I moved from POP email to IMAP several months ago. Since the switch, if I call up email on any one of my devices, the rules I have set up in Mac Mail on my iMac (Sierra) won't filter. Manually selecting all and then "apply rules" doesn't always work, either. However, if Mac Mail on my iMac is open, emails will filter into their proper folders.
Any ideas?
As per this article : Mail for Mac: Use rules to manage your inbox
If you have multiple rules, they’re applied in the order in which they appear in the list of rules; drag a rule up or down to change the order.
Mail stops applying rules to a message when it encounters the Stop Evaluating Rules action, or when a message is transferred to another mailbox by rules used on a mail server or on a computer or device synced to your computer.
If you use iCloud Drive, your rules are available on your other Mac computers that have iCloud Drive turned on. Files attached to rules, such as sound files or scripts, aren’t available. For more information, see Store your desktop and documents in iCloud.
Another article for info : Mail for Mac: Rules preferences in Mail
Mail rules are client-side rules meaning they work on the device they are defined, not on the Server. Therefore, as already mentioned, they only work when Mail is open.
Mail rules also only work on messages that appear in the inbox. If you move messages on another device, the rules will not apply to them when you open Mail on your Mac.
Re-reading my question, and it reads silly. Sorry about that.
What I meant is that, after switching to IMAP, when I open Mac Mail, the rules don't automatically filter whatever is being downloaded on open. However, so long as Mac Mail is open, new mail that comes in afterwards does. I've since read that it has to do with reading emails on other devices, which marks them as read, and that Mac Mail only filters unread email. However, I still can't solve the problem of marking them as unread when Mac Mail opens so that it applies the rules to my mail.
Thanks for responding, tygb. The thing is, my rules were working just fine until I switched to an IMAP account. There were no issues before then.
If the application isn't open, it isn't going to do anything. An application can't function when closed.
Why do mail rules only work when Mac Mail is open?
