Starfish Jim
Level 1 (9 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Is it possible to filter email on an iOS device?

I subscribe to a mailing list which generates dozens of emails daily. I have no desire to deal with these emails on my iOS devices. Instead I use Mac Mail. Is there a way to filter out these emails instead having to scroll through an delete them all the time?

iPhone 6, iOS 8.2

Posted on Apr 1, 2015 4:26 PM

by Meg St._Clair,Solvedanswer
Meg St._Clair Meg St._Clair
Level 9 (59,280 points)
iPhone
A:

If you have an IMAP account and you can put a filter on it that moves your newsletter to a different folder, you won't see the newsletter in your In Box. You will still have access to it on any device.

Posted on Apr 2, 2015 4:25 AM

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Starfish Jim

Q: Is it possible to filter email on an iOS device?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Meg St._Clair,

    Meg St._Clair Meg St._Clair Apr 1, 2015 5:02 PM in response to Starfish Jim
    Level 9 (59,280 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 1, 2015 5:02 PM in response to Starfish Jim

    I haven't used iCloud email in years. However, Gmail offers a filter option that lets me filter certain emails (e.g. Notifications from this forum) to a separate folder and to skip the Inbox entirely. My recollection is that iCloud filters aren't quite as sophisticated but you should be able to create a rule that moves those emails to another folder.

  • by Starfish Jim,

    Starfish Jim Starfish Jim Apr 1, 2015 5:11 PM in response to Meg St._Clair
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 1, 2015 5:11 PM in response to Meg St._Clair

    I'm not using iCloud. The email address is an old school non web based POP3/IMAP account.

     

    Edit to add: That means that the filtering needs to be on the iOS device itself. I've not found even the most rudimentary filter abilities such as filtering emails marked as spam so I know this is a long shot.

  • by Meg St._Clair,

    Meg St._Clair Meg St._Clair Apr 1, 2015 5:13 PM in response to Starfish Jim
    Level 9 (59,280 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 1, 2015 5:13 PM in response to Starfish Jim

    Oh, sorry, when you said you were using Mac Mail, I made an incorrect assumption. The mail program you're using on a computer has no bearing on this.

     

    Are you using a POP3 account? Or an IMAP account? They are fairly different. If you're using a POP3 account with no ability to set filters on the server, no there's not much you can do. If it's IMAP, are you sure your provider doesn't offer any web interface?

     

    Another option would be to set up another email account just for news letters and so forth. That way, you could just look at that account when you wanted to see the news letters buy your "regular" account would have a much less cluttered inbox.

  • by damaag,

    damaag damaag Apr 1, 2015 5:38 PM in response to Starfish Jim
    Level 2 (497 points)
    Apr 1, 2015 5:38 PM in response to Starfish Jim

    You might find these links helpful

     

    iCloud: Filter email automatically

    https://support.apple.com/kb/PH2650?locale=en_US

     

    iCloud: Identifying and filtering junk mail

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202315

  • by Starfish Jim,

    Starfish Jim Starfish Jim Apr 1, 2015 10:15 PM in response to Meg St._Clair
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 1, 2015 10:15 PM in response to Meg St._Clair

    Sorry to confuse the issue with the reference to Mac Mail. It wasn't germane to the discussion and I shouldn't have mentioned it.

     

    I can access my email via either POP3 or IMAP. But it doesn't matter either way since I don't think a filter on the server side is going to help. It would need to know what device was connecting to it to decide what mail to deliver.

     

    The suggestion of creating a separate email account for list subscriptions was my last ditch plan. I was hoping that there was some kind of filtering in iOS that I hadn't found.

  • by Meg St._Clair,Solvedanswer

    Meg St._Clair Meg St._Clair Apr 2, 2015 4:25 AM in response to Starfish Jim
    Level 9 (59,280 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 2, 2015 4:25 AM in response to Starfish Jim

    If you have an IMAP account and you can put a filter on it that moves your newsletter to a different folder, you won't see the newsletter in your In Box. You will still have access to it on any device.

  • by Starfish Jim,

    Starfish Jim Starfish Jim Apr 2, 2015 8:51 AM in response to Meg St._Clair
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 2, 2015 8:51 AM in response to Meg St._Clair

    Thanks. I hadn't thought of using server based filters from an IMAP perspective.

     

    If we're supposed to learn one new thing each day I guess that means I can go back to bed.

  • by Meg St._Clair,

    Meg St._Clair Meg St._Clair Apr 2, 2015 11:45 AM in response to Starfish Jim
    Level 9 (59,280 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 2, 2015 11:45 AM in response to Starfish Jim

    Starfish Jim wrote:

     

    Thanks. I hadn't thought of using server based filters from an IMAP perspective.

     

    If we're supposed to learn one new thing each day I guess that means I can go back to bed.

    Enjoy your nap!