All emails going to Spam folder, in spite of correct settings

SpamSieve
1

Well, I’ve tried everything, resetting this three times.

Mac OS 10.5.2
Mail 3.2

  1. Installed Apple Mail plug-in from SpamSieve drop down menu; quit Mail and relaunched. All three Spam Sieve options DID appear in Mail’s Message drop down menu, verifying plug-in installed correctly.

  2. Created new mailbox under “On My Mac” called “Spam” (cap S, lower case pam).

  3. Created Rule using “SpamSieve,” no spaces, caps as shown. All other settings are identical to what’s shown in owner’s manual.

  4. Quit Mail again, just to be safe.

In spite of repeating this, uninstalling, reinstalling, etc. etc. etc., all of my inbound messages continue to go direct to the Spam folder–even those that have been trained as good under the Message drop down menu.

What gives? This is a nightmare.

Thanks in advance.

2

Do you have any other Mail rules besides the SpamSieve one? Does SpamSieve’s log say that it predicted these messages to be spam?

3

Um…where might I find the log?

There are other rules, but the very first one on the list is SpamSieve, as directed. The others have to do with sorting mail between various user accounts.

4

Filter menu > Open Log

Well, the reason I asked is that a surprising number of people create additional rules (not recommended) that move messages into the Spam mailbox.

5

Got the log open, and it appears to be predicted things as good, which is…well…good.

The other rules I have are quite necessary, and should have no impact on SpamSieve. With seventeen email accounts (yes, all necessary), they do things like sort “if To contains Jane, move message to Jane@xyz.com” and “if message contains 'Sent from my iPod Touch, move message to ‘From iPod’ folder.”

The only exception to this is the required spam screen from the host that has three of my websites–currently, it’s shown after the SpamSieve rule, which I thought followed the directions in the SS manual. Without it, they’re unable to screen the 500+ spans that pummel those accounts daily.

This combination of rules has been on my laptop (currently on the bench at the Apple store due to fan issues), without causing any problems. Any clue as to why this computer is handling the rules differently?

6

Sounds good.

I’m not quite sure what you mean by that. Could you post a screenshot? What, specifically, is required?

It’s true that additional rules should generally go after the SpamSieve rule, but it’s usually a mistake to have other rules that process your spam. The problem is that, if some other rule is moving messages to the Spam mailbox, you can no longer tell when SpamSieve is doing it’s job, and therefore you cannot correct its mistakes, which eventually leads to reduced accuracy.

I have no idea without seeing what the rules look like. Combinations shouldn’t matter since the SpamSieve rule doesn’t interact with other rules.