Sort by flags in Mail not working

Did they actually say it's a feature not in El Capitan? Because it's quite clearly available in the menu...

FWIW, Sort by Flags works for me with El Capitan except that it does not sort by flag color -- IOW, it does just what the sort option name says it does, nothing more. All flags are treated the same, so while the list sorts with all flagged messages grouped together, they are not grouped by the color of the flag.

R C-R wrote:

FWIW, Sort by Flags works for me with El Capitan except that it does not sort by flag color -- IOW, it does just what the sort option name says it does, nothing more. All flags are treated the same, so while the list sorts with all flagged messages grouped together, they are not grouped by the color of the flag.

Yes, that is the exact behavior I believe everyone is getting. And technically, you are correct in that when it says "Sort by Flags", it can be interpreted to mean sort by Flag Status, not Flag Color. But that is what it said prior to El Capitan too, and it sorted by color as well as by Status. First you got all of the non-flagged messages, then came the colors in order Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Gray.

Gruntfuggly wrote:

Did they actually say it's a feature not in El Capitan? Because it's quite clearly available in the menu...

To be exact, first I logged a case with Apple and they treated it like what I experienced was a problem unique to me, that had to be resolved for me only. But after a month of sending logs to them, they suddenly realized they had misunderstood me, and that they mistakenly thought my issue had to do with Smart Folders and Flags. Once they realized that the way Mail was behaving in El Capitan was the same for everyone, it no longer became a "break-fix" issue - it was part of Production for the El Capitan version. Therefore, the engineers could not "fix" anything - it was a matter of design. So I was told the only thing I could do was submit a Feedback message via the Apple site, and hope that the designers would respond through that channel, and fix it for the next version. That's why it's important that everyone send Feedback. So they didn't use the word "feature", exactly - they just said this is the way it's working in production now.

Proof that it can work:

Gruntfuggly wrote:

Proof that it can work:

Gruntfuggly, before I call Apple back and tell them that the issue is not necessarily universal, is there anything you can think of that may be the difference between your MacBook where it works and the one where it doesn't?

Rob

Non-Working:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), 2.2 GHz, Intel Core i7, MacBookPro11,2, 16GB

Working:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), 2.3 GHz, Intel Core i7, MacBookPro11,3, 16GB

Could be the firmware version?

Gruntfuggly wrote:

Non-Working:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), 2.2 GHz, Intel Core i7, MacBookPro11,2, 16GB

Working:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), 2.3 GHz, Intel Core i7, MacBookPro11,3, 16GB

Could be the firmware version?

I'm unfamiliar with the MacBook line - what does ''11,2" and "11,3" refer to?

rmayer99 wrote:

Gruntfuggly wrote:

Non-Working:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), 2.2 GHz, Intel Core i7, MacBookPro11,2, 16GB

Working:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), 2.3 GHz, Intel Core i7, MacBookPro11,3, 16GB

Could be the firmware version?

I'm unfamiliar with the MacBook line - what does ''11,2" and "11,3" refer to?

Those are Apple's Model Identifiers. Among other places you can see a list of them at http://www.everymac.com/systems/by_capability/mac-specs-by-machine-model-machine -id.html or find them in the MacTracker database.

rmayer99 wrote:

Yes, that is the exact behavior I believe everyone is getting. And technically, you are correct in that when it says "Sort by Flags", it can be interpreted to mean sort by Flag Status, not Flag Color. But that is what it said prior to El Capitan too, and it sorted by color as well as by Status.

I only mentioned this distinction to avoid confusion when talking to Apple Support or sending Apple feedback about it. If you just tell them "sort by flag" isn't working they quite rightly can say that it is. You need to be sure to make it clear you are talking about sort by flag color.

Okay, I have some potentially good news. I called Apple back and asked them again why my case was closed. This time the Support person that answered called up an Engineer and he reported that Apple is aware of the issue, is treating it as a break-fix that needs to be corrected and is working on a solution. They said that eventually there will be an update that will fix this.

So maybe we will see a successful resolution on this....though I wouldn't expect it right away.

I've just noticed that it's only my smart mailbox (containing flagged messages) that fails to sort correctly - the mailbox that the flagged messages are actually in does sort correctly!?

Great News!! I just uploaded version 10.11.2 of El Capitan which came out today - and the problem is fixed! Kudos to Apple for jumping on this!