Mail - Rules not working

Apple has done almost nothing to improve the Rules function in Mail for 20 years. All kinds of things COULD be done to make them more useful. I suspect that carrying the data file from one system generation to another has corrupted the rules files, which might explain the inconsistent application of them.

Apple COULD fix this. But they don't bother. They haven't really cared for the users since Steve died.

I have set up rules properly (It s simple enough) and they were working fine... but they have stopped working a couple OSs ago. They are still not working in Sonoma. I have read many people complaining about this and it doesn't seem like it should be such a hard fix or so easy to malfunction.

Please advise if anything can be done.

Hello fcolonna,

Thank you for reaching out to Apple Support Communities, and we'll be happy to help in any way we can. We understand you're having issues with mail rules on Mac. Follow the steps here to make sure all is set correctly: Use rules to manage emails you receive in Mail on Mac - Apple Support

"Use rules to manage emails you receive in Mail on Mac

You can create rules that help you manage incoming email messages and automate tasks, such as replying to or deleting messages. For example, you can create a rule that highlights messages from a specific person, or that automatically moves messages from your inbox to other mailboxes.

1. In the Mail app  on your Mac, choose Mail > Settings, then click Rules.
2. To review an example of a rule, select a provided rule, then click Edit. To close the rule, click Cancel.
3. Click Add Rule, then type a name for the rule.
4. Indicate whether any or all of the conditions must be true for the rule to be applied to a message.
5. Specify the conditions.
6. To use different header fields in conditions, choose “Edit header list” from the bottom of the first pop-up menu. To add your own header, click the Add button  in the Message Headers window.
7. Choose actions to perform on messages that meet the conditions. To specify multiple actions, click the Add button .
8. You can use AppleScript scripts as rule actions.
9. When you’re done, click OK, then decide to apply rules to existing messages already in mailboxes or to new messages.
10. You can apply rules to existing messages later by choosing Message > Apply Rules.

If you have multiple rules, they’re applied in the order in which they appear in the list of rules; drag a rule up or down to change the order.

Mail stops applying rules to a message when it encounters the Stop Evaluating Rules action, or when a message is transferred to another mailbox by rules used on a mail server or computer or device synced to your computer.

If you use iCloud Drive, your rules are available on your other Mac computers that have iCloud Drive turned on and Mail selected in in iCloud Drive options. Files attached to rules, such as sound files or scripts, aren’t available. See Use iCloud Drive to store documents.

See also

Color-code emails in Mail on Mac

Use Smart Mailboxes in Mail on Mac"

We hope this helps.

Cheers!

Might try this...

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes.

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

Manually Rebuilding Spotlight via Terminal

If the aforementioned Spotlight control panel approach doesn’t spur a reindexation of the drive, you may need to initiate it manually through the command line. Open Terminal and use the following command string to do so:

sudo mdutil -E /

This basically asks for temporary super user status, which is why Terminal may ask you for your password (it may not if you’ve used a sudo command recently or are already logged in as a super user or root. The command asks the unix tool mdutil to reindex the spotlight database for everything on the computer, including external drives, mounted disk images, etc. To re-index only for a specific drive, use the /Volumes path. For example, for an external drive named “MiniMe,” the command would look like this:

sudo mdutil -i on /

Rebuilding a drive index can take a long time, so be prepared to wait whether you do it through the System Preference panel or the command line.

If still need be…

Open Terminal and run each of these one at a time

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -seed -lint -r -f -v -dump -domain local -domain system -domain user -domain network

killall Dock

sudo mdutil -E /

sudo mdutil -i on /