Contributor
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31 Messages
Email Filter Rules Blues
I'm having a longstanding problem with the provided Filter Rules for sorting my incoming email. Please let me know if what I am trying to do should work and I am actually reporting a bug, or if there is even a way to accomplish what I am expecting with the rules as implemented.
First, I am expecting that email filter rules work from top to bottom. The arrow pointing down on the far right with the associated mouse-over tool-tip "Process Subsequent Rules" seems to support this assumption.
I then expect that, like a real world filter, items that are filtered out by one filter should not then pass through to a subsequent filter, as they have been dealt with - especially if that action is a "Move to Folder". But this is not the case, as those "moved" emails DO continue to flow through.
For example, if my first filter moves all emails including "support@" to a designated "Support" folder, no subsequent filter should be able to see/process an email from "support@microsquish"; yet if any subsequent filter now tries to match and move all emails including the "@microsquish" string into an "Unimportant from Microsquish" folder, any emails from "support@microsquish" are DUPLICATED in that folder.
In an effort to overcome this behavior, I have added to ALL my cascading filters a second Action after the first "Move to Folder" Action: "Discard". I would now expect that any emails that match my conditions are first moved into the designated 'Move to' folder, and then explicitly deleted, thus stopping them from being considered in the subsequent Filters.
But that doesn't work either.
Indeed, all original incoming emails are still considered when applying all subsequent filters. My final filter, which merely checks for a Sender/From containing "@" (everything left over after all previous filtering), and then moves those emails to a folder named "Filtered OUT" should only be able to see and compare those emails which did NOT match any of the previous explicitly "white-listed" conditions. But instead, my "Filtered OUT" folder contains duplicates of every single email I receive.
Someone please tell me there's actually a way to accomplish the behavior I'm expecting, and I'm just missing a checkbox somewhere...right?
Thank you.
Accepted Solution
user_f2a6e2
Contributor
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31 Messages
3 years ago
Being a stubborn SOB, I decided that the behavior I expected from an email filter was not crazy. To reiterate, I expect that just like multiple filters work in the real world, what is filtered out by the first filter Rule SHOULD NOT PASS to the subsequent filter Rule(s). Since we now know 'by design' Comcast's filters don't work that way, there should thus be an 'Apply to INBOX before processing subsequent Rules' option, which once enabled would apply each filter Rule to the inbox before continuing to the next rule in line top to bottom. As @thgdrvg points out, without any actual detailed instructions from Comcast, we're left guessing how *exactly* their filter Rules work and thus whether that is somehow possible. But being a programmer myself, I refused to believe that whoever programmed this would NOT have allowed a way for this more logical behavior to exist. "Never give up. Never surrender."
Well I'm happy to say my stubbornness paid off. Through further trial and error I discovered that their programmer(s) DID incorporate this ability, even if no one presently understands it. Here is exactly how to accomplish this:
As UN-intuitive as it is, in the Edit Rule window, for every Rule in your list, simply DIS-able the arrow pointing down on the far right whose associated mouse-over tool-tip says "Process Subsequent Rules..."
What?!?! Yes, I realize this action would seem to dictate that your subsequent Rules won't get processed, BUT THEY STILL DO. And they get processed in the order you'd expect, from top to bottom.
The difference between enabled and disabled on this confusingly labeled feature is that when enabled (a down arrow is displayed), it keeps your Inbox intact as it steps through the next filter in your filter list (the 'as intended' behavior @XfinityCSAEmail describes above), so an email that was acted upon is still free to match another filter Rule in line. But when DISABLED (a slashed circle is displayed), your Rule's actions appear to be applied to the Inbox before moving on to the next Rule. Voila. What is filtered 'out' (i.e. moved to another folder, deleted, or otherwise not expected to remain in the Inbox) by the first filter Rule DOES NOT PASS to the subsequent filter Rule(s).
To be very clear, I am moving my matches to specific folders I have created to "sort" my incoming mail, so once moved to its appropriate folder I do not WANT that email to match any other filter nor remain in my inbox. To ensure this, my typical filter Rule's Actions (all the way at the bottom of the Rule in the Edit Rule window) include both a 'Move to Folder' followed by a 'Discard' just to guarantee it is now unavailable (overkill, perhaps). This is exactly the behavior I desire, so I am (finally) ecstatic. But as @XfinityCSAEmail points out, you have to be very careful with your 'contains' filters. I do recommend reading the pointers in their post on this thread.
In this fashion, as I find 'Spam Filters' annoyingly unreliable, I have turned them off and instead built up a series of filters that 'White-List' ONLY the emails I know I care about. Anything left over is likely Spam, and I deal with it accordingly. The final filter Rule in my list moves all emails containing an '@' (everything still in my Inbox after processing my list) to a 'Probable SPAM' folder. A glance at that folder reveals whether I WANT to keep something unexpected, and when I find one, I simply add it to the appropriate filter Rule, or even make a new Rule just for that class of email.
My Inbox is now empty each morning, and I check my email by looking in the folders I've made, organized the way I want, to be read in the order I want. Such a pleasant experience.
I hope this post helps you do the same.
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XfinityCSAEmail
Official Employee
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1K Messages
3 years ago
Good afternoon,
When creating filters you want to usually deal with absolutes. For example, if you want to filter emails from a specific sender to a specific folder (even if its multiple email addresses) you will want to use the full email address rather than a blanketed word or portion of the email. For example if you create a rule for "contains" 2@ move to folder A and then create a new one that says "contains" 2 move to folder B then it will process the move to folder A and then to folder B because you have overlapping rules. Making the filter "contains" or even "matches" [Edited: "Personal Information"] move to folder A would solidify the rule and lets say you want to move an email from [Edited: "Personal Information"] to a different folder, same thing, but move to folder B would not apply the original rule.
The email filters by design act on any email in the mailbox (only exception being the spam, trash, and drafts folder). When you use blanket key phrases it is bound to start overlapping with other rules and filters you have set up. One thing to highlight is that when you mark something as "discard" it will delete the email - thus removing it entirely from your mailbox.
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thgdrvg
Regular Visitor
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2 Messages
3 years ago
What would be great is if comcast (and most other online purveyors) would actually provide detailed instructions of how their "Filter Rules" function. If such a thing exists, I'll heap kudos on comcast.
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