Question on message filters

[Harry9876]

Apologies if this is a dumb question, but I couldn't find the answer anywhere.

I have a load of message filters set up on the email account where messages come in, most of which move the emails to various folders on "Local Folders". This happens automatically, when new emails are downloaded from the server.

I would prefer to have a simple filter on the email account which moves most (but not all) incoming emails to a sort of inbox on "Local Folders", then have filters on the "Local Folders" move the messages to the various subfolders.

My question is, how do I make the "Local Folders" filters activate automatically when "Local Folders" receives a new message from the email account filter ? (Or, after all the email account filters have finished running.)

(I have tried this, and it doesn't seem to work automatically - I have to go to the relevant folder in "Local Folders" and trigger Run Filters manually.)

[DanRaisch]

You don't. Message filters run automatically only new, incoming messages which arrive in the Inbox folder of the account the filter is set up for. Messages stored in folders other than the Inbox can only be effected by filters when those filters are triggered manually.

If you want all messages moved to the Local Folders inbox, why not consider setting that account up using the Global Inbox option? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Global_Inbox That would make new messages start out in the Local Folders inbox folder which MIGHT permit the filters to treat them as "newly arriving".

[Guest]

Thanks, Dan. I had considered the Global Inbox, but I very much like the Unified Folders option, so I was hoping to get that to work the way I want.

You say :

That would make new messages start out in the Local Folders inbox folder which MIGHT permit the filters to treat them as "newly arriving".

That's a bit worrying. Can I ask, under what circumstances will they be treated as newly arriving or not ?
Is there anything I can do to make sure that they are treated as newly arriving ?

[DanRaisch]

I think they will be treated as new, but I don't use the Global Inbox option so I can't say for certain whether they will or not. With the Global Inbox option, the Local Folders Inbox is "THE inbox" so it seems it should work, but, again, I don't have experience with it to say for sure.

[Guest]

Right, thanks. I'll experiment and report back.

[DanRaisch]

You're welcome, and good luck.

[zenxing]

I can't seem to find an answer to this question anywhere, and it seems similar to what's being asked here. I'm using Unified Folders and I want my Message Filters to run automatically on new messages that arrive in my Unified Inbox. Right now, I have to go to each of the IMAP accounts' inboxes separately and manually run the Message Filters. Yes, all filters are "enabled".

Is there any way at all to do this? Or, is there an alternative way to configure Thunderbird so I just have one Inbox for all my IMAP accounts, and the Message Filters run automatically?

Thanks for any help at all.

Jesse

[DanRaisch]

No and no. Although Unified Folders may make it appear that things are combined, each IMAP Inbox is a separate repository, with the data actually residing on the server. Unlike POP type accounts, the messages are not stored on the local computer for viewing and therefor the filters do not have access to all of those accounts at one time. You can set up the same filter definition for each account, or set it up for one account and copy the filter definition file from the one account to each of the others -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Filters_%28Thunderbird%29