New Catalina Mail.app "Block Contact" & move to Trash not working. 😕

Hi there,

Here are my settings and it's pretty clear that the intent it to go directly to the Trash, other wise this new feature is not really a new feature. As I understand it, if you move something into the Junk Mail folder Apple's Mail "learns" it's junk, and will do so in the future. This new feature is supposed to skip the junk mail folder completely which is GREAT. Those senders are totally junky spammers and (trust me) I would NEVER have signed up for them...ever. A lot of the email is offensive. So I'd love it to go directly to the trash and only check my junk mail folder for desired email that accidentally goes there.

Just to confirm, you are running Catalina, right?

Let me know what you think of my junk mail settings below? There appears to be no way to edit the email address as you have done in Rules, as I'd like to simply have the entire domain blocked since it's all garbage. If this new feature catches on, maybe Apple will let us send entire domains like this to the trash.

Here's a shot of one piece of spam that is officially "blocked" but (like all of 150 of them) just sits in the Junk Mail folder. Other than the previous screenshots that show the setting, the little red hand is the only evidence that it is "blocked."

I'm curious what happens for you if you enable the feature. It's super easy to do, I'm just stumped why it doesn't work as advertised.

Much obliged,

mick

Howdy, Lurkums,

Thanks for the good idea to try Rules again.

My experience with rules has been rather bipolar. Sometimes they work automatically, as I need them to. And sometimes they have no effect whatsoever. I've yet to find why some have to be manually triggered, defeating the purpose I'd want them for--to completely hide and discard unwanted email. I've studied the syntax and everything, and some just work, while others don't. I wondered if perhaps spammers have a way of hiding their "From," or something like that so that they escape all of the spam protections out there.

Oddly, the one rule that works every time is the one I set up for the boilerplate response you get from Apple at ReportPhishing@apple.com. I have a rule that always works to send it to the Trash. Since that's not spam, it made me wonder if there is some clever, random masking going on at TheDailyGrind.news and a couple others that are the polar opposite of my social and political views.

But as good as your advice is, to return to testing Rules (which I will do), it doesn't really answer the question as to why this new, highly touted feature in Catalina doesn't seem to work.

Is it working for others?

I'd love to see how people have their Junk mail prefs in Apple Mail set and happy to share mine if you think it would help.

Thanks again for taking the time to weigh in and let me know what you think about my response?

Much Obliged,

Mick

Sorry, I wasn't clear. Yes, editing RULES is very easy. Editing the BLOCKED Addresses above in my screen shot, seems to be impossible.

Yeah, it's useless for me if it doesn't go to the trash automatically and that's the promised feature.

Have you tested it out?

Mick

But did it work as advertised? Did it automatically send selected email addresses directly to the Trash bypassing the Junk Folder completely?

The Rules I just configured after you first suggestion are not being triggered automatically. That was the same problem I had before. I can manually trigger them and they work perfectly, but they do not trigger when email hits the Junk Folder. Do you have any theories as to why?

Thanks again for the engagement.

Mick

Hi Andrew,

Ah, your scenario is dreamlike, exactly what would bring more peace my way... I'm jealous. I would love to spend some zen time watching them arrive only to vaporized like a bug zapper. Seriously, that would bring me great joy. 😁 The simple things in life?

Do you mind explaining what you mean by: "Have you deployed the "Stop evaluating rules" in any rule? If so that is precisely what it will do in exciting ways." ?

Are you saying that stop evaluating needs to be part of every rule if you want the rule to execute automatically? I've never fully understood that command or syntactically why you would want to cease evaluating as it were. Is that geek speak for "auto execute?"

We all have our own flow, but seeing dozens spammed messages in the Junk mail folder of my Mac.com address every day (30-50 from the same 3-4 spammers, but mostly TheDailyGrind and TeaParty @ssH01es...Grrrrr) means I do have to go through them and check for false positives before it becomes hundreds in a few days.

My junk mail folder is usually about 95% accurate, but still grabs important email every other day and seems to ignore the fact that I have listed those legit email addresses in my Address Book and moved them back to the In Box. All of these actions are supposed to teach the Bayesian Spam filter that they're the good ones, but nobody's perfect. Even Bayesians make mistakes, I guess. 🤷🏼‍♂️

If I had full command of the code, the most perfect auto-executing rule would be to "Forward as Attachment" for every obvious piece of spam to: spam@uce.gov, Abuse@iCloud.com, and ReportPhishing@apple.com. After that has happened, send them directly to the Trash, or completely erase. I've not tried the latter for fear that something would go awry and masses of legitimate email would suddenly get erased before I ever saw it. But sending it directly to the trash would be great.

Anyway, that's probably far more than you wanted to know, but that's why Spam only hitting the Junk mail folder is only a partial solution that still requires more tending and manual maintenance than I'd like to do. That's why I've been writing to Apple about this feature for years and was very hopeful when I learned about Catalina blocking. Just wish it would work as advertised.

Let me know about the "stop evaluating rules" comment if you'd be so kind?

If you have a screenshot, of a complete rule that works automatically for you, that might help too. But like I said, I cannot decipher why my ReportPhishing@apple.com boiler plate rule works automatically, perfectly each time to send these messages to the Trash, but the exact same rule does not move other spam. Scratching my head... 🤷🏼‍♂️

Much obliged for the conversation and talking this through,

Mick

Ah, apologies about the Andrew thing. Just happened to notice that and was hoping I could refer to you by name to thank you. :-)

Last question: WHERE are you inserting the "stop evaluating rules?" Can you show me that screenshot? Is it the very last command in your screenshot above that is cut off? Do you use it after every spam rule?

Still hasn't worked automatically over here even adding that command to the end of 5 separate spam rules.

Much Obliged,

Mick

Ah.... Wow, it's bizarre how easy it is to miscommunicate. I've never used it until I thought you suggested trying it. But now I hear you saying you were making sure I was NOT using it. LOL!

Okay...

Thanks for the clarification.

If anyone else is using this new feature and find it works automatically to send email directly to the trash, bypassing the Junk mail folder completely, I'd be much obliged if they would chime in. 🙏🏼

Thank you.