5.3   Automatically Deleting Old Spam Messages

Apple Mail

Mail has a feature to automatically delete old spam messages from the Junk mailbox. You can use this feature if you tell SpamSieve to put spam messages in the Junk mailbox instead of the Spam mailbox.

If you do this, be careful not to use the Junk and Not Junk buttons that will appear in Mail when the Junk mailbox is active; you should always use the SpamSieve - Train as Good and SpamSieve - Train as Spam commands instead. You can use the Customize Toolbar… command in Mail’s View menu to remove the Junk button from the toolbar. Also, if you select a message that SpamSieve has classified as spam, Mail will show a banner saying that you marked it as junk. Ignore this.

1. If you want to store your spam locally (On My Mac) you can skip this step. If you want to store your spam on the mail server, make sure that Mail knows which mailbox is your Junk mailbox. To do this, create a new mailbox under your account. Select it and choose Mailbox ‣ Use This Mailbox For ‣ Junk.

2. Open Mail’s Preferences window and click on Junk Mail. Make sure that Enable junk mail filtering is checked. Select Move it to the Junk mailbox. If Mail asks whether you want to move all the messages to the Junk mailbox, say No. Next, select Perform custom actions. Then click the Advanced… button and edit the rule such that the conditions don’t match any messages. For example, use these two conditions:

   • Message is addressed to my Full Name
   • Message is not addressed to my Full Name

   and set it to If all of the following conditions are met. Click OK to close the sheet. Do not make any further changes to the Junk Mail preferences.

3. Go to the Rules section of Mail’s preferences and change the SpamSieve rule to move the messages to the Junk mailbox instead of the Spam mailbox.

4. Choose SpamSieve - Change Settings from Mail’s Message menu and, when prompted, say that the name of your spam mailbox is Junk.

5. Go to the Mailbox Behaviors (or Special Mailboxes) tab of the Mail’s Accounts preferences and select a time interval for Delete junk messages when. You’ll need to repeat this for each account.

Note: Even though you are using the Junk mailbox, due to a bug in Mail, the Erase Junk Mail command may be disabled.

Entourage

You can set Entourage so that when it quits it will delete all the spam messages that are older than 7 days (or whichever interval you choose):

1. Choose Tools ‣ Run Schedule ‣ Edit Schedules.
2. Click the New button to create a schedule.
3. Set the name of the schedule to Delete Old Spam, the When to On Quit, and the Action to Delete Junk Mail from Junk E-mail (On My Computer).
4. Click OK to close the dialog.

Outlook

You can set Outlook so that when it quits it will delete all the spam messages that are older than 7 days (or whichever interval you choose):

1. Choose Tools ‣ Run Schedule ‣ Edit Schedules….
2. Click the + button to create a schedule.
3. Set the name of the schedule to Delete Old Spam, the When to On Quit, and the Action to Delete Junk Mail from Junk E-mail (On My Computer).
4. Click OK to close the dialog.

Postbox

See the Automatically delete junk mail older than setting in the Accounts preferences.

Thunderbird

See the Automatically delete junk mail older than setting in the Account Settings window.