Mail rules in OS Mavericks 10.9 don't apply to Sent Messages

Let's start over. I can open Apple Mail. That's no problem. I get my mail just fine. What I can not do is right click on an email and then click on "APPLY RULES". It won't do anything. Another way of doing this is clicking on the menu "MESSAGE" tab and trying to click on 'APPLY RULES". Neither way works. I just want to be able to able a rule to any specific email I get. I can't do it.

We are talking about Mail under 10.9.2, correct? Not 10.9.1 or 10.9.0?

Is the menu item grayed out? If so, it thinks there are no rules to be applied.

Try making a new rule to play a particular sound, and see if that can be applied.

All that does, "APPLY RULES", is apply a rule you already have set up to a message you already have in your mail as opposed to incoming mail which would be affected by all rules you have set up as they come in for the first time. Setting up rules is not done with "APPLY RULES".

What's the point in having a rule to move a message if it won't move a message out of an Inbox!?

texncali wrote:

What's the point in having a rule to move a message if it won't move a message out of an Inbox!?

But it works just fine (moving mail from inbox) your rule must be incorrect.

@Csound1

Can you help me figure it out? I've read this whole thread. I have a basic rule with the "from" and "specified address" then "move to" and "a specified folder". It moves it but still leaves a copy in the original inbox like everyone was was complaining about in this thread. I have Mavericks and Mail both up to date. Thanks!

Sounds to me like it's set to "copy to"... Are you sure it's set to "move to"? The other thought I had is that perhaps it's being moved to another "MailBox" within the "Inbox" as opposed to a folder "On My Mac". Were this to be the case, it'd still show up when viewing the complete "Inbox"....

I agree with Ducky.

Post a screenshot of your rule here, identify your email provider and the mailboxes being moved from, and to.

(if the email provider is live.com or Gmail my advice will be to get a new provider)

Here's the screen shot including my mailboxes. I'm moving from Inbox (a Cox Provider email) to a folder under GMAIL (I also have a Gmail address and I like their folders and that I can see my mail organized in them on the web with Gmail as well as with Mail when using my Mac & iphone). I'm able to drag and drop the same way as my rule w/o leaving a copy in the Inbox. Thanks for your help.

As I suspected... in the second part of my post above. What you need to do is to set up Mailboxes "On My Mac" which is what will happen naturally when you select "Add Mailbox" from the "Mailboxes" menu. Your email accounts are stored in your "Inbox". Once you move the file from the Cox to the GMail account, it's still in the "Inbox". Once you redirect to an "On My Mac" mailbox the Rule(s) will work as you expect them to. Excuse me, I meant to say "New Mailbox..." from the "Mailbox" menu...

Here's some more info for you "texncali"...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1305546

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5274069

It appears that you can have subfolder when an email account is configured with IMAP, but not with POP. When I try to add Mailboxes, it only allows the "On My Mac" option...which is as it should be since all of my email accounts are POP. It could well be that if you can't add subfolders to your email accounts themselves and are only given the option to save "On My Mac" that your two accounts are configured for POP as well. In any event, rather than moving files from one account to the other, if you just set up mailboxes, you should be fine. I've got hundreds of folders, and hundreds of rules. They are all working fine now that 10.9.2 is out...

Let us know how it works out.

EP

I don't have anything I use under "On My Mac". All my mail comes in under its corresponing account under "Inbox" and I've just been dragging and dropping w/o rules (to my Gmail folders). I've recently switched to Mail but have used "rules" and "folders" in other programs. I'll check out those threads you listed. Oh and I have my accounts set up using IMAP, not POP. If you have any other suggestions I appreciate it! Thank you!

Here's something to consider from an organizational standpoint, texncali. This has worked very well for me for years... As you might imagine, there are Mailboxes "A-Z". You're just seeing a small portion of the folders. So, I've got a visual of new mail that lands in the inbox (e.g. 3 unread in this case). Many messages get sent to their folders and are also marked as read. I do this so I don't even look at them in most cases unless I'm going for latest news, ads, or whatever. If I don't want to miss anything in a particular folder, I don't mark them as read by default. This works very well where I follow a number of forums that generate hundreds of emails per day. They get put into their respective folders and I review/act on them when I get time. In the meantime, I've got a visual that they're still out there.

In any event, I hope this all helps. You're almost there!

Eric

It seems the "move" should work because it isn't moving it from one Inbox to another Inbox. A copy is being left in the Inbox of the account it was originally sent to. No matter what it shouldn't leave a copy if the rule says "move".

If the accounts are set up as IMAP, this would stand to reason. The nature of POP is that when you go out and get the mail from the server, it is removed from that server and put on your machine. IMAP on the other hand retains a copy until some pre-determined trigger (like keeping it on the server for 30 days). I don't completely understand it, but there's some good info at: http://www.geek.com/mobile/geek-101-pop-vs-imap-1536343/

In essence, if the account is IMAP, your'e not necessarily able to "Move" it because the email is still out there on the server if I understand this article correctly...