Level 1

35 points

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

Howdy,

I was thrilled to learn about Catalina's new Mail.app feature that allows you to "Block Contact" and send them immediately to the trash. Problem is? It doesn't seem to work. ☹️☹️

It's not sending the messages, that have always hit my spam folder anyway, to the trash.

The only change I can see is after "blocking" these 3 or 4 contacts (pure spam, never signed up for them--ever) is that now I can see a little red hand on each piece of mail as it continues to sit annoyingly in my Junk folder.

I have 3 or 4 spammers who send me 30-50 pieces of spam each day at my primary Mac.com address. And while it would make more sense for Apple to give users the ability to block a domain (like TheDailyGrind.news that spams me every day, ignoring the one or two times I've tested "unsubscribe," on the very long shot they would respect that---I know, I know, I know....), I've made this suggestion unsuccessfully for years now. Even if Apple did not want to give users the ability to manage their own email address to deal with spam, it's frustrating that that years of sending in the same spammer to Abuse@iCloud.com or ReportPhishing@apple.com has zero effect.

This Catalina feature would be a reasonable compromise if it worked.

Does anyone know why it's not and is anyone else having this problem?

Very much obliged,

Mick

Posted on Oct 22, 2019 9:21 AM

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22 replies

Lurkums

Level 4

1,520 points

Oct 26, 2019 12:25 PM in response to Mick Guinn

i am NOT inserting it. I did once and it stopped all my rules evaluating because I put it at the end of the first rule. so I never use it. To be crystal clear, I never use it. I only mentioned it in case you had used it thinking it was what you needed to do.

The email address I have most rules pin is a fake address of a made up person, who exists only in my imagination. He is a convenient anonymous John Doe

Mick Guinn Author

Level 1

35 points

Oct 26, 2019 12:50 PM in response to Lurkums

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.

Mick Guinn Author

Level 1

35 points

Oct 26, 2019 12:53 PM in response to Mick Guinn

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.

Nov 22, 2019 11:01 AM in response to Mick Guinn

The block contact is not working for me either. It stays in my inbox, even though I have move to trash selected.

This is very disappointing because for years I have been deluged with junk mail. Moving them to the junk mail folder has never worked in terms of the system learning what senders are junk. I was hoping taking the time to add all these senders manually to a blocked list would finally solve the problem, but no. Apple mail has become highly unusable, as I have to spend so much time deleting junk mail just to see what relevant messages I have.

This is a significant bug that Apple needs to fix.

Mick Guinn Author

Level 1

35 points

Oct 24, 2019 9:42 AM in response to Mick Guinn

Nothing?... Anybody? No one else has seen this issue?...

Lurkums

Level 4

1,520 points

Oct 24, 2019 3:09 PM in response to Mick Guinn

I enabled it, tried it, decided I didn't like it, deleted the blocked addresses and disabled it. Horses for course. Not my horse, not my course

Mick Guinn Author

Level 1

35 points

Oct 24, 2019 1:13 PM in response to Lurkums

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

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