Rule to Delete Mail After Specified Days Old Deletes Incorrectly

I set up rules to move incoming mail into folders. That seems to be working just fine. Then I added an action to that same rule to delete mail in the folder where the date received was greater than 60 days old. It asked me if I wanted to apply it now, and I said yes. It then deleted everything newer than 60 days old!

I thought I must have done something wrong, so I tried adding an action to a rule on another folder. I said to delete anything over 70 days old. It should have delete two of a dozen messages in the folder. It deleted everything.

Anyone know what's going on?

Another problem is with the rules window itself. When you have a lot of actions on a rule, the actions area expands so that I can't see the bottom of the screen where I can choose cancel or save. Can't resize the window, can't move it to see the bottom, can't even close mail. Have to do a force quit.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Jaime

Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Aug 8, 2009 8:40 AM

Reply
1 reply

Aug 8, 2009 8:51 AM in response to Jaime Garanflo

I don't know why this is happening (it works correctly here) but be advised that the kind of rule you are trying to set will not work automatically. mail rules are only applied to incoming messages at the moment those messages are received. Mail doesn't keep track of messages after that. so a rul that deletes something older than 70 days would have to be run manually (message menu->apply rules) to have any effect.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Rule to Delete Mail After Specified Days Old Deletes Incorrectly

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.