Mac Mail Rules massive problem

This just happened to me as well! I hit "apply" and it started sending a million emails out. I know, because I got 177 "MAILER DAEMON" emails from do-not-reply accounts. Holy cow. That means that anyone that's emailed me in my inbox got not only ONE 'out of office' email, but one for every single email they've written me that's still in my inbox. This is horrible.

The main problem is that when I click "Don't Apply," the auto reply doesn't work at all! So what am I supposed to do? Either it applies it to my entire current inbox, or not at all.

Same thing happened to me. It's very embarrassing as it's my work account. Not what I want to be dealing with on vacation. Deleted rule just a couple of hours later and am still getting emails two days later bounced back to me and from people who PO'd.I've also gone to my icloud account and deleted syncing mail messages although it wasn't this account that I applied the rule to.

I'm used to Apple hardware and software working incredibly well/intuitively for years and am absolutely stunned that this has happened. Really don't get why something as common as an out of office reply could be so hard to do.

UGGHH This just happened to me! SO annoying, I'm so frustrated that Mail would even allow me to do this without some kind of warning. I've deleted the rule and done everything I could to make it stop, but now I want to somehow apologize to all of my clients that just got a bazilion emails from me.

Does anyone know if there is any way to send out an email to everyone that has contacted me?

Thanks,

Chris

p.s. Laura if you happen to be the Laura Murray that is an awesome film photographer this is a super small world haha 😉

Fairly old discussion. But I was reminded of the first time I was asked, as in-house IT, to set up vacation mail for employees. I found instructions on using Apple Rules to do this. I implemented; and I GOT THE EXACT SAME RESULTS! Mail started sending out auto-replies to ALL mail in my inbox; and NOT just applying to new mail. What a nightmare. That was a long time ago; and so very disconcerting to see that others are still having this issue!

As great as Mac is, there are several major issues:

Spotlight Search does NOT always find files/folders that are definitely there

Mac Mail has SEVERAL issues, including wacky Rules issues - having totally new Rules nightmare, which is how I found this discussion.

Mac Mail also has major issues witth staying connected to server and with passwords, since Lion/Mt Lion.

Very disappointing, since I have been a Mac user, since OS 6.0 (before color!).

CL

This has happened to two colleagues in my office, most recently this afternoon, to my assistant. As soon as she realized what was happening, she deleted the rule, but the e-mails didn't stop until she disabled her mail program (in preferences), shut down and re-started her computer.

What a pain. I hope this is helpful to someone in the future. Happy Thanksgiving! May your inboxes remain free of such problems.

This just happened to me after I hit "Apply" as well. Even after immediately deleting the rule the auto-response continued.

Skelly714's suggestion worked for me. I took my email accounts offline, turned off Mail and restarted my computer. That seemed to do the trick.

Just happened to me as well. Called Apple Care, and basically they said the damage is done. Closing Mail, restarting the computer, etc ... won't help. As soon as you hit "Apply", it immediately sends out those Auto-Responder" mails to everything in the mailbox that's highlighted.

I complained vigourously to Apple. How can they not set up one extra layer of warning after you hit Apply?

Massive Apple Fail. Very dissapointed.

The honeymoon with the brand is over!

Carlos in New York wrote:

Massive Apple Fail. Very dissapointed.

No, this is entirely your failure. Apple cannot be expected to add additional preventative steps to protect people who don't bother to read the first warning.

People on this topic need to learn some personal responsibility.

Setting up an auto-respond is something that is not routinely done on an everyday basis. I think we can agree on that.

In fact, take a look at your own post from Sept. 6th, 2013. You placed an image of the warning. That warning states: "Do you want to apply your rules to messages in selected mailboxes?" My answer? Yes, I want it to apply. (That's why I am setting up the auto-respond - for it to apply to messages in that mailbox). Completely logical in my opinion, given the warning message.

As such, a little extra layer of precaution is entirely logical. You will never be able to convince me that it's not. A simple little message "Are you sure you want to send out …" is all that is needed.

There is no "right or wrong" answer here. You most likely (I don't want to assume), are looking at this as an engineer. (Or at least with that mindset). I look at it as a marketer (and more importantly, as a consumer). And this, as in all marketing, is a matter of perception. I have no doubt that if you escalate this up to Joney Ivey, or Tim Cook, they'll agree with me.

Perhaps it's not a "massive" fail. But given Apple's identity, a fail, nontheless. I like Apple's products. I think they do a solid job. But I didn't drink the Kool-Aid!

I'm here to defend Laura because the same thing just happened to me. I thought the message was referring to MY mailboxes - not every mailbox to which I ever sent an email. I immediately started hearing from people that they were being bombarded with auto-replies to old emails. I had to force quit and I'm just going to leave my mailbox app closed while I'm away.

My question for Apple would be, "What is the practical function of this configuation?" I can't imagine a situation in which I would ever need to send multiple auto-replies to everyone I've ever emailed. It's WAY too easy to do and it should at least come with a warning about what's about to happen. I would think this is an easy fix, and considering the embarassment that comes with it, I wish they would. (Maybe it's a practical joke because it's like the Sorcerer's Apprentice! Especially the way it won't shut down and seems to be working it's way back into time with OCD intensity)

I have just had the same issue and wonder if you know how to actually set a rule in mac mail to auto respond only to NEW emails with an out of office reply.. I set it up as i do in lotus and other out of office response email programs at work, and never had this issue. Surely there is a simple way to do this with Apple as i love my mac.

I had to disable the rule because so many people were getting out of office replies from emails sent 2 years ago.

Can you assist ? it would be appreciated. regards Michael

johnsonwaters wrote:

I have just had the same issue and wonder if you know how to actually set a rule in mac mail to auto respond only to NEW emails with an out of office reply..

It's actually quite easy, and you undoubtedly did it correctly... except that you told Mail to apply the rule to the messages in the selected mailbox when it asked. That made it send the vacation message for all those messages.

That said, note that I don't recommend using a vacation message at all, much less one constructed in Mail.

I don't like vacation messages in general because they can respond to spam, and have the potential to cause you to start receiving more spam as a result (if the spammer is sitting behind a real address).

The reason you shouldn't use a homemade rule or script for the purpose is that autoresponses to spam may bounce, and autoresponses to some people may generate an autoresponse in reply. This can cause what is called an "infinite mail loop." In other words, your autoresponse directly causes you to receive a new message, which generates another autoresponse, which causes another message to be received, which causes an autoresponse... and so on. This can easily go on until one or both mailboxes are full and cannot receive further e-mail.

If you must use a vacation message, use the vacation message feature provided by your mail server. These are usually written to prevent infinite mail loops, and may include basic spam checking to ensure you're not responding to spam.

Hi Thomas, thats awesome and very helpful.. I agree that the spam issue alone is worth not using the vacation rule for.. I have checked my email service and they do have an auto responder i can set up.. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, i really appreciate your help.

I just signed up for Office 365 from the "you know who" brigade - and whilst I've been testing out my email rules for received mail I've found that the rules apply whether the message is read (I used both the web mail and the mac mail app with an IMAP mapping to hotmail) and also they worked if the message is yet unread.

So although this is not the ideal post - it does cost money to use Office 365 (annually or monthly), but it did work (for me). As you get a month free it might be worth checking it put and then if to works great, if not, sorry about that but at least you can say you have tried another avenue.

I haven't tested it on the issue that people were talking about re. OOTO - but, for those who are trying to work in a "business like" fashion - and don't want to fall foul of the Mac support and the developers or Mac communities with their crass responses of "it's your own fault" or "you should have done it this way if you want it to work" - all of which are very useful comments I'm sure when you are trying to treat someone else without any respecter having any empathy or humanity in understanding that the person logging the issue is most probably only in the forum, rightly or wrongly, to express a frustration, make a suggestion or two or perhaps find out how to do something.

It will be a better time and place when developers realise that we use software to assist our business and not actually have software define how our business works or the processes we use...

"Apply" to all email in your inbox should not be the "default" option! As mentioned by someone before, setting up an auto-reply isn't something most people do on a regular basis. Besides the message itself being confusing, the fact that it is the "default" option tends to make us think this is a suggested/frequently used option. Sorry -- but there is nothing normal about emailing people from years ago that you are out of town. In fact, it is a big safety concern.

When is apple going to at the very least remove this as the default option? I agree with providing second warning as well.

Clearly this issue has been happening for YEARS to people, so why isn't anyone at apple listening?