Hi,
I lost all my Mail rules after upgrade from OSX "El Capitan" to macOS Sierra.
Only appears the "Apple News" rule as shown in the image bellow.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks.
MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12), null
Thanks for your reply.
I try to find in Time Machine backup a previous version and, as you say, there is a V3 folder but unfortunately in all the backups the SyncedRules.plist file have the same data as in V4 (Only the "Apple news" rule).
Any other suggestion?
You'll have to go further back in time to find a plist file with all the rules. Otherwise you'll have to recreate the rules.
Personally, I have found that not only in Mail, but in Entourage and Outlook that rules don't often update or upgrade well. I always make a screenshot of my rules so I can easily recreate them manually.
Thanks again for your reply.
I searched enough back to find the right file but no success.
I know that the solution of replicate the rules it's there although the purpose of the question was precisely to avoid this. Not because I do not remember my rules but because it is what is expected of, the supposed, robust and reliable system that handles my "so expensive" computer.
I'm relatively new in the Apple/mac world and I've already fought before with "other systems" and, although it's a great computer and a great operating system, sincerely I would expect more. I guess I had another vision of what was a mac.
BTW, sorry but I find no legitimate to lean on the failure of others systems to excuse this.
We don't talk about other systems, we talk about macOS Sierra.
Any way, thanks for your time and show possible solutions to my problem. Great contribution.
Greetings.
This is not directed to you in particular, but no matter what you paid for you computer, the person in the chair that is using the computer can totally mess it up where it's not working.
I suggest you try to learn about the Mac and how it works. This will go a long way to having a successful experience. I see many switchers (former PC users) try to do the same types of things on the Mac and the results are not always pretty.
Rules in an email client no matter what version OS, have always been problematic when upgrading. Mail in Sierra had some major changes. For some users this has resulted in a multitude of problems.
I would advise you that in the future when a new version of the OS is released that you wait until it's a bit more mature before upgrading and most of the kinks have been ironed out. Learn from the mistakes others have made by reading the forums. Number one mistake is not making a bootable backup first. Had you made a clone backup, you could have simply booted back into your clone and worked on your data before it was backed up. You would have been able to see your rules to make screen shots. If you were totally unsatisfied with Sierra you could have cloned back and waited for a later update to do the move to Sierra.
Create a Clone backup:
A clone is an exact bootable copy of your internal drive. Unlike standard copying of all files to another drive, the clone software copies hidden files along with other in-use files that are not available when you copy over files to another drive.
If you don't have a clone backup it's time to start. Just like a seat belt and an air bag protect you in different ways when driving, you need both Time Machine and a clone for full protection.
Software used to Clone:
SuperDuper! http://www.shirt-pocket.com/
CCC http://www.bombich.com/download.html
Again this is general advice and not directed at you.
Sorry if my comments did you think offensive but it was not a criticism about your answers or advice. I just made a small review about Sierra but you're right I should have expected that the system would have been more stable.
Again, thanks for all your advice and especially about the clone backup and the software references. It is a very good option.
Greetings.
I tried to be clear that this was not directed at you personally. I was offering some general advice. Sorry you took it as personal.
I'm not absolutely took your answers in the personal way. Simply I was a little bit angry about this concrete problem and may be my comment was not as correct as it would have had to be. Sorry for that.
My new SyncedRules.plst (containing only Apple) is 5 Kb. I found a copy of old file, which is 61 Kb. I restored it, trashed the old file. When I open Mail, it restores the old 5Kb file, and overwrites it in the Library.
What now?
Thank you-
No worries. Trying to communicate via text can often be misconstrued.
Synced rules are syncing back to the new in the cloud.
You could try creating a new User in System Preferences. Do NOT log in with your iCloud account. Select to Skip.
Drag over the V3 folder and place it in the new User's Library Mail folder.
When you open Mail in the new User, it should import the El Capitan Mail data from V3. This will get everything. Since you are not synced, nothing should be overwritten.
Make screenshots of your rules. You can save the screen shots in Shared folder so you will have access to the images when you log back into your main User.
Macintosh HD Root folders
Applications
Library
System
Users > Shared
Thank you, Diane.
If I follow you, I make a new user just so I can get to the old list of rules. Then I need to manually re-enter all the rules?
Yikes!
Barry
Yup, it's not so bad. Just remember in the future to make screen shots of rules when updating.
I have the same problem, and my rules included hundreds of individual senders. Super frustrating that such a small file can't be maintained through the upgrade.
I've restored the syncedrules.plist to no avail.
I love having a robust client like Apple Mail, but losing so much work like this is ridiculous.
I found that if I uncheck the mail option from iCloud Drive , then the local SyncedRules.plst will not be overwirtten.
I think it is the iCloud Drive synchronized my local mail setting, but I do not know how to make the local setting overwrite the icloud ones.
Any idear?
Rules and Signatures files will be overwritten by Sierra - so nothing to move or restore...
Where are my mail rules in macOS Sierra?
