Something has been filtering my email to junk for the last 3 years!

SpamSieve
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1

…and is still doing it today! :astonished:

So just today I discovered while looking at the SS log file that it has not filtered any incoming mail since 2020

Screenshot 2023-09-12 at 8.58.23 AM
Screenshot 2023-09-12 at 8.58.23 AM2414×542 153 KB

But, something IS filtering my junk mail to a junk mail folder and has been fooling me for 3 years. I go suspicious when I tried the Mac OS beta which isn’t supposed to work with the old SS, but my junk mail was still being filtered. Today I upgraded to the SS beta, looked at the logs and was shocked to see this.

So what is filtering my mail in the mac OS mail app, I have never used the mac mail junk filter. Could there be an old SS version or something, running rogue on my machine?

2

It’s probably a junk filter on your mail server. You can tell by how the messages are colored in Mail.

And, also, it looks like you need to complete the Apple Mail setup instructions so that SpamSieve can see your incoming mail.

3

ok, think I got things setup correctly. apple mail will freeze for about a minute or so, then you have like 30 seconds before it freezes up again. Now I’m getting this error in the log:

Summary:	SpamSieve filtered other mailboxes in Apple Mail.
	Error Code:	-1,712
	Log Entry:	Error finding messages to filter: Mail got an error: AppleEvent timed out.
	Date Logged:	Today, 1:00:39 PM

	SpamSieve:	3.0b7 at /Applications/SpamSieve.app
	Device:	macOS 14.0.0 (23A5337a) on d-mac-pro.local (MacPro7,1)```
4

Please go to the Select Mailboxes to Filter… sheet and make sure that you haven’t asked it to filter any mailboxes with large numbers of messages.

5

Yes. looks like I had it set to filter INBOX.

6

It’s normally not necessary to tell it to filter the inbox, unless you’re running into the Mail bug where it sometimes stops sending messages to the SpamSieve Mail extension. If you do want to specifically select the inbox for filtering, you can speed it up by moving older messages out of the inbox to a separate mailbox that’s not filtered.

7

It feels like i’m close but i’m still having either 2 separate issues, or one issue that’s affecting SS functionality.

first issue: There is something that is still filtering my e-mail like a junk mail filter. I deleted the “junk” folder it was using to put mail in and 10 minutes later that folder recreated itself and continued getting mail into it. There are no other computers that receive my Mac mail (just IOS devices),

Spam Sieve is not filtering any mail from the inbox unless I manually ask it to. I’m using the Mail extension method.

8

It seems pretty clear that you have a server junk filter. You can either leave it as-is, turn it off, or set SpamSieve to refilter the messages that it catches.

If you added the inbox to Select Mailboxes to Filter…, you need to also make sure that Filter spam messages in other mailboxes is checked.

9

implemented the refuter script to rescue messages from spam, it works perfectly. Thank you!

If I try to add inbox to the 'select boxes to filter" and turn filtering on, it freezes up the mail app. unread messages is at 0, but the are ~300,000 messages in total in the inbox the log gives the “Error finding messages to filter: Mail got an error: AppleEvent timed out.” every 3-4 minutes.

Looks like if i can find a way to get filter working on inbox, i’m golden.

10

It’s the total number of messages in a mailbox, not the number of unread messages, that slows down Mail. I recommend moving most of them from the inbox to an archive mailbox.

11

Never considered archive. Took your advice and did so. Moved 290,000 to archive folder. Then turn on INBOX for filters. Now SS is actually filtering my e-mail for the first time since 6/2020. :joy: Server-side spam being filtered too, using your rescue messages script.

Thank you for getting me thru this debacle, much appreciated!

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