I get an insane amount of spam every day. SpamSieve has been great, capturing the vast majority and putting it in the ‘SpamSieve’ folder I created ‘On My Mac’ but I still have to go through it all to make sure a good message didn’t sneak in there and this is very frustrating and time consuming.
How do I set things up so that messages that are 100% unquestionably spam go directly to the trash? I don’t mind reviewing a smaller list of maybes, I just don’t want to have to go through the hundreds I get throughout the day.
I started blocklisting spam messages by Subject but for one, it didn’t seem to make a difference and for two, I read that I shouldn’t have to do that.
I also get spam that shows up server side. I read about turning off spam filtering on the server but would that then open up the flood gates and pour loads more spam into my email? I understand that SpamSieve is designed to handle this, I just don’t know the best way to manage the software.
I have gone through the FAQs, I just don’t think I’m grasping the best way to set things up so any help is greatly appreciated.
To have them treated like all the other spam and sent to the SpamSieve folder where they should consequently be treated by Spaminess and sent automatically to the Trash.
In a nutshell, I would like all spam, whether filtered through the server as spam or caught by SpamSieve, to be recognized by Blue and Gray spaminess and automatically sent to the Trash for instant removal. As it is now, SpamSieve does a great job but I still have to go through a number of steps just to delete the stuff.
Yes, I already have this set up but none of these rules are working unless I select all the messages and then choose ‘Apply Rules’. How do I get these rules to run automatically without having to manually tell them to execute?
Ok but that is not happening. SpamSieve is catching the spam and putting it in the appropriate SpamSieve folder but it is not automatically executing the rules to put the blue and gray spam in the trash. I have to manually select all the messages and choose ‘Apply Rules’.
The Apple Mail - Server Junk Mailbox script does not execute any rules. If you want the blue messages to go to the trash, make sure you have installed the 2015-02-03 version of the script and that you’ve changed the pMoveBlueMessagesToTrash at the top to say true instead of false.
Ok, but what about the other rules, namely SpamSieve [Score], SpamSieve [Blue][Gray], and SpamSieve [Spam]? These rules only execute if I manually select all the messages in the SpamSieve folder and choose ‘Apply Rules’ from the menu.
Mail only auto-applies rules to new messages in the inbox. If the messages are already in the Spam mailbox (e.g. because of the Apple Mail - Server Junk Mailbox script) it is normal to have no rules applied to them. And since the spams are already caught and colored, I would not think you would need to apply the rules. If you are wanting the script to separate more messages by color, that is a potential future enhancement.
Michael, first off thank you for your timely replies - your customer support is very much appreciated.
I have 4 scripts set up in this order: Server Junk Mailbox SpamSieve, SpamSieve [Score], SpamSieve [Blue][Gray], SpamSieve [Spam].
Currently, I have to manually “Apply Rules” to spam messages that show up in my ‘Spam’ folder locally. I believe these are server side messages that bypass SpamSieve because they’re not going to the SpamSieve folder. They show up as unread and uncolored. When I “Apply Rules” they go to the Trash marked as unread but now colored.
I also have to manually “Apply Rules” to spam messages that show up in my ‘SpamSieve’ folder. These are obviously messages that SpamSieve is catching. These emails show up as unread and uncolored. When I “Apply Rules”, the spammiest emails go to the Trash marked as unread but now colored blue or gray. The rest of the emails in the ‘SpamSieve’ folder change to whatever color relates to their degree of spaminess (which is fine).
I then have to go in to the Trash to select all the colored, “unread” spam and delete. I could just delete all but I don’t necessarily want to because there are always those moments when one wants to retrieve a good message that was thrown away earlier - I only want to delete the spam.
From the above you can see that I am manually going through 3 steps: trashing the server side spam, trashing the SpamSieve spam, and manually deleting all of this.
Is there a way that all or even any of this can be set up so that these spam emails are automatically deleted and I don’t have to manually go through these 3 steps all day long?
The only one of those rules that has a script is “Server Junk Mailbox SpamSieve”. You then listed four other rules, which would bring the total to five.
A server filter cannot put messages in a “folder locally.” However, a server filter can put messages in a Spam mailbox on the server. In that case, those messages would bypass SpamSieve because they are not going to the inbox.
If the “Apple Mail - Server Junk Mailbox” script is set up properly, there should be no messages in the server Spam mailbox after running the script. The good messages would be in the inbox and the spam messages would be in the SpamSieve mailbox. Have you tested this by running the script in Script Editor? (Also note that your mailbox is called “SpamSieve” but this is not the default name for the spam mailbox, so you would need to edit the mainSpamMailboxInfo() part of the script.)
I have never heard of SpamSieve catching messages and moving them without coloring them. Do you have any other rules that move messages to this mailbox? Have you verified in the log that SpamSieve really did catch those messages?
In theory, you could write an AppleScript that only deletes colored messages from the trash. Or you could set Mail to automatically delete old messages from the trash and then not worry emptying it manually because you know the messages won’t pile up forever.
Ok, so one rule that contains a script and three additional rules. That’s it.
Yes, that was my mistake and you’re right. The Spam folder is server side.
Ok, I think I finally have this working. I’m noticing that server side spam messages are coming in to the Spam folder on the server but then trickling over to the SpamSieve mailbox randomly. How often does the Server Junk Mailbox execute? When I manually select ‘Check for new mail’ it doesn’t seem to trigger the script.
For whatever reason, SpamSieve is now coloring the messages but it is still not automatically sending the blue and gray messages to the Trash. Can this be set up or do I have to manually execute those rules to make that happen?
Finally (for now…), for the spam left behind that is not blue or gray, if I select those messages and choose ‘Train as Spam’ will it convert those to the highest level of spam in the future?
The script is triggered when Mail checks for new mail and there are new messages in the inbox.
If you edit the pMoveBlueMessagesToTrash in the script it can move the blue messages to the trash. A future version of the script will have an option for gray messages as well.
Maybe. I don’t recommend training messages that are already in the correct mailbox.
Ok, all seems to be working as it should now - thank you very much for your help!
The blue messages are correctly filtering to the Trash. How long do you think it will be before you have the updated script to move the gray messages into the Trash as well?
If you don’t recommend training other colored spam messages as spam because they’re already in the correct spam folder, is there another way to let SpamSieve know that those messages should be bumped up in spaminess to blue or gray? By using the blocklist?
Will you be making any kind of announcement regarding this or should I just keep checking back?
I haven’t really noticed but I would say yes, many of the emails that show up as red or orange are similar.
I am not able to sort messages by color in Mail in order to delete them all together and further I have no idea how to write anything in AppleScript. Is there a way to attach a flag to the spam messages that go to the Trash? That way I can sort by Flag and delete from there. That would also help me distinguish spam from good messages I color myself and then trash later.
Hi Michael. Any update on when you will have the features implemented to move gray messages to the trash and set colored flags to enable sorting as previously discussed?