AppleScript to auto BCC emails from Apple Mail

The OP doesn't want to automativally BCC himself, he wants to automatically BCC a third party or two. I'm surprised Mail doesn't have a setting for this, but so far as I can tell it doesn't.

Now if it was a strict corporate email, then Address book could be set up with a group list that would BCC everyone. but I don't see any way to have that happen with an email from an individual.

Look, if I were going to do what you're trying to do, I would stop fiddling with rules and set up a launch agent that would periodically (once a day, once an hour, whatever your needs are) forward all unforwarded emails to the people they need to be forwarded to. That requires two components: a launchd plist (which goes in ~/Library/LaunchAgents or /Library/LaunchAgents) and a script file (which can go anywhere, but /Library/Scripts would be conventional). the launchd plist looks soemthing like this (save it as user.mail.forward.plist):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Label</key>

<string>user.mail.forward</string>

<key>ProgramArguments</key>

<array>

<string>osascript</string>

<string>/Path/to/scriptfile.scpt</string>

</array>

<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>

<dict>

<key>Hour</key>

<integer>18</integer>

<key>Minute</key>

<integer>0</integer>

</dict>

</dict>

</plist>

That runs the script once a day at 6:00 pm. the script itself would look something like this:

property lastForwardingDate : (current date)

property bccRecipientAddresses : {"email1@somewhere.com", "email2@somewhere.com"}

tell application "Mail"

set unforwardedMessages to messages of mailbox "Sent" of account "gmail" whose date sent > lastForwardingDate

repeat with thisMessage in unforwardedMessages

set messageToForward to redirectthisMessage with opening window

tell messageToForward

repeat with thisRecipient in bccRecipientAddresses

makenewbcc recipientat end of bcc recipientswith properties {address:thisRecipient}

end repeat

set lastForwardingDate to date sent of messageToForward

-- send

end tell

end repeat

end tell

This is a testing version, where the email pops up so you can see what it looks like before it gets sent. in the final version you'll want to delete the 'with opening window' phrase (so that the emails are generated invisibly in the background) and uncomment the 'send' line (so that the emails are sent automatically).

You'll can try replacing 'forward' with 'redirect': redirect sends the email to the new recipient exactly like the old; forward sends a quoted version. not sure which you prefer.

warn people that they should expect to see extra email activity periodically, and that they may see emails appear in their drafts mailbox (which will happen if they are offline when the script runs - they'll get sent later). Also, you should probably set permissions so people can't edit the script file - if it gets saved again it recompiles, which will reset lastForwardingDate to the date it recompiles, and may cause some emails not to get forwarded.

if you want it to run once an hour, use this in the plist file:

<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>

<dict>

<key>Minute</key>

<integer>0</integer>

</dict>

This instructs launchd to run the script anytime the minute is 0 - i.e. at the top of the hour - regardless of the hour, day, or etc. if you want it to run at half-past rather than the top, use 30. if you look at the man page for launchd.plist under the StartCalendarInterval key, you can see the options available to you.

Mail rules don't (and have never) worked for outgoing messages. if you want to have an applescript that creates and sends an outgoing message with the appropriate recipients, that's easy enough. On the other hand, will allow you to automatically bcc: yourself, so you could set up your system so that people bcc: themselves and then apple a rule action to the incoming bcc: copy.

As twtwtw says what I need to do is get a copy of all outgoing emails from any given worker on the road BCC'd to their manager in the office.

IMHO this is something better done server-side.

Any client-side implementation is going to be limited to that client only - so you can craft your Mail.app rule but if breaks if the user opts for Entourage, or another email client, or sends a message from the iPhone/iPad etc.

If you're running your own mail server it's pretty easy to add a server-side rule that copies any mail sent to a specific address and the user doesn't need to think twice about it.

ok, my snippy moment has passed. 😉

My guess is that lastForwardingDate is the thing causing the issue. For example, the first time you run the script after a compile, you set lastForwardingDate to the current date, and then ask for messages sent after lastForwardingDate. Unless you're getting emails from the future that will never return anything. what I suggest you do is set the property to some older date for the first run, and then add in debuggers to see what lastForwardingDate is actually being set to as the script progresses.

Also, you might check to see if a real sender and subject line is included in your outgoing message, or if it's all bcc: or has no subject. If your preferences in Mail are set to give an alert when the subject is blank that could cause the block, and it may not like sending automated bcc: lists (which is spam-like behavior).

I have for the first time in years of using Mac Mail had what appears to be a common experience of a Sent email not having a copy in the mail box. This was an absolutely crucial email and I know it went because I received an Auto out of office reply from one of the recipients.

However in looking now to the tedious failsafe of having to bcc all sent emails to another address - my thinking was to create an address outside Mac Mail ( so that I am not disturbed by Incoming Email Notification for all my Mac Mail aliases).

Upon looking at Mail preferences I see there is STILL no option to Bcc automatically to any email address but Myself. ( There was a complaint about this in the thread still in 2011 and nothing appears to have been done about it despite my reading that there are many examples of Sent emails not being retained).

Does anyone have a solution which does not involve complex Apple Script stuff and other examples already discussed in this thread ( with due respect to the contributors whose technical expertise is awesome but too specialised for many)

best

MS