Beta 3
Beta 2
Beta 1
SpamSieve 3.0.5 is a free update for those who have already purchased the SpamSieve 3.0 upgrade. If you’re using SpamSieve 2 and haven’t upgraded yet, the easiest way is to first let SpamSieve install the new version. At launch, it will show the Purchase window, and you can click the Check Upgrade Options button to get the upgrade discount without having to enter your old serial number.
SpamSieve 3.0.4 is a free update for those who have already purchased the SpamSieve 3.0 upgrade. If you’re using SpamSieve 2 and haven’t upgraded yet, the easiest way is to first let SpamSieve install the new version. At launch, it will show the Purchase window, and you can click the Check Upgrade Options button to get the upgrade discount without having to enter your old serial number.
SpamSieve 3.0.3 is a free update for those who have already purchased the SpamSieve 3.0 upgrade. If you’re using SpamSieve 2 and haven’t upgraded yet, the easiest way is to first let SpamSieve install the new version. At launch, it will show the Purchase window, and you can click the Check Upgrade Options button to get the upgrade discount without having to enter your old serial number.
SpamSieve 3.0.2 is a free update for those who have already purchased the SpamSieve 3.0 upgrade. If you’re using SpamSieve 2 and haven’t upgraded yet, the easiest way is to first let SpamSieve install the new version. At launch, it will show the Purchase window, and you can click the Check Upgrade Options button to get the upgrade discount without having to enter your old serial number.
SpamSieve 3.0.1 is a free update for those who have already purchased the SpamSieve 3.0 upgrade. If you’re using SpamSieve 2 and haven’t upgraded yet, the easiest way is to first let SpamSieve install the new version. At launch, it will show the Purchase window, and you can click the Check Upgrade Options button to get the upgrade discount without having to enter your old serial number.
SpamSieve 3.0 brought a new way of integrating with Apple Mail—using a Mail extension—that’s compatible with macOS 14 Sonoma. Most customers have had success with this simpler system, where there’s no plug-in to install or rule to set up. Unfortunately, some customers encountered a macOS bug where Apple Mail stops sending new messages to SpamSieve’s Mail extension. This would cause spam messages to be left in the inbox, not because SpamSieve thought they were good, but because it hadn’t actually seen them.
We were aware of this problem affecting a small percentage of customers, and SpamSieve 3.0 included a built-in workaround: you could enable the Filter spam messages in other mailboxes feature and select your inboxes, and then SpamSieve would periodically check them for any new messages that Mail hadn’t sent to the extension. This worked, but there were a few downsides. You had to know—or see in the Log window or FAQ—that you needed to configure this. Also, there could be a slight delay before SpamSieve would detect the new messages; you could optionally enable a green flag to indicate to you when a message in the inbox had, in fact, been processed.
The main focus of SpamSieve 3.0.1 is improving this workaround so that everyone can get their mail filtered, even when Apple Mail is misbehaving. SpamSieve 3.0.1 adds a Check inboxes for new messages not sent to Mail extension feature that will automatically filter all of your inboxes, without your having to configure anything. Currently, this feature only kicks in if your inbox has fewer than 5,000 messages. We found that trying to read a larger inbox could cause Mail to freeze. If there are too many messages in the inbox, SpamSieve will skip it and tell you this in the Settings ‣ Apple Mail ‣ Setup window and in the Log window. Filtering will automatically resume if you move some messages to the Archive mailbox (or to another mailbox that you create, such as Inbox2) to get below the limit.
We understand that needing to move messages is not ideal, but most customers are below the limit and we wanted to get the fix to them as soon as possible. If you have a fast Mac, it may be able to handle a higher limit, and you can adjust this in the esoteric preferences. For SpamSieve 3.0.2, we’re working on another way of accessing the messages, which will work for larger inboxes and with a much shorter delay.
To be clear, all of this only applies for customers impacted by the macOS bug that prevents new messages from being sent to SpamSieve’s Mail extension. For most people, Mail does send messages to the extension for filtering. If your inbox has a large number of messages but is being filtered properly by the extension, you can ignore any error messages that SpamSieve reports about there being too many messages. The error just means that SpamSieve couldn’t double-check that all the new messages were processed.
SpamSieve 3.0 is a major upgrade. It costs $39.99 for new users (no subscription), $19.99 for previous SpamSieve owners, and is free for people who purchased SpamSieve 2.x on or after January 1, 2023. There’s a 30-day fully-featured trial for new users and upgraders. If you’re updating from SpamSieve 2, SpamSieve 3 will start out with no license information shown, but it still knows your serial number for the previous version. You can just click the Check Upgrade Options button in the Purchase window to take you to the store and automatically apply the upgrade discount.
Added support for Apple Mail on the forthcoming macOS 12.0. (An additional update was required due to late changes in Monterey Developer Beta 6.) We recommend updating SpamSieve before updating to Monterey. SpamSieve 2.9.45 should automatically update the installed version of its Apple Mail plug-in, however if you don’t see the SpamSieve commands in Apple Mail’s Message menu, be sure to choose Install Apple Mail Plug-In from the SpamSieve menu and to enable the plug-in.
Made various changes to improve SpamSieve’s filtering accuracy.
On macOS 10.15 and later, we now recommend configuring Apple Mail and SpamSieve to move spam messages to the special All Junk mailbox rather than to the Spam mailbox. This simplifies many setup procedures and works around some Mail bugs that, in rare cases, can cause spam messages that SpamSieve has caught to appear in the inbox as well in as the Spam mailbox or to be deleted instead of moved to the Spam mailbox.
New installations of SpamSieve will use the Junk mailbox by default, and the manual has been rewritten with this new setup in mind.
If you are already using SpamSieve with a Spam mailbox and are not encountering the bugs mentioned above, you can continue with your current setup. It will keep working the same way as before, without your having to change anything.
The “Switching From the Spam Mailbox to the Junk Mailbox” section of the manual explains all of this in more detail and describes how you can update an existing SpamSieve setup if desired.
When you enter Deleted Messages as the spam mailbox name for training in Change Settings (Apple Mail), SpamSieve now moves the messages to the account-specific trash mailbox instead of to the local one, working around a macOS bug in that could cause the message to be deleted instead of moved.
Added the “Separating Spam Caught by SpamSieve and Server Filters” section of the manual.
Improved the following sections of the manual:
Added the Apple Mail - Rescue Good Messages script, which moves good messages that were incorrectly caught by a server junk filter from the Junk mailbox to the inbox. This is similar to the old Apple Mail - Server Junk Mailbox script but is easier to set up because you can just install the script file without having to edit it first.
The Apple Mail - Remote Training script now works when SpamSieve is configured to use the special Junk mailbox. In such cases, you can now download the script and use it directly. There is no need to edit it, as with previous versions.
The Apple Mail - SaneBox script now works when SpamSieve is configured to use the special Junk mailbox.
The Apple Mail - Move If Spam script now works when SpamSieve is configured to use the special Junk mailbox.
Improved the error reporting when you’ve launched an incomplete copy of SpamSieve from a Carbon Copy Cloner SafetyNet folder.
Streamlined the flow of using SpamSieve with Apple Mail on macOS 10.14. SpamSieve does a better of job of guiding you through the Mojave security changes to make setup as easy as possible. For the smoothest experience, we recommend updating to SpamSieve 2.9.33 before you update your Mac to macOS 10.14.
On macOS 10.14, it is possible for an Apple Mail plug-in to be installed but not yet enabled. When SpamSieve’s plug-in is not enabled, the SpamSieve rule(s) in Mail cannot function properly and may move new good messages to the spam mailbox without consulting SpamSieve. SpamSieve now protects you from this by automatically deactivating the rules if it notices that the plug-in is disabled. Once you’ve enabled the plug-in, it reactivates the rule(s) for you.
For completeness, we mention that there is a chance that Mail will move some messages before SpamSieve can deactivate the rule(s), e.g. because Mail downloaded them while SpamSieve was launching or because you declined when SpamSieve requested access to control Mail. If you end up with some good messages in the spam mailbox that are uncolored (because Mail moved them without consulting SpamSieve), you can just drag them back to your inbox.
If you want to fully prevent messages from being moved to the spam mailbox, you can manually deactivate (uncheck) the SpamSieve rule(s) in Mail’s preferences until you know that the plug-in is loaded (i.e. you see the SpamSieve menu commands in Mail’s Message menu). However, most users will find it easier to let SpamSieve manage the rule(s) for them.
If you have previously used SpamSieve with Apple Mail but are now using a different mail client, you can choose Uninstall Apple Mail Plug-In… from the SpamSieve menu in order to prevent SpamSieve from reminding you to enable the Mail plug-in.
If the Uninstall Apple Mail Plug-In… command can’t remove the Mail rules because it lacks Automation access on macOS 10.14, it will now proceed with uninstalling the other items and ask you to remove the rules manually rather than stopping with an error.
SpamSieve now supports the Hardened Runtime on macOS 10.14.
SpamSieve is now notarized by Apple.
The former “Advanced Outlook Setup for Large Inboxes” (which uses the InboxSpamSieve folder) is now the standard setup described in the “Setting Up Outlook 365” section of the manual. This setup makes Outlook more responsive and provides for more accurate filtering when setting up SpamSieve for the first time. If you are already successfully using Outlook 365 with SpamSieve, the old setup is still supported, so you don’t have to change anything.
Improved the following sections of the manual:
Reduced the sizes of some large screenshots in the HTML manual so that the text is more easily readable.
Fixed a bug where some screenshots in the PDF manual were displayed at double size instead of at Retina resolution.
Removed support for legacy mail clients that no longer work on SpamSieve’s supported macOS versions: Claris Emailer, Eudora, Outlook Express, and Thunderbird 2.x.