Bummer. SpamSieve takes a Vacation

My friend and I have SpamSieve 2.9.19 installed on two separate Macs, both running OS X 10.9.5. We have been using SpamSieve for many months to filter Apple Mail. It works flawlessly most of the time.

However every month or so, it just quits completely and lets dozens of spam messages through within a few-hour span. This happens to both of us independently.

Neither of us has changed our systems, added software, or done anything except operate in our normal manner. Then, “BAM” SpamSieve just goes on a vacation! Any ideas as to why this happens?

No, I’ve not heard other reports of that happening. The first step is to follow the instructions on this page to determine whether the problem is that Mail didn’t ask SpamSieve to filter the messages or whether SpamSieve did filter them but thought they were good.

Spam Sieve takes a Vacation

Thank you for your response. The frustrating part of this problem is that 29 days out of 30 SpamSieve works fine—catching several thousand spams. Then for some reason, it lets a few dozen spams through. Then it starts working again. During that “vacation” that SpamSieve took, I didn’t do anything unusual. So, why did SpamSieve just decide not to work for a few hours? I will follow the directions in your reply and get back with results in a day or so. Much appreciated.

We’ll have to see what you find in the logs. When there are spam messages in your inbox, are they colored? Are they mentioned as “Predicted” in the SpamSieve log? Are any errors reported in the Console log? Did your Mac recently wake from sleep?

SpamSieve doesn’t really decide to do anything, because it only acts in response to Mail telling it that there is a new message to filter. So one possibility is that Mail is not doing this because it doesn’t think there are new messages. Or perhaps something (e.g. a VPN) is blocking communication from Mail to SpamSieve.