Version 2.9.20 of SpamSieve is now available. This is a free update that includes the following changes:

General

• Made various changes to improve SpamSieve’s filtering accuracy.
• Apple’s server-side iCloud spam filter has recently become more aggressive. As a result, many people have been confused by the sudden increase in messages in the Junk mailbox (rather than SpamSieve’s Spam mailbox). iCloud’s spam filter cannot be turned off, but the Why does the “Junk” mailbox appear in Apple Mail? section of the manual and the new Consolidating Spam From Multiple Filters section explain some of the options for dealing with this.
• SpamSieve’s launch agent process no longer runs when Apple Mail is not running, which should reduce overall memory use.
• Dates in the log are now shown in the local time zone.
• Trained entries in the log now include the sender’s address.
• The Apple Mail plug-in installer now checks that file ownership is enabled on the volume containing your home folder. This is necessary for proper operation of SpamSieve’s launch agent and, thus, launching and training from Apple Mail.
• When the trial period is over, the alert now has a Help button that opens the instructions for uninstalling.
• The Uninstall Apple Mail Plug-In… command is now available even after the trial period has ended.
• Improved the fonts in the About and Software Update windows.
• Added accessibility labels in the Software Update new News windows.
• Added the following sections to the manual:
  • Checking the Airmail Setup
  • Consolidating Spam From Multiple Filters
  • Turning Off the FastMail Spam Filter
• Improved the following sections of the manual:
  • Can I delete spam messages that are in the spam folder?
  • Changing the Name of the Spam Mailbox
  • Checking the Airmail Setup
  • Checking the Apple Mail Setup
  • Checking the Outlook 2016 Setup
  • Checking the Postbox Setup
  • Consolidating Spam From Multiple Filters
  • Correct All Mistakes
  • Does SpamSieve launch automatically?
  • Does SpamSieve stop Web bugs?
  • Faster Apple Mail Training
  • How can I copy my training data to another machine?
  • How should I configure the junk filter on my mail server?
  • Setting Up Outlook 2016
  • Spam Message Colors in Apple Mail
  • Train SpamSieve whitelist
  • Turning Off the Gmail Spam Filter
  • Use Bayesian classifier
  • Use Mac OS X Address Book
  • What can I do if Apple Mail is crashing?
  • What can I do if my Spam mailbox in Apple Mail disappeared?
  • What can I do if the corpus file is damaged?
  • Why does SpamSieve always need an update when Mac OS X is updated?
  • Why does the “Junk” mailbox appear in Apple Mail?
  • Why is SpamSieve not catching my spam?
• Reinstalling a Fresh Copy is now its own section of the manual, and SpamSieve will direct you there if it finds that one of its files is missing.

AppleScript

• The Apple Mail - SaneBox and Apple Mail - Server Junk Mailbox scripts:
  • Can now be configured to move any color of spammy messages directly to the trash and to apply flag colors so that you can sort by spamminess.
  • Have an option to move the most spammy messages to trash.
  • Can now be saved as standalone applications to run on a more regular schedule than when run via a Mail rule.
• The Apple Mail - Remote Training script now has an option to mark the trained spam messages as read.
• The Apple Mail - SaneBox script now has a configurable mailbox name.
• The Apple Mail - Discard Spam script is better at handling errors from Mail.
• Added the Apple Mail - List Mailboxes script.
• The Copy Whitelist Addresses script can now copy blocklist addresses and now restricts itself to “Is Equal to” rules.
• Fixed an error reporting bug in the Apple Mail - Discard Spam script.
• Fixed a regression in the Apple Mail - Remote Training script.
• Fixed an error reporting bug in the Apple Mail - SaneBox script.

Error Handling

• SpamSieve will now recreate the log file’s folder if it unexpectedly disappears after the application has launched, perhaps due to CleanApp. If this affects you, SpamSieve will make a note in the Console log.
• Improved SpamSieve’s error handling and recovery when there is an error creating or updating the log file.
• The Uninstall Apple Mail Plug-In… command will now retry if there’s an error communicating with Mail and report a better error if it still doesn’t succeed.
• When training from Apple Mail, SpamSieve will now report a better error if it detects that the necessary SpamSieveHelper application is not running.
• If SpamSieve detects that one of its files is missing, i.e. that the application is damaged, it now presents a better error message.
• When there is an error reading the corpus or history database, the error alert now has a clickable Help button instead of inline URL text.
• The Entourage scripts can now log errors to Console.
• SpamSieve will now log an error if it’s not installed in the Applications folder, as this can prevent proper functioning with Airmail (due to sandbox restrictions).
• Improved the error message if Apple Mail can’t launch SpamSieve.
• Errors for corrupt files now link to the relevant Web pages that explain how to fix them.
• Improved the error message when you’re using a version of SpamSieve that’s too old for your version of Apple Mail.
• Improved error reporting when a temporary folder cannot be created.
• Improved the error message for incorrect serial numbers.
• SpamSieve now reports permissions information if there’s an error opening the statistics database.

Bug Fixes

• Worked around a bug where Microsoft Outlook does not always correctly return a message’s source. This could lead to spam messages being classified as good because SpamSieve had no information to work from. To get this fix, choose Install Outlook Scripts from the SpamSieve menu.
• Worked around a text conversion bug in Mac OS X 10.10.3.
• SpamSieve will no longer repeatedly try to fix a file’s owner if ownership is ignored on the volume.
• Fixed a bug where SpamSieve could report an internal error if it received an Apple event while in the process of quitting.
• Fixed a bug that could cause an internal error writing to SpamSieve’s log file when the application was quitting.
• Fixed a regression where the Outlook 14 installer didn’t properly migrate installed script files.
• Fixed a bug abbreviating long rules in the log.
• Date formatters now use the POSIX local where appropriate.

SpamSieve 2.9.20 works with Mac OS X 10.6 through 10.10 and requires an e-mail client. Older versions are available for older operating systems. For information about previous releases of SpamSieve, please see the version history.