Smart Mailbox rule "Subject > does not contain > ..." doesn't work

Question

Level 1

12 points

Smart Mailbox rule "Subject > does not contain > ..." doesn't work

I am trying to create a smart mailbox which contains enquiries from our website, but will NOT contain replies to these enquiries. I have created 3 rules as on the image below:

1. I want it to be sent to specific mailbox

2. I want subject to be equal to, let's say "AVE XXXX - Quote Request"

3. I don't want this smart mailbox to contain replies to these rules, so I've applied another rule ( Subject > does not contain > RE: ).

Unfortunately may smart mailbox is full of Quote Requests and replies to it. How can I fix it?

Thanks

This is the rule screen

This is the mailbox view (messages which shouldn't be here are marked in yellow):

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12.6), application Mail

Posted on Nov 16, 2017 9:56 AM

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Answer 1

Old Toad

Level 10

207,451 points

Nov 16, 2017 11:56 AM in response to Tucado

Try adding to Does not contain: Re: AVE. See if that will trigger exclusion.

Scratch the above. Just tested that on a test smart mailbox and there's no way to exclude using just the RE. or RE: AVE. Both of those commands are on the same field, Subject, so that may be why it's not working.

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Answer 2

Tucado Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 17, 2017 3:53 PM in response to Old Toad

is there any other solution to solve that? It needs to be a smart mailbox. I use IMAP and other people use POP. When I move the message to another folder - they don't get it if I do it before they manage to download messages from the server. So the smart mailbox is the only way I can do that.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

207,451 points

Nov 18, 2017 9:34 AM in response to Tucado

Use a rule to copy it to your selected mailbox/folder and leave the original where it is. I use a smart album with the criteria: mail is unread. I access them there. Those I want to leave where they are are left there because once read they are removed from the smart album.

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Answer 4

Tucado Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 18, 2017 10:29 AM in response to Old Toad

The thing is, I don't usually read them. My employee handles customers and sometimes I do it if she is busy or away. I use IMAP as I don't want to have plenty of unread emails, only those who my employee didn't read (if you know what I mean). But I want to keep all of "quote requests" in one place so I can go through them when I need. So ideally if I get this smart mailbox working. I don't want to mark dozens of emails as read manually. I prefer them to be marked as read when my employee reads it. So unfortunately this is not a perfect solution for me. Thanks anyway

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Answer 5

LACAllen

Level 8

43,416 points

Nov 18, 2017 4:03 PM in response to Tucado

What about adding "message is unread" or "message was not replied to"

Or a rule for your first condition, and a smart mailbox for your second.

So, a rule for your inbox that looks for AVE XXXX - Quote Request and outputs to mailbox called QUOTE_REQUESTS_IN

Than a smart mailbox that acts on all mail in the mailbox QUOTE_REQUESTS_IN.

So, Subject does NOT contain RE:

End result is a smart mailbox with your desired messages.

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Answer 6

Tucado Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 19, 2017 2:43 AM in response to LACAllen

Thank you LACallen. The issue here is that there are few people who use the same mailbox. I use IMAP and other ones use POP. If I move the message before they download it - they won't receive it. If they read the message before me it is marked as read automatically (which is what I wanted, as I want to handle only messages outside of our working hours or if my employees are off for some reason). Basically I want my employees to see all messages as unread, whether I see them or not, and I want to see only unread messages. This complicates everything a lot. I want to keep only original messages without "Re:" and "Fw:" in that smart mailbox.

I've got a feeling that it's a bug here to be fixed by Apple.

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Answer 7

LACAllen

Level 8

43,416 points

Nov 19, 2017 3:20 PM in response to Tucado

The issue here is that there are few people who use the same mailbox. I use IMAP and other ones use POP.

This will be an issue on any shared mailbox. Is there a reason someone still uses POP?

IMO, using POP in the mix is not a bug that will get any attention by any developer.

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Answer 8

Tucado Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 19, 2017 3:35 PM in response to LACAllen

as I mentioned: I want my employees to see all messages as unread, whether I see them or not, and I want to see only unread messages.

So I don't want my employees to miss any message, therefore I prefer them to use POP. Someitmes I read some messages but don't act, as I dimply don't have time.

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