Junk messages not moving for junk folder

Please excuse the long reply, but trying to make sure I give enough info.

Running OS 10.4.10, Entourage 11.3.9, POP account, SpamSieve, 2.6.4

On three of the machines in our office, the rules do not run as they should.

The way our office servers are setup, I have two separate accounts for each computer, one for interoffice email and one for email outside the office. Prior to SpamSieve I created a rule for emails that we received from outside our office. If the emails were from outside the office, the rule, called External, would place the emails into a folder called External. Interoffice emails would go into a separate folder called Inbox. Once I installed SpamSieve, I created the two SpamSieve rules, following the setup in the PDF manual and rechecked it about 100 times now :slight_smile:. The rules are set up as follows:

Rule #1 – SpamSieve – Move If Spam
Rule #2 – SpamSieve – Move Messages
Rule #3 – External

The box Do not apply other rules to message that meet these criteria in the Move If Spam rule is unchecked and the AppleScript is SpamSieve – Move is Spam/CmM.

When emails are received, they go to either Inbox or External and they are filtered correctly. The external emails that are junk are marked junk by SpamSieve, but they stay in the External folder; they do not move to the junk email folder. If I select the junk emails and manually run the Move If Spam rule, they move to the junk email folder. If I disable rules 2 and 3, and check the do not apply other rules to message in rule #1, junk is moved to the junk folder, but then any emails received outside our office go into the inbox for internal emails. Not a huge problem, but it’s a nice feature to have emails filtered.

I have reinstalled the Entourage scripts and also deleted and recreated the rules. I ran the SpamSieve - Change Settings script.

On my machine, I have a three additional rules besides the ones listed above as well as an additional account, and they are filtered correctly by Entourage and SpamSieve.

I checked the logs and they look fine, although I’m not sure if there is something specific I need to look for.

Junk E-mail Protection under Entourage Tools is set to none and there is nothing in the Mailing List Manager.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Are the rules in that order? If you had “External” above “SpamSieve - Move Messages” that would explain why the external messages were marked as junk but moved to the External folder instead of the Junk E-mail folder.

Another idea: perhaps you have more than one Junk category. Maybe “Move If Spam” is marking the e-mails using one category but “Move Messages” is not being applied because the Junk category in its criterion is different.

You could check whether the external messages that aren’t going to the Junk E-mail folder are “Predicted: Spam” in the log.

Junk messages not moving to junk folder

External is third

I checked categories and only one junk category listed. Also, only one junk folder.

I checked the log and it has them as “predicted:Spam”

Basically, if all three rules are enabled, it stays in the External folder and does not move to junk although it’s marked as junk. If the only rule one, Move if Spam is enabled, they move to junk like they should.

Would trashing the c-command preference or the entourage preference do anything?

Why do you say “stays”? That implies that it was in External and didn’t move to Junk, but I would think the problem is that it was in your inbox and moved to External instead of to Junk.

What happens if you select one of the junk messages in External and choose Message > Apply Rule > SpamSieve - Move Messages?

No.

Since the email program has two accounts, the internal is the default account so messages are first sent there. For example, today 300 messages were received when I opened Entourage. The internal folder showed a varying number of unread emails as SpamSieve and Entourage worked to filter these emails. On my machine, when all 300 are received and filtered, I have my internal office email in my internal folder, I have my emails received outside the office in my External email, and any junk email is in the Junk folder. The exception on my machine is that I also have an office account that is used to receive emails/messages from our website. I also have two Apple forums folders and have rules set up so these are filtered into their respective folders. This is what I don’t understand – my Entourage has three accounts and six rules for Entourage and SpamSieve to filter through and it does a great job.

However, on the four machines that I have issues with, the emails are filtered depending on what rules I have enabled. If I only have Move If Spam rule enabled, then the junk emails go to the junk folder like it should, but everything else stays in the internal folder because that’s the end of the rules.

If I enable all three rules, these emails are received first to the internal folder and any outside emails, junk or not, is sent to the external folder. The junk emails are marked as junk, but are left in the external folder.

If I select the junk that is in the External folder and manually apply the rule, Move If Spam, it does move. But as stated above, that’s only if I have have all three rules enabled is when the junk stays in the external folder. This has me completely baffled. I have the box unchecked “Do not apply other rules to messages that meet these criteria. Did you want me to send you pictures of the setup?

Thanks for your help.

The default account is the account that Entourage uses when you create a new message. It has nothing to do with which folder received messages go in.

Yes, please send pictures of the rules and the rule list.

I’m attaching five pictures:

The three rules enabled with individual pictures of each rule. Please note the External and Move Messages rules the box “Do not apply other rules to messages that meet this criteria” is actually shaded, not selected.

The list of the rules that are enabled and in the order I have them set up as

I also attached a picture of the external folder showing junk emails the came in which were marked as junk but not moved to the junk folder.

The problem is that your “SpamSieve - Move Messages” rule looks like:

If all criteria are met
Category Is Junk
Category Is Uncertain Junk

Messages classified by SpamSieve will have one category or the other, never both, so this rule’s actions will never be executed. That’s why the spam messages are being processed by the next rule (External).

The rule shown in the manual says:

If all criteria are met
Category Is Junk

Your rule should either look like that, or like:

If any criteria are met
Category Is Junk
Category Is Uncertain Junk

Junk messages not moving to junk folder
Ugh!!! Since the rules were working fine separately but not together, I knew I was missing something simple. I checked my Move Messages rule on my machine and I have it set if ANY criteria are met Category is Uncertain Junk and Junk.

Thank you so much!

I’m off to change the rules :slight_smile: