SpamSieve making spam as read even with "Mark it as read" unchecked

I am using Mac OS 14.4.1 and Apple Mail 16.0.

My SpamSieve settings have it move mail to trash if the spam score is at least 70, “mark it as read” unchecked and color the background.

SpamSieve identifies the spam and moves it to the trash but it is being marked as read. It had been functioning in accordance with my settings to move it to the trash as unread.

I restarted the computer and it worked for a short time but is now no longer functioning in accordance with the settings. I have quit both Mail and SpamSieve without success. I have also toggled the mark it as read checkbox.

Do the messages that are marked as read have a colored background like this:

?

Do they appear in SpamSieve’s Log window as Predicted: Spam?

Yes, the messages are properly color coded as spam in my trash file. I checked the log and this is a typical entry

Summary: SpamSieve classified this message as Spam because it matched a blocklist rule.
Score: 99 (0 is least spammy; 100 is most spammy)
Rule: From (address) is equal to “news@e.keyincomejournal.com”
Matched: “news@e.keyincomejournal.com”
Accuracy: Correct (if this message is not Spam, you should train it as Good)
Help: Correct All the Mistakes
Date Logged: Today at 8:18:02 AM

Subject: Mystery Unfolds: China’s Deserted Factories
From: China’s Vanishing Workforce — R. J. Harrington | Income Journal news@e.keyincomejournal.com
Date Sent: Today at 8:16:01 AM
Date Received: Today at 8:18:02 AM
To: xxxxxxx
Size: 29 KB (8 KB compressed)
Identifier: ogxj3AZD3ZWlRUAFGgma3Q==
Server Filter: There is no record of a server junk filter evaluating this message. Some mail servers don’t have junk filters, and some filters move messages to a different mailbox without noting in the message that they did this.
Origin: Mail 16.0/3774.500.171.1.1 (SpamSieve extension 1.0.3)

Contacts: 1,254
Excluded Contacts: 3

Processing Time: 0.049s
SpamSieve: 3.0.4 at /Applications/SpamSieve.app
Device: macOS 14.4.1 (23E224) on jays-mac-studio.local (Mac13,1)
User: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Language: English

Thanks. I had thought maybe the message was moved and marked as read by a server junk filter, but it appears that this one was moved by SpamSieve. I’m not sure why it would be marked as read of the SpamSieve setting for that is off.

Please quit Mail and then click these two links to enable some additional debug logging. Then, the next time the problem occurs, please use the Save Diagnostic Report command in the Help menu and send me the report file, as described here, and tell me the subject and sender of the message that was marked as read.

Thank you, I have set up the logging so I will email a report if the issue continues.

Thanks for sending the report. The most recent message that SpamSieve moved to the Trash was Putin just killed Biden’s 2024 bid?. The debug log shows that the Mail extension set the background color and moved the message to the trash but that it did not change whether the message was marked as read. So it’s not clear what’s causing the problem.

It’s possible that the Mail extension is not listening to SpamSieve; you could test that by disabling the extension in Mail’s settings, so that the messages are filtered via SpamSieve’s AppleScript instead.

Or is it possible that you have another Mac or device that could be reading these messages or applying rules to them?

I don’t have SpamSieve installed on any other devices so I will try disabling the extension. SpamSieve will still filter email if I turn off the extension?

The reason I like to have it left as unread is I can easily open my trash, filter on unread and quickly identify if there is any email that was filtered as spam incorrectly. It happens so rarely that I can probably work without it.

Yes, using the Check inboxes for new messages not sent to Mail extension option.

With these changes the spam messages are now being sent to the trash with a colored background and the messages tagged as unread. Working as I had intended :slight_smile:

Are there any drawbacks to not having the extension enabled in Mail. I Now have the following settings:
Enable spam filter using Mail extension
SpamSieve Extension disabled in Mac Mail
Check inboxes for new messages not sent to Mail extension.

Great! Sounds like this was due to a bug in Apple Mail. I will file a bug with Apple.

There will be a slight delay (which you can adjust in SpamSieve’s settings):

before the messages are moved from Inbox to Junk.

Thank you! I had previously reduced the time it checks for unread messages so I should be good.

Hey @Michael_Tsai … I seem to be having the same/a similar problem as Jay from earlier. Where do those two links go? I can’t figure out how to enable additional debug logging (or are they links I have to click on my Mac running SpamSieve)?

Here are some pics I took, if it helps prior to the debug logging.


Yes.

This is looking like a bug in Mail, which you can work around by disabling the SpamSieve Mail extension, but the debug logging can help confirm this.

OK. How do I enable the debug logging? Was the “Yes” referring to “I have to click the link on my Mac running SpamSieve”?

With the extension disabled SpamSieve has been working just fine. Emails do pop up in my inbox but within a few seconds spamsieve sweeps the various inboxes and moves them to trash.

Yes, by clicking these two links. However, as it seems clear that disabling the extension fixes the problem, you could also just do that.

Sounds good … just making sure you didn’t need the debugging info (I won’t be back home for a while).