Mac Mail On Catalina garbles subject line when forwarding emails by rule

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Mac Mail On Catalina garbles subject line when forwarding emails by rule

I am running Catalina 10.15.4 on an iMac. I have a set of Mail rules that automatically forward emails from certain family members to my iPhone, and these worked perfectly before I updated to Catalina. Now when Mail forwards the emails, the subject line is truncated to 4 alphanumeric characters. These characters remain the same for a set of emails with the same subject line, but different subject lines will have different 4-character subjects, e.g. "6b7d" or "1ed1".

I have tried removing the rule completely and rewriting it. I have stopped and restarted Mail between rewrites. I have rebooted the computer between rewrites -- it does not appear to be a caching issue.

Manually forwarding email works fine: the subject lines are preserved.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 16, 2020 7:20 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 16, 2020 10:25 PM in response to camcmenomy

Yep. Looks like a bug.

Log some feedback with Apple with the un-forwarded and forwarded message headers and the rule.

Move the messages directly to the other server account, as one potential a workaround.

If gmail is involved as the intermediate server, a rule there is another approach.

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Answer 2

Jun 16, 2020 7:39 PM in response to camcmenomy

What’s in the raw text of the messages? You should be able to see that from your iMac, when accessing the original mail message on the original mail account, and the forwarded mail message viewed on the other mail server.

Another potential option on the iMac is to relocate the message to the inbox of the other mail account, and to mark it unread.

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Answer 3

camcmenomy Author

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Jun 16, 2020 9:09 PM in response to MrHoffman

The subject line is the only thing scrambled.

Incoming email: Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2020 11:58:19 -0700

Message-ID: <CAHhNRBozf_KnvMD6hLYqSW-L6KmOzsUcHUSVZT0RTBAWLC=WTQ@mail.gmail.com>

Subject: another check-in

Email forwarded by rule:

From: Christe Ann McMenomy <mcmenom2@dorthonion.com>

Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

boundary="Apple-Mail=_A84D1713-FB09-4F2D-86BB-6FEF37B32332"

Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 13.4 \(3608.80.23.2.2\))

Subject: Fwd: 6b7d

Message-Id: <8E5A8C9C-8180-40A5-950D-A48044D09FF6@dorthonion.com>

This email has the entire text including the correct subject embedded in the message.

Manually forwarding the same message from the same email to the iphone email box:

Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 13.4 \(3608.80.23.2.2\))

Subject: Fwd: another check-in

Message-Id: <C31BC3AB-5F2A-4BC8-A919-F9537FE672C1@dorthonion.com>

So it isn't clean WHY it is being scrambled...it only happens if the forward operation is rule based. It did not happen prior to my upgrading to Catalina.

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Answer 4

camcmenomy Author

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Jun 20, 2020 8:39 AM in response to MrHoffman

I'm not sure how why manually moving the emails between accounts on the same device would help. The point here is that I am automatically forwarding certain emails coming into my desktop (always on) to my phone account, which is different from the account receiving the email on the desktop. This allows me to keep a complete trail on my desktop and only get "interruption-worthy" emails on my phone. The incoming email to account A has the correct subject line. The forwarded email recorded on the desktop in the "sent" box and the email that reaches my phone at account B has the corrupted subject line, so the issue is happening on the desktop. If I take an email that has come into account A on the desktop and manually forward it to account B on my phone, the subject line comes through correctly. Something in the Mail program rule execution system is corrupting the subject line on forwarded messages.

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Answer 5

Jun 20, 2020 9:03 AM in response to camcmenomy

If you want to keep blasting against this apparent bug, have at.

But relocating the message to a different inbox and marking it unread there will have the same effect as forwarding the message, as the other decides polling (only) that second inbox should see the relocated message as “new”.

Mail is a disastrous information-filing system, and far better suited to information hiding, but that’s another topic.

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Answer 6

camcmenomy Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 20, 2020 9:32 AM in response to MrHoffman

I've posted a bug report to Apple. I'll report what happens.

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Answer 7

Aug 3, 2020 1:54 AM in response to camcmenomy

Have you figured this out? Annoying me too.

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Mac Mail On Catalina garbles subject line when forwarding emails by rule

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