what are smart mailboxes and why do i need both smart and "normal" ones?

I don't think Smart Mailbox makes a copy of the email. It just assigns a link to the message(s)

Say I want to view all messages from Granny. I will make a Smart Mailbox with the following rules...

• From (selected)
• Contains (selected)
• Granny (typed in)

When I apply the rules, it'll populate all emails from Granny in the Smart Mail box. The email itself will still be in my inbox. So if I delete an email in either the inbox or the smart mail box. It'll be deleted in both boxes.

One advantage of a Smart Mail box, is that you can make it contain emails sent in the last X-amount of days. Or if messages was or wasn't replied to. If sender is VIP, or a part of a certain group of contacts.

KOT

Hi adam,

Smart Mailboxes are used to create special mailboxes that contain only those emails that meet the specific criteria you set up for that mailbox. Open your Mail app and click on "New Smart Mailbox" under the Mailbox option in the top menu.

That will give you the best idea of how a smart mailbox works. You select the specific filtering criteria you want, and based on that criteria, you get only specific emails.

For example, you could set up:

"From" in the first box, "Is Equal To" in the second box and "Granny@me.com" in the third box. You could name the Smart email box "Emails from Granny". Then all the emails that you got from Granny would go to that box, and you would have a special place where you could find all of her emails.

It's just a nice feature that you can choose to use or not as you wish.

Cheers,

GB

Well, does Rules move the message directly into the Mailbox defined (i.e., not display it in the Inbox)?

If so, then that is the difference. A smart mailbox puts a copy of the message into the smart mailbox, but also puts a copy in your inbox. That way you can still see it coming in and then can delete it as you read it, but know that a copy remains in your smart mailbox.

Does that seem to be the difference?

Cheers,

GB

Because then you don't have to go into multiple mailboxes to see what new mail you have. It saves you the time it might take to move it once you have had a chance to see it.

From my viewpoint, the usefulness of Rules is that it will re-direct mail so you don't have to see it in your Inbox at all. Smart Mailboxes, on the other hand, creates an "archive" file of specific types of mail, so you don't have to do the archiving yourself. You just delete it from your inbox once you have seen it, and know that it has been archived in your smart mailbox folder.

Cheers,

GB

Hi Kingoftypos,

Thanks for that clarification. So, now it appears that the ultimate purpose of a Smart Mailbox is to point to all emails that meet the criteria in a single place, so if they are spread among several mailboxes, you will be able to see them all together. Here is an article from Apple that describes it:

A Smart Mailbox displays in one location messages that are stored in other mailboxes, so you don’t have to move messages between mailboxes. The messages displayed by a Smart Mailbox are based on criteria you define, and are automatically updated to include new messages that match your criteria. For example, you might create a Smart Mailbox that displays all messages found in all mailboxes from a specific sender.

Great example. Just to add to it.

You have an Apple mail box, amazon, eBay, Best Buy, Home Depot. And then you apply rules for each one. All messages from Apple goes to the Apple mail box, Amazon to Amazon, eBay to eBay and so on. Have them redirected there so that the email won't clutter your inbox. Mind you, these are rules as defined under Prefernces. And when done correctly will contain everything from those senders. Any notices that don't pertain to a sale, sales receipts and so on.

Then once you've defined those rules. You may want to create a Smart Mail box. Select "subject" then "contains" then type in "receipt". All emails with receipt any where in the subject line will appear in that smart mail box. While keeping the actual email in the original mail box.

KOT

Cool! Thanks Kingoftypos!

I love doing this support forum because I always learn so many new things! Thanks for helping us sort that out, and for providing us with a logical distinction between Rules and Smart Mailboxes! And thanks, adam for asking the question!

I'm going to go in and organize my whole mail system now! 😝

Cheers!

GB

Great conversation here! Just one more clarification to be sure I'm understanding correctly. Have we defintely determined that if you delete an email from any of these boxes, it will be deleted in all?

Thanks again!

Hi Gail,

I want to confirm the use of Smart Mailboxes. Say I want an archive of my Amazon.com purchases. I set up a Smart Mailbox called Amazon.com. Now I can see in general mail the Amazon.com 'Your order has shipped' email and it is also in my shiny new Smart Mailbox. Here's the $64,000.00 question: If I delete it from my general mailbox, is it still in the Smart Mailbox titled Amazon.com?

Thanks,

KG

No, the "Smart Mailbox" is just a consolidating box. It doesn't actually contain the mail as a "Folder" will. It basically only organizes the email. All Amazon.com mailings will be stored in the "Inbox" but shown in the Amazon.com Smart Mailbox as just Amazon.com mailings.

KOT

If you delete it in either place it is deleted. The mail in a Smart Mailbox isn't a copy of the mail in the inbox. It is just a "pointer" to that mail, if you will. So any action you take on that mail, in either place, will be reflected in the other.

Cheers,

GB

gail from maine wrote:

Well, does Rules move the message directly into the Mailbox defined (i.e., not display it in the Inbox)?

If so, then that is the difference. A smart mailbox puts a copy of the message into the smart mailbox, but also puts a copy in your inbox. That way you can still see it coming in and then can delete it as you read it, but know that a copy remains in your smart mailbox.

That's incorrect, there is no 'copy'. The email that you see in the Smart Mailbox is the same email that appears in the original location, 2 different views of it, not 2 copies.

So if you delete one, you just deleted the only copy.

Smart Mailboxes are basically saved searches, that's all.

Applepeople1 wrote:

Hi Gail,

Here's the $64,000.00 question: If I delete it from my general mailbox, is it still in the Smart Mailbox titled Amazon.com?

No it is not, it will have been deleted, see my other post in this thread.