Rules on incoming messages not always applied

Hi,

I have setup a rule for incoming messages, so that messages from specific recepients are moved to another (IMAP) folder. It seems to work sometimes, but not always. It might be related to the messages being already received/marked as read on another device (my Android phone with Samsung Email Client). I am using IMAP on both, phone and EM (desktop) client. I have read in this forum that I am not the only one with this issue but haven’t found a reason/solution for it.

When running the rules manually on the inbox folder, they work as intended. It’s just not (always) working when automatically applied to received messages.

Hope there is a fix or workaround for that since running the rule manually somehow defeats the purpose of it.

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

Rules only apply automatically to new unread messages as they arrive in the Inbox. If they have been read on another device, you will need to move them yourself, or apply the Rule manually to the folders.

Thanks. Not exactly what I would expect from a rule applied to “incoming messages”. Would be great if that behavior could be modified. The client knows which mails it just received so it could apply the rule without separating between read and unread mails.

At least a corresponding hint could be shown where the rule is defined so that a user at least knows that his behavior will occur.

@Gary is correct in that an email client has been asked to apply rules to incoming messages;
the only way it knows it is an ‘incoming message’ is because it is not marked as SEEN by the IMAP server;
If that has occurred at the server end and the message has (in many server type cases) been moved to a different folder in its own structure, it just becomes a ‘synced’ message to the email client not a new one (any of them not just EM Client).
In simpler terms, the ‘seen’ marker on an email is the basis for decision making and actions by the server and email program.

To do what you are asking would require an automatic run of filters/rules every ‘x’ seconds on folders which would then be a workaround to established mail principles and an unnecessary resource hog.

In the alternative, you could ask your phone email client to not mark messages as read; or
apply the rules at the mail server level - most mail servers have that ability via their webmail facility.

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As a user, I expect the rule to be applied to any incoming message on that client, not on the server, not on other clients, read or unread. At least, that was my expectation when I defined the rule (and due to a lack of better options). Just because I have already received and read a message on another device doesn’t mean I don’t want the rule being applied on my EM Client.

The client knows, when a message downloaded is one that didn’t exist in its inbox before, so I don’t understand where the difficulty is in doing just that.

A rule basically saying: “Whenever there is a message received from the server, not received before on this client, apply this rule.”

I’d guess this is what most users would expect to happen when defining such a rule on their client.

And, to not get me wrong: I love EM Client. It is by far the best email client I have been using on any system so far.

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Works in other e-mail programs, but not here, why?

I also want all e-mails to be filed in the correct folder, regardless of whether they have already been read.

A button “Apply filter now” would be a really great thing

You can apply Rules manually to existing messages by right-click on any folder and choosing Apply Rule.

Where can I currently filter the more than 10,000 emails that were not filtered when importing from Postbox? Unfortunately, this is not possible as your “roles” only filter those mails that have just arrived in the mailbox.

Other programs have a button that allows you to filter all emails that are already in the system. I now have to move over 10,000 emails by hand into the corresponding folder … oohhh no … sorry → I have Thunderbird installed and all filters are correctly applied during migration - no need to move 10,000 emails by hand!

I already answered this question above. If you create a new Rule and want to apply it retrospectively, or after importing messages: