MailMate not learning whitelist or blocklist

I have set up MailMate [1.9.4(r5238)] with SpamSieve (2.9.24) as per the SpamSieve manual. Despite multiple trainings, and many weeks of use, messages marked as “good” are flagged as spam, and vice versa. Any idea how to trouble shoot this?

Please see:

I have consulted all the above. Here is an example: Mail from Wells Fargo Online (address = alerts@notify.wellsfargo.com) is consistently marked as junk, despite the log stating “matched rule <From (address) Is Equal to “alerts@notify.wellsfargo.com”> in SpamSieve whitelist”. The message has not been read on any other device, nor has it been flagged by the mail server (fastmail).

OS X 10.10.5 (14F1713) Kernel Version:Darwin 14.5.0

Please let me know if there is additional information that might be helpful.

OS X 10.10.5 (14F1713) Kernel Version:Darwin 14.5.0

I have consulted all the above. The messages have not been read on any other device, nor have they been flagged by the mail server (fastmail). A couple of examples:
(1) Messages from mailer@doodle.com are consistently flagged as junk, yet the log says “matched rule <From (address) Is Equal to “mailer@doodle.com”> in SpamSieve whitelist”
(2) Messages from ebay@ebay.com are consistently flagged as junk, yet the log says “matched rule <From (address) Is Equal to “ebay@ebay.com”> in SpamSieve whitelist”

How do you know that they were not flagged as junk by the mail server’s filter?

Assuming that you have correctly matched the messages to the log entries, SpamSieve did not classify those messages as spam. So I would look for whether you have any server or MailMate rules that might have done this. It might also help to enable some MailMate debug logging.

I assume they are not, because they do not appear in the spam folder on fastmail’s web interface. I have set up debug logging, will report all I find. In the meantime, here is another example of messages that were read on no other device, and are flagged despite the whitelist entry.

From: appleid@id.apple.com
Reason: P(spam)=0.000[0.000], bias=-0.519, H:X-Sent-To(0.000), x-sent-to:%(0.000), x-sent-to:%(0.000), x-sent-to:^long-2-30(0.000), x-sent-to:^long-2-30(0.000), x-sent-to:^long-2-50(0.000), x-sent-to:^long-2-50(0.000), C:paragraphs(0.000), U:appleid(0.000), U:appleid(0.000), I:icloud(0.000), I:icloud(0.000), U:icloud(0.000), U:icloud(0.000), U:gh(0.000)
Subject: Your Apple ID information has been updated.
From: appleid@id.apple.com
Actions: added rule <From (address) Is Equal to “appleid@id.apple.com”> to SpamSieve whitelist, added rule <From (address) Is Equal to “appleid_usen@email.apple.com”> to SpamSieve whitelist
Subject: Your Apple ID information has been updated.
From: appleid@id.apple.com
Subject: Your receipt from Apple.
From: no_reply@email.apple.com
no_reply@email.apple.com
) matched rule <From (address) Is Equal to “no_reply@email.apple.com”> in SpamSieve whitelist
Subject: Your receipt from Apple.
From: no_reply@email.apple.com
Subject: Your Apple ID was used to sign in to iCloud via a web browser.
Subject: Your receipt from Apple.
From: no_reply@email.apple.com
no_reply@email.apple.com
) matched rule <From (address) Is Equal to “no_reply@email.apple.com”> in SpamSieve whitelist

That is an incorrect assumption because, separate from moving the messages to the Spam mailbox, FastMail can mark in the message’s headers that it thinks it’s spam (but not spammy enough to move it). It’s also possible that it’s setting the IMAP junk flag.

By the way, could you clarify what you mean when you say that the message is flagged as spam in MailMate? Is there a number for the Spam Score?

I am searching the header information, but I am not sure what to look for. Would you guide me?

By the way, could you clarify what you mean when you say that the message is flagged as spam in MailMate? Is there a number for the Spam Score?

Is this the information you are referring to? Reason: P(spam)=0.000[0.000], bias=-0.519

One more piece of (potentially useful) information: I almost never have problems such as these using Mail.app.

Are there any headers that start with X-Spam?

No, I was referring to this column in MailMate:

MailMate Spam Score.png

And also asking you where you see that the message was marked as spam.

Are you using the same mail account with MailMate and Mail simultaneously?

Yes. X-Spam-score: 99, for example. For an address repeatedly whitelisted.

No, I was referring to this column in MailMate:

I now activated this column, and the spam score matches that in the header (As expected).

And also asking you where you see that the message was marked as spam.

It is in MailMate’s Junk folder, were its junk state is set to “junk”/

Are you using the same mail account with MailMate and Mail simultaneously?

I am not.

This means that a server filter classified the message as spam. I’m not sure why MailMate is using this instead of the score from SpamSieve. I will contact the developer.

Thank you. And thank you for your patient assistance.

The developer says that MailMate only moves messages if SpamSieve says they’re spam, and it won’t take other headers into consideration. However, it’s possible that you have your own rule in MailMate that’s doing something. He suggests that you could send in the file:

~/Library/Application Support/MailMate/Mailboxes.plist

to check for any such rules.

Attached (I had to change the extension to txt). Thanks!

I’m starting to think this may be just a display confusion. When you find one of these messages that SpamSieve’s log says it classified as good, which mailbox is it in? The MailMate developer reminded me that the Spam Score column is supposed to show the score from the server junk filter. There is a separate SpamSieve Score column that should match what you see in SpamSieve’s log. And whether the message was moved to the Junk mailbox should correspond with the SpamSieve Score column being 50 or higher.

I am not sure I fully understand your question/point, but here is my best effort at a response.
My main issue is with messages that I whitelist, but that repeatedly revert to junk status, with a SpamSieve score >50 (99, for example). These messages are in MailMate’s Junk folder.

The main point I was trying to make is that there are two different columns in MailMate that show spam scores. For the messages in question, could you give some examples of what both of these columns say?

Secondly, I’m curious about the fact that you said the messages are in MailMate’s Junk folder but that they are not in FastMail’s. The messages should sync and appear in the same folder everywhere.

(apologies for the delayed response.) One of the messages I repeatedly whitelist has a Spam Score = 0 and a SpamSieve Score = 100

Secondly, I’m curious about the fact that you said the messages are in MailMate’s Junk folder but that they are not in FastMail’s. The messages should sync and appear in the same folder everywhere.

I misspoke. Of course the message appears in both folder.

What does SpamSieve’s log say the score is (the number in parentheses after “Predicted:”)?