I set up a vacation autoreply rule in Apple Mail, applied it to all inbox items by mistake, and it started to send out messages to all 30,000 emails in my inbox!!
I immediately quit Mail.
How do I remove the rule so that when I reopen Mail it does not send out any more autoreply emails?
thanks in advance.
MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13
Disconnect from the Internet, then open Mail.
Bob has the Rule covered, but if you set it up on iCloud...
And will removing the rule at this point stop any further replies going out. Or is there a setting somewhere which is trying to *complete* the already triggered rule...?
look see if the Outbox shows & has anything in it?
Once you get the rule removed do not recreate it. It is not a good idea to create auto replies in an email client. It validates your email address to phishers and scammers. It also can cause a race condition if it auto replies to someone else who has created an auto reply.
Thank you - but do you know how to remove the rule without opening Mail.
If I open Mail, it will immediately continue to fire out new auto replies. Is there a way to delete a .plist file before opening Mail to remove all Rules and prevent any more replies going out?
It should stop things, look see if the Outbox shows & has anything in it?
I have done the same. I quit Mail to stop the replies going out but I’m concerned that deleting the rule with WiFi off isn’t enough. Do I need to do anything else before turning the WiFi back on?
Look in the outbox and delete anything that is in the outbox before reconnecting to the Internet.
Turn off Apple Mail autoreply, accidentally applied to all inbox!
