as well. Is there a Mountain Lion/Outlook .plist file that was stepped on or should I export my Identity file and create a New Identity and re-import my information. It seems that that has been tried on the Microsoft Mac discussion boards and it has been ineffective at solving the functionality of Outlook 2011 after a Mountain Lion Install.
Interestingly, I have an an older mid 2009 iMac, a late 2009 Mac Mini and a mid 2010 MBP iCore7 home computers running Outlook after a Mountain Lion Install and the program works great!!! However, I only have Mail coming into the InBox on the Exchange Server and do not download any mail to the Computer Inboxes. I download emails from the Exchange Server to the Computer (Late 2009 Mac Mini) office and the Rules to move mail to "on my computer folders" work nicely. The Smart Folders in which I want to filter and view 0 Day or 1 Day old (Yesterday) emails does not function and seem to stop functioning the day I installed OS 10.8.2.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! ~DDAM

After my OS 10.8.2 upgrade from Lion 10.7.5, I noticed an immediate problem with Outlook 2011 attached to our Exchange Server. 1) I rebuild My Identity two times using the Microsoft Database Utility Program, 2) I re-Indexed my whole Hard Drive Volume using Spotlight's Privacy Feature (actually inputing the volume in the Privacy screen, then immediately removing it to start the indexing which took 24 hrs.), and 3) I removed and added back the Outlook .plist files located in both Preference Folders (Home-User) and System.
All email Smart Searches stop at the date 10/5/12 the day I finished my Mountain Lion Install. I cannot add Outlook Smart Folders as well. Is there a Mountain Lion/Outlook .plist file that was stepped on or should I export my Identity file and create a New Identity and re-import my information. It seems that that has been tried on the Microsoft Mac discussion boards and it has been ineffective at solving the functionality of Outlook 2011 after a Mountain Lion Install.
Interestingly, I have an an older mid 2009 iMac, a late 2009 Mac Mini and a mid 2010 MBP iCore7 home computers running Outlook after a Mountain Lion Install and the program works great!!! However, I only have Mail coming into the InBox on the Exchange Server and do not download any mail to the Computer Inboxes. I download emails from the Exchange Server to the Computer (Late 2009 Mac Mini) office and the Rules to move mail to "on my computer folders" work nicely. The Smart Folders in which I want to filter and view 0 Day or 1 Day old (Yesterday) emails does not function and seem to stop functioning the day I installed OS 10.8.2.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! ~DDAM

How to auto-restore Smart Folders on the dock after reboot?

So I've created a smart folder that basically gathers all the applications that I use with the Adobe Creative Suite (i.e. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.). For quick access, I drag the smart folder to the dock and I change the sort method to NAME and the view to LIST. And here's what I get as a result, which works very nicely:
http://imgur.com/EWUgm6w
The problem is, after I restrat my Mac, that smart folder on the dock gets completely messed up (the folder icon is changed and nothing pops up when I click on the icon) so I have to then delete the one that's on the dock, drag a new copy out and then change the sort and view methods to my preferences all over again. I was a bit surprised the first time I noticed this but after seeing the smart folder get messed after multiple restarts, I realized that there's something wrong.
My assumption is that the smart folder gets reprocessed on a reboot and though the original location where the smart folder is stored is fine when I go look at it, the shortcut that I place on the dock loses its functionality altogether.
I'm wondering if anyone has run into this on their end and found a good solution? If there was a script I could run when the computer started to automate the tasks that I have to do (remove old folder from dock, copy new one, change sort & view methods), that would be great -- but I don't know how to do this! Alternatively, if there's another way to achieve this pop up list without creating a folder manually and dragging 10 shortcuts into the folder, that would be great. I like the idea of keeping the list dynamic (hence the smart folders method) so that if anything changes, the updates would be reflected autmatically in the folder.

I have the same issue. Upon restarting, my two smart folders get a drawer-looking icon and don't function. I am able to right click to change settings, but nothing seems to get them to actually work.

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?

Mail Smart Folders across accounts / between Macs

OS X Mail Smart Folders are very useful, but I have one problem:
My "Unread" folder between accounts and Macs has two criteria: Unread, plus on one account, not in a certain Inbox. Now, the mail account that I use for that 2nd criteria is only set up for use on one account. I have 2 accounts on my Mac Pro and 1 account on my MBP. When I check my Mail Unread folder on the other account and other Mac, the Unread folder syncs across iCloud, but since that email account I use for the 2nd criteria is not set up (active) on the other account / Mac, the Unread folder essentially breaks. If I edit it, then it breaks on the other user account where that 2nd criteria is effective.
Does that make sense? Anyone else having iCloud Mail Smart Folder sync issues across accounts / Macs?
Running OS X Yosemite all up to date on everything.

iCloud does not support or sync Smart Mailboxes or local folders. You can create mailboxes at the iCloud.com site that will be IMAP and show in the Mail sidebar under the iCloud folder. Those will show up on all devices.
Other than that, iCloud will only sync Mail's main mailboxes (default mailboxes).
In Addition to better explain:
Local folders under On My Mac are folders only located on the computer. They are not part of any IMAP or Exchange account.
Smart Mailboxes are for the most part just search engines. Messages are not stored in those, but they merely point to messages which actually reside in the original mailbox where they are stored.

Smart folders just refuse to work

hi i cannot get anything to show in smart folders/web gallerys, i have tried a simple star rating, and keywords, both cases knowing there are not too many of either so its not a problem dues to 1000s of pics.

As you are probably aware, smart folders are "aware" of the library structure...if you're attempting to build one in a library folder where there are NONE of the target images, you'll get this result. If you set the smart folder at the main Library level, then it will "operate" on the entire Library and find any that are there. So, be sure you've made the proper selection in the folders pane....
hope this helps.

Design flaw in MAC OS X "smart folders" system resulting date lose

Hello there !
I would like your opinion on that issue.
This is how I discovered it : many, too many friends who switched to Mac reported me loss of iPhoto pictures with a question mark instead of the picture and "corrupted" iPhoto library. Is been more than 2 years and 15 persons in my entourage who reported that to me. This is big, too big in my opinion to not take in account those behaviors. I always thought they used iPhoto in a (very) bad way and I was wrong. They never recovered their picture.
After observing by chance how they manage their pictures, I observed, in my opinion, a big design flow in Mac OS X "smart folder" system that can too easily lead to (logically) data corruption in iPhoto.
As you know, Mac OS X comes with pre-made "Auto search" "smart folders" that are available in the lateral bar of every finder window such as "all images", "all movies".
What my friend do is use this automatic "all images" smart folder to browse recent imported pictures in iPhoto and send them by e-mail and move them around their disc, and/or share them. I fact I never had the idea of doing that with those folder, and this is very quick and handy !
Where the huge issue lies is that this auto "All images" smart folder searches INSIDE the iPhoto library package ! Therefore, if you move a file from the smart folder "all images" result to another place in your hard drive, you actually remove it FROM THE IPHOTO library package folder and iPhoto naturally lose track of the picture resulting in data loss.
I posted you a screenshot to illustrate that :
http://gallery.me.com/jbroussel#100105
I really wonder how the Apple Team can factory "lock" the iPhoto library content by making the folder a "package", BUT, at the SAME TIME, allow the predefine "all images" "Smart folder" browse in this entire very folder as if its content was available to the user. It is not a "Smart Folder" at all.
In a user point of view this is a huge FLAW. No wonder the user have no clue that he (or she) is doing something wrong by doing so. I especially noticed those error from users switching from Windows machine.
In my opinion this the most illogical design I saw in a long time !
What do you think about it ? Am I to exigent ? Too logical ?
Message was edited by: Didsayan

Thank you all for your interesting feedback, really.
When I say 15 people, it is the truth because I love to help my entourage with Mac (since I often recommended them the Mac in the first place), and this is on a 2 years timeframe, so it is not that bad, but I is enough to me to consider their behaviors, especially since I would not have done it myself (I am a Mac-only user).
Most of them had a backup (thanks Time Machine), but unfortunately, when they do noticed the problem it was too late and Time Machine already erased the backup that had the original pictures in it, so they could not retrieve their pictures.
Of course, as you said, some of the pictures were not "lost", just removed in another location, but this led to iPhoto database corruption and this is a lot of trouble. Trying to find the original location of 100+ pictures in iPhoto database is a pretty hard job since the structure is complex and this is very time consuming, I gave up the idea of fixing those folder.
I totally agree on the fact that I is too easy to blame the system for user wrong manipulation.
In that very case, the standard features of the system are to me far too ambiguous :
- iPhoto library folder content is hidden to the user (UNLIKE iTunes library folder)
- but the standard "smart folder" "all image" search within this very "hidden content"
All that without letting the user know if he does not pay attention to the path.
Look at the screenshot I made and you will see the path is so long that it is hard to keep track were the file actually is.
I talked to user who made the mistake, and their belief, this "all image" folder is "like browsing in iPhoto" or like any "media inspector" window like in iMovie or Keynote. Which in fact, is not at all.
I suggested this discussion because in my opinion, this "all images" "smart folder" is too prone to incident, especially with unexperienced user. Thank you for the feedback.
As suggested by etresoft, I will let Apple know.

Smart folders and .doc files

Problem: Smart folders do not show Microsoft .doc files. I have created a smart folder to show all documents I worked on recently. The search criteria in the smart folder are
kind -> document
last opened -> within last 14 days
The folder shows now all documents I opened during the previous 14 days, EXCEPT .doc files. Any solution?

Axxelerator wrote:
Somewhere must be a setting that tells spotlight which file is a document which one is not...
Actually, that information is a part of the metadata for the file. As I mentioned above, the actuall criteria used when you select Documents is the nearly all-inclusive
kMDItemContentTypeTree = public.content
You can read the metadata for any file using the Terminal. Launch Terminal, then type:
mdls
a space, then drag and drop a file into the Terminal window and hit the Return key. You'll see something like this:
NoobiX:~ francine$ mdls /Users/francine/Documents/wordocs/MyFamily.doc
kMDItemAuthors = (
"Francine Schwieder"
kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2008-08-31 12:49:48 -0700
kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2008-08-31 12:49:48 -0700
kMDItemContentType = "com.microsoft.word.doc"
kMDItemContentTypeTree = (
"com.microsoft.word.doc",
"public.data",
"public.item",
"public.composite-content",
"public.content"
kMDItemDisplayName = "MyFamily.doc"
And so on, with all the rest of the metadata displayed. The relevant entry in this case is "public.content" statement in the kMDItemContentTypeTree.
I can't imagine that that entry is changed by saving something as .doc rather than .docx, which is why the only thing I can think of that would cause the behavior you are seeing is a Spotlight plist that is somehow messed up and excluding the extension doc. But I can't imagine how THAT would happen either.
As for AND searches: you already have that setup when you click the + button to add something. Thus, in the example above, the search is for files that are Documents AND were modified in the last 3 days, but are NOT jpegs, etc.
I have difficulty with correctly setting up the OR function, I always think that an option click on the + button, then selecting "Any" and adding a criterion ought to do it, but that doesn't seem to work as expected (or at least as I expect it to!). Anyway, one OR method that would yield approximately the same results as the example search above would be to select Kind is Other and then put this into the blank space after Other:
HTML OR text OR PDF OR RTF OR archive
Trouble is that if there WERE some doc or docx files, or some other sort of text based item, it wouldn't show up. I find it easier to just exclude things I know I don't want.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Duplicate smart folders and syncing

I have 5 Macs. They are all set to sync using dot mac.
I hadn't used 2 of them lately, the others were being synced.
I noticed that mail had 2 of the exact smart folders (with several folders within them). And all of the criteria disappeared from the smart folders.
I wanted to get the smart mailbox criteria from the computers I had not synced lately as that was still ok.
So I thought I could turn off the syncing for mail rules, signatures and smart mailboxes by removing the check mark from that option. But immediately upon syncing, my smart mail box was replaced with 2 duplicates with no criteria available. So it seems that ignored the fact that the option was not checked when I synced.
Now I have 1 mac left. On that Mac I would like to sync bookmarks, calendars, contacts, keychains. But I would like to keep the smart mailboxes the way they are and send them to the other macs.
The problem is that my MacBook Pro is set for automatic syncing. And when I turn it on, it will connect wirelessly and automatically sync.
How do I get to it quick enough so the sync will not happen and I can put it in manual mode?
Then how do I sync just what I want to sync? And how do I then sync the smart mailboxes back to the other macs?
I don't want to turn on the MBP until I know exactly what to do.

The first thing you should do is to make a backup of any data you don’t want to be overwritten as a result of synchronizing with the server, and you can avoid that to happen until you’re done by just turning off the Internet connection or disconnecting the computer from the network.
In particular, you should make a backup of ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist and any *.plist files within ~/Library/Mail/, such as SmartMailboxes.plist. As long as you keep a backup of those files, you don’t have to care about being fast enough.
After making sure at least one of your Macs has all the settings as desired (quit Mail and manually replace any *.plist files if necessary), 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.
There may be other (better) ways to do it that I haven’t considered -- I don’t have a .Mac account myself.

Smart folders duplicating emails with IMAP

I have set up smart folders for one imap accounts but notice that I get duplicate emails showing in the smart folder because it is listing items from All Mail and Inbox. Is there any way of having the smart folder only show the inbox items?
Using Mail 3.5 on Leopard 10.5.5
Thanks

I have the same problem with Mail Smart Folders for Gmail IMAP.
I found the solution here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8346170&#8346170
Basically you have exclude the All MAIL IMAP mailbox from the Smart Folder.
I am using MAIL 2.1.3 and OSX 10.4.11
Message was edited by: talkderby2me

Smart Folders, Spotlight comments and Apple mail messages

Hi,
I have a simple question, but couldn't figure it out yet:
I have a workflow that tags specific mail messages according to the specific mail inbox folders I assign them to (be it via incoming rules, or Act-On rules) by automatically adding specific Spotlight comments.
My mail messages, therefore, have text in their comment boxes (if you check via GetInfo).
When I use Spotlight, I can find mail messages by searching for the comments - this is exactly as expected.
I however also have smart folders (searching for a specific Spotlight comment) that list other files that I tag with the same Spotlight comments - but my Smart Folders never find the mail messages with the requested tags (at most they find the folder that contains the messages if this folder is tagged - which it is generally not).
Question: how can I make sure that the Smart Folder does indeed identify and list the mail messages that I have tagged via Spotlight comment ?
Thanks a lot !
D.V.
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Howdy,
I cannot reproduce this problem myself...I see the same results in both the Mail spotlight and the spotlight menu bar item. I'm not sure if after installing 10.5 a new spotlight index is created, but it might be worth a shot to create a fresh index and see if that helps.
I haven't tried this, but it was the easy way I could find to reindex.
Open Spotlight Preferences
In the privacy tab, add the volume you want to reindex
After a few moments, remove that volume from the privacy list
Allow Spotlight to reindex the volume
Please let me know if that works for reindexing.
+R

My smart folders aren't so smart anymore

I have installed Leopard and my mail program works fine except that all of my smart folders are empty. I have checked the folder settings and they are the same as before, and I know the emails are in there but for some reason the smart folders are not gathering them up.

I had exactly the same problem. I found that I had an inactive mail account configured. I deleted that account and it started working again. I'm not sure if it was because I had two mailboxes, or because I had one inactive. Can you guys try that out? Maybe it is because of an inactive account?
OK that worked once, but when I closed and reopened the "smart" mailbox, it disappeared again.
Message was edited by: Bud Lande

Smart Folders: filtering file labels by the NAME of the label

I am using Smart Folders to organize some files. Spotlight searches are quite powerful, but I'd like to know if there's more I can do with file labels.
I am using kMDItemFSLabel values to filter my smart folders, but this presents a small inconvenience: finder's kMDItemFSLabel values for the colors are not obvious (orange = 7, red = 6, yellow = 5 - which is orange higher than red? And green = 2?) and I would prefer use my own priority choice.
Can either:
Finder's values for kMDItemFSLabel associated with each color label be changed? (this sound unwise to me, however)
or
Can I use the text value I attach to each value as a sort? Say rename "red" label to "100" and "orange" to "90" and then filter by THOSE values?
Any ideas?

Thanks for your response. Yeah, I'm aware of that. The problem is that I'd like to do sort or filters with those values, but they aren't very practical. I can assign text values to each label, but I don't seem to be able to use those in sorts.
So kMDItemFSLabel > 4 yields all orange, yellow and red files. Not bad, but the fact that orange is a higher value means I have to work around this odd enumeration.
So I'd like to either: change the system values (not ideal) or find a way to filter or sort the text values I can assign to each label. Any idea if either of these are possible?

Smart folders keep resetting

Hi everybody
I have made a number of smart folders but they keep resetting the rules that I have made for the folders.
I have a suspicion that it happens every time I sync. with my .mac account. But I am not sure.
Doe’s anyone have a good suggestion that can solve my problem.
Best
Lars Kudsk

Hi Kudsk .
Yes, this looks like a .Mac syncing issue.
First of all, in Address Book do File > Back up Address Book, just in case something goes wrong while trying to solve the problem. It wouldn’t be the first time someone loses his/her entire Address Book because of syncing issues.
Now, set up things the way you want, then go to System Preferences > .Mac > Advanced, click Reset Sync Data, and choose the appropriate options to reset the 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.

Adobe Applications Crash when Clicking on Smart Folders

APPLICATIONS EFFECTED: Adobe InDesign Cs6, Adobe Indesign CS5.5 and Adobe Illustrator CS5.5 on Mac OSX 10.8 (Mountain Lion)
THE PROBLEM: The above applications will crash when clicking on File > Open and selecting a Smart Folder in the sidebar.
STEPS TAKEN TO FIX THE PROBLEM:
I have done a clean install of my system and have updated to the latest versions of all software, yet the problem remains.
I have also done a clean install on another system and it also has the same problem.
BACKGROUND INFO:
Information about smart folders can be found here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4158
This is a clear bug, so where can I get help to get a fix for the problem?

Are the folders in question inside your home folder? If not, where are they?
Before you do anything else, I suggest you quit Dropbox and see whether there's any change.

Smart Folders Problem

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