Using SpamSieve on multiple machines accessing the same IMAP accounts

I installed SpamSieve on my laptop and trained it well. It works great. I installed SpamSieve on my desktop machine, checking the same accounts, and I can’t get the same results as I get on my laptop. I have tried copying the training information from my laptop to my desktop per the FAQ answer, but that doesn’t seem to have worked either.

What should I do to have both machines have the same training material? Should I uninstall on the desktop, reinstall and use the training settings from the laptop? Should I uninstall on the desktop, stop using the laptop to check email for a while and reinstall SpamSieve on the desktop and train there?

To be clearer, I am running SpamSieve locally on the machines. I am not running it remotely. If that makes any sense :slight_smile:

What is the best way to make sure I get the results I get on the laptop on my desktop?

Thanks.

When you say that you don’t get the same results, what do you mean exactly? If you copy the training information and preferences, and if you use the same Mail rules and address book, SpamSieve will behave identically on the two Macs.

If you are using multiple Macs to check the same IMAP accounts, make sure that you have Mail set to move the spam to a local spam mailbox.

I do have the Mail set to move spam to the local spam mailbox.

I am not sure why I am not getting the same results. I would expect what you described. But I don’t get the same results. The filter is 99% or so accurate on my laptop, but on the desktop it is only about 30% accurate.

Is the 30% what’s reported in SpamSieve’s Statistics window, or what you’ve observed yourself? Given that the accuracy is so bad, my guess is that it’s not what SpamSieve itself is reporting, thus indicating a setup problem in Mail. Are you sure that the rules are setup the same way as on the laptop? If you still can’t get it to work, please e-mail me the SpamSieve log file as well as the file:

~/Library/Mail/MessageRules.plist

and I will investigate.

Michael: Sorry, I was guestimating those percentages. But I don’t know what to say. I checked the setup/installation and the the application is setup correctly. I have made sure no other rules are turned on in Mail.app’s preferences as well. I have shut down both Mail.app and SpamSieve on both machines and followed the instructions to copy the .plist and the application settings from the laptop to the desktop. The log files on each machine are still very different.

All i know is when I check email on the desktop nearly everything becomes spam, but if I check on my laptop, SpamSieve functions as I dream is should. Even better.

Since to my untrained eyes the log files for both machines look VERY different, which one should I send you when I email you? I am assuming you mean from the offending machine (desktop). And I assume the MessageRules.plist should come from there as well.

BTW, I have been reading this thread and I too have left SpamSieve running on two machines accidentally simultaneously. But the desktop is the only machine that have NEVER been as accurate as the laptop, where I originally installed (and trained SpamSieve)

Does the reported accuracy, since you installed it on the desktop (use the “Set Date…” button), approximately match your observed accuracy? It’s critical to know this, because if it does then the problem is with the training, but if it doesn’t the problem is with the setup.

What do you mean by “becomes spam”? Is it classifying good messages as spam, or letting the spam into the inbox?

Please send them from both Macs.

Accuracy on laptop is shown as 99.4%
Accuracy on desktop is shown as 99.4%

But that second number is far from accurate in my personal observation. When I say nearly all mail ends up as spam, I mean that it all ends up in the “Spam” folder on the desktop’s local machine that I created in the setup. I mark false positives as “train as good” and the next time I check email a similar message from the same person will be in the Spam folder again. Each time I train it as good and each time it seems to be the same results.

Email with files will be sent shortly after I post this.

The SpamSieve on your desktop has not filtered any messages. You can see this from the log because there are no “Predicted” entries, going all the way back to the beginning of the log in October 2006.

The problem is that (on the desktop) your SpamSieve rule in Mail is named “ SpamSieve” (with a space in front). In order for SpamSieve to be active, the name of the rule must start with “SpamSieve”. If it does not, Mail will treat the rule as an ordinary rule and not ask SpamSieve to examine the messages. Thus, it will do what the rule says: transfer every message to the Spam mailbox.

I recommend that you fix the name of the rule, then re-transfer the training files from the laptop so that they start out in sync.

Also, please delete the Mail rules on your desktop that transfer messages to the Junk/Spam mailboxes. It’s better to use SpamSieve’s blocklist to match particular kinds of spam messages, because if you use regular Mail rules it will be hard for you to know which messages SpamSieve has correctly classified, and thus you won’t know when to train it.

Thanks Michael. I have incorporated all of your changes and suggestions.

That was an embarrassing error to have. I think I copied and pasted from the web instructions and never noticed the extra space. Thanks again for your help.