How to make filters work across multiple email accounts

[Brody24]

I have quite a few filters written that I would like to run across every email account in Thunderbird. ( I have 7 of them). IOW I don't want to copy or rewrite the filters for each email account.

Is this possible?

Thanks.

[DanRaisch]

You can copy the file msgFilterRules.dat from the account where the filters are initially created to other accounts. See this articel -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Filters_%28Th ... ng_filters

[Brody24]

DanRaisch: Thanks for the info.

I'm hoping not to do this, since if I make a change or a new rule, I have to do the entire copy process again.

So I'm taking this to mean there is NO WAY to run ALL FILTERS against all emails automatically? Boy, I can't imagine why this can't be done..but so be it.

Thanks again.

[tanstaafl]

The restriction is because filters are meant to be account specific, not global. If your 7 accounts were POP accounts configured to use a global inbox that would be one way to use a single set of filters for every account. There is no equivalent for IMAP accounts, or for a mixture of POP and IMAP accounts. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Global_Inbox

You could try replacing six of the msgFilterRules.dat files with a symlink to the remaining msgFilterRules.dat file. That will fool Thunderbird into thinking there are six files when there is only one. However, that might not work if Thunderbird creates a file lock. You'd have to experiment. See https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/c ... -or-linux/ for information about creating and using symlinks.

However, I think a much easier solution would be to create a batch file that copies the contents of the master msgFilterRules.dat over the other files. Run it after you edit a message filter, and have exited Thunderbird.