C-Command Software Forum

SpamSieve rule for POP3 email in Mail keeps losing account name

SpamSieve
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#1

I’m running Spamsieve 2.9.49 on macOS Monterey 12.4 on a Mac Studio and using Mail Version 16.0 (3696.100.31) as my client.

I have three SpamSieve rules, two for IMAP accounts and one for a POP3 account. The problem I’m having is that about once a week the SpamSieve rule for the POP3 account loses the name of the POP3 email account (the dropdown box in the rule becomes blank) and sometimes the rule becomes inactive (unchecked). When this happens, of course, SpamSieve does not process any of the emails that are coming in through that POP3 account. I haven’t had any problems with the two SpamSieve IMAP rules.

I have another rule, not related to SpamSieve, at the end of the list of all my rules that moves any remaining POP3 emails to a specified folder in one of my IMAP accounts; that rule often loses its POP3 account name when the Spamsieve rule looses its POP3 account name.

I’m not sure if this problem is related to Spamsieve or if it’s a bug in Mail related to POP3 accounts.

Any advise on how to troubleshoot this or keep it from happening again?

#2

It sounds like a problem with Mail saving the rules to disk (perhaps messed up file permissions) or perhaps it’s related to iCloud rule syncing. Does the problem seem to happen sooner if you quit Mail or reboot your Mac?

If you use the Save Diagnostic Report command in the Help menu and send me the report file, I can take a look at the file permissions.

You also may be able to work around the problem with the SpamSieve rules by switching from the Spam mailbox to the Junk mailbox. Then you could have a single SpamSieve rule without the need for account-specific criteria.

#3

I separately tried quitting and restarting Mail, logging out and back into my user account, and restarting the Mac - none of those actions caused the spamsieve rule for my one POP3 account to lose the name of the email account.

In my SpamSieve rules, I am mostly using the Junk mailbox that belongs to each account. Junk emails from one of the IMAP accounts and the POP3 account (these are both from the same ISP) get moved into the junk folder for that IMAP account. The other IMAP account (gmail) uses gmail’s junk folder. Then I use a smart mailbox (All Junk) to display all of my junk mail in a single location. So I think I am pretty much using your recommended setup already.

I just sent your the diagnostic report via email.

#4

@Michael_Tsai: I misread your comment about how to configure the SpamSieve rule. You are suggesting that I have the rule trigger on “Any Message” regardless of account, and move the junk emails to one of my IMAP accounts, correct?

#5

I’m suggesting that you use a single rule as shown in the manual that moves Every Message to the special All Junk mailbox. Then Mail will automatically separate them into the account-specific Junk mailboxes.

#6

Looking at the diagnostic report, I don’t see an obvious reason why the rules are forgetting their accounts. It could be an issue with your Mac’s accounts database (which is beyond the scope of what I can help with, other than suggesting standard reset procedures) or there could simply be a bug in Mail.

#7

Thanks for the clarification. I’ve replaced my previous SpamSieve rules with a single rule as explained in the manual. BTW, it’s simpler for me to manage one rule rather than 3 (or more if add addition email accounts).

And thanks for looking at my diagnostics. For now, I’ll assume that the recommended SpamSieve rule will avoid the problem with the account name getting dropped.