Normally, SpamSieve uses a plug-in and a special rule to move spam
messages to the spam mailbox. In some circumstances, you may prefer to use an
alternate setup:
- There’s a bug in macOS 10.15, affecting a small number of customers, which
can prevent messages caught by the normal SpamSieve rule from moving to
the spam mailbox, leaving them colored in the inbox.
- You may be using a pre-release version of macOS, which is not yet
supported by the SpamSieve plug-in.
- You may prefer not to install the SpamSieve plug-in, e.g. to troubleshoot
a Mail crash or a potential conflict with another Mail plug-in.
In such situations, you can uncheck the SpamSieve rule in Mail’s settings
(or skip creating it in the first place) and instead set up a script rule:
- Choose Settings… from the Mail menu and click the Rules
button in the toolbar.
- Click the Add Rule button.
- Change the description to Move If SpamSieve Spam.
- Change the From (or Any Recipient, prior to macOS 10.12) pop-op menu
to say Every Message. (Every Message is near the bottom of the
menu.)
- Change the Move Message pop-up menu to say Run AppleScript.
- Next to Run AppleScript, change the No Script Selected pop-up
menu to say Move If SpamSieve Spam. (The script should be
pre-installed when you install SpamSieve’s plug-in. It’s also available
for download here.)
- Now click OK to close the rule and save your changes. Mail may ask if
you want to apply the rule; click Don’t Apply. (If you were to click
Apply now, or in the future when editing a rule, that would filter all
of the currently displayed old messages through SpamSieve, and you would be
obliged to correct any mistakes.)
Disadvantages of the Move If SpamSieve Spam script rule compared with the
regular SpamSieve rule:
- The script rule is slower.
- With the SpamSieve rule, Mail will not apply subsequent rules if the
message is spam. With a rule that runs the script, Mail will keep
applying the rest of the rules.