SpamSieve includes an experimental feature to save backup copies of the
messages that it has processed. This includes new messages that were
automatically filtered through it, as well as messages that you’ve manually
trained. A backup can be useful because:
- A small percentage of users are running into bugs in Apple Mail on
macOS 10.15 that can cause messages to be deleted or turn blank when
they’re moved. The bugs can manifest with or without SpamSieve
installed. They can apply to messages that you drag and drop, as well
as those that are moved by rules or by AppleScript.
- Even if your Mac and its mail program are functioning normally, another
computer or device that accesses the same mail account could
inappropriately move or delete some of the messages. These changes
would then be synced back to your Mac.
To enable the backup:
- Click here to enable
automatic backups of good messages. Click here to turn off the backup.
- Click here to enable
automatic backups of spam messages. Click here to turn off the backup. You
probably don’t want to back up actual spam messages, but this could be
useful if you are worried about SpamSieve incorrectly classifying a
good message as spam and then something happening to the message before
you can train it as good.
The backups are stored in the folders:
/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/SpamSieve/Good Messages
/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/SpamSieve/Spam Messages
There is one .eml file per message. The name of file is the message’s
identifier from SpamSieve’s log. You can find a particular message by
viewing or searching SpamSieve’s log to find the right identifier. Or you can
sort the backup folder by date to easily view recent messages. This can also
be useful if you want to delete older message backups that you no longer want
to store.
Once you find a message’s backup you can:
- View the message in the Finder using Quick Look.
- Double-click the file to open it in Apple Mail. You can use the
Message ‣ Copy Message menu command to copy it into a mailbox in
Mail’s data store.
- Import the message into EagleFiler, which can view and search
.eml files as well as merge them into the standard mbox format.