Applying mail rules to sent messages

Question

Applying mail rules to sent messages

I see this question has been asked from time to time but there does not seem to be any recent response. I have a whole lot of Mail rules, for example I have a rule to put all family related messages into a mailbox 'Family'. The only drawback is that one half of the conversations remains stuck in the Sent mailbox.

It seems to me obvious that one might want to have both sides of correspondence filed together. Is there any way to do this? Past suggestions have included :

Can't be done,
Create an Every Message - apply applscript
Bcc yourself in all messages

The first answer seems to me most unsatisfactory, the second apparently no longer works - even if I could write an apple script - as Apple has changed the role of apple scripts in Mail rules, and the third seems rather a cumbersome work around (and doesn't deal with the stuff already in my Sent mailbox).

Is there a magic solution I have not spotted?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.4

Posted on Jul 16, 2022 4:45 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,062 points

Jul 16, 2022 5:01 AM in response to Francesrallen

You should be able to manually apply a rule to any message, but your rules likely are based on the From address, so those wouldn't work on Sent. You would have to create new rules using To, but I don't know how that would affect your current rules. Rules only run automatically on the Inbox. You would have to periodically apply rules to messages in the Sent mailbox.

View by Conversation seems to put the parts together for me, but I don't know how that would work when you are moving all your messages around.

Reply

Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

123,062 points

Jul 16, 2022 12:06 PM in response to Francesrallen

For example, I created a temporary rule to put all messages sent to: (my name), then sent an email from another of my email addresses and the message I sent went into Sent and the message I received went into Family. The message I sent should have gone into Family too.

But anyhow, I want to put all messages that I send, for example to my daughter, into the Family mailbox, whether or not she replies.

It sounds like you are not fully comprehending that Rules do not act on anything except what comes into the Inbox.

You would have to manually apply rules to the Messages in your Sent Mailbox. You will never manage to get that to happen automatically.

Reply

Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

216,662 points

Jul 17, 2022 9:21 AM in response to Francesrallen

FWIW here's how I handle rules and emails.

1 - setup rules to redirect specific emails to corresponding mailboxes On My Mac.

2 - create a Smart Mailbox with the Criteria "Message is unread".

3 - do all my reading in the smart mailbox. Those that I don't want to save I delete. Those tat I want to save I leave alone as they are already in their proper On My Mac mailbox. Once read they will no longer show in the smart mailbox.

Reply

Answer 4

Jul 17, 2022 9:47 AM in response to Old Toad

Thanks. I really like the message is unread smart mailbox idea - I'm going to adopt this.

Another aspect of mail management for me: I try to deal with mail on my Mac rather than iOS, where rules don't apply to my third party mail accounts.

As to the Sent problem, I have just added that all messages I send should be Bcc to me. I have emptied my Sent mailbox and will do so periodically.

Reply

Answer 5

Jul 17, 2022 8:56 AM in response to Old Toad

Thank you everyone. I did indeed understand that the rules only applied to messages coming into the Inbox. My question was really was there any way round this - plus the comment that I find this an unsatisfactory aspect of Apple Mail rules. (I do find it odd that more people don't find this annoying.)

Well I fear I will have to just Bcc myself in all messages in order to get copies into all the appropriate mailboxes. Not a very clean solution.

Reply

Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

216,662 points

Jul 16, 2022 12:08 PM in response to Francesrallen

For a rule to work on a message the message must be in the Inbox mailbox and meet the specific criteria of the rule you're wanting to use.

Reply

Answer 7

Jul 16, 2022 7:09 AM in response to Barney-15E

> rules likely are based on the From address

That is exactly the problem I pose in my question: how to deal with the messages in the To: not From: address. ie how to deal with the messages I SEND not receive

>create new rules using To

If I create a new rule using simply To: it does not work (let alone the issue of applying rules already in the Sent mailbox). The message I sent remains obstinately in the Sent mailbox

>View by Conversation seems to put the parts together for me

Not always for me.

For example, I created a temporary rule to put all messages sent to: (my name), then sent an email from another of my email addresses and the message I sent went into Sent and the message I received went into Family. The message I sent should have gone into Family too.

But anyhow, I want to put all messages that I send, for example to my daughter, into the Family mailbox, whether or not she replies.

Reply

Applying mail rules to sent messages

Similar questions