Mac Mail Rules massive problem

I have made this mistake too, I was not concentrating and hit "Apply" in the dialogue box that was asking if I'd like to apply this rule to selected mail boxes and their content. As a result my clients started receiving my out-of-office email for EVERY message in my inbox. This is rather embarrassing and although I removed the rule as soon as I realised what I'd done, a hefty amount of replies were sent. Now, as these do not appear in my "sent" box then how do I check who has received the message?

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.

Same thing here. This is crazy and totally not intuitive! I got hundreds of emails going out before I could stop the flood!

How did you get it to stop? I have 20000 emails that are being replied to with out of office! please help urgently, this is my work account!

DId you figure out how to stop this as I have just done the same and am usure if it is sending cant see anything in my outbox, but is it sending vioa my pop account in the backgorund? -HELP!

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 😉

I'm so frustrated that Mail would even allow me to do this without some kind of warning.

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

Garrr has anyone found a suitable answer for this? I've deleted the rule and it still sending out replies to emails sent months ago! Out of office fail! How embarrasing.

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!