2.6.1   Granting Full Disk Access

As discussed in the Security & Privacy Access section, SpamSieve needs Full Disk Access in order to fully function.

To Grant Full Disk Access on macOS 13 Ventura

1. Go to System Settings ‣ Privacy & Security ‣ Full Disk Access. (You can also click here to go directly to Full Disk Access.)

   

2. Click the + button indicated by the red arrow and choose SpamSieve from your Applications folder. Click Quit & Reopen if applicable. SpamSieve should now appear in the list as checked.

3. Double-click the SpamSieve icon to relaunch it if it is not already open.

To Grant Full Disk Access on macOS 10.14 Through macOS 12

1. Go to the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences and click on the Privacy tab. Then scroll down and click on Full Disk Access. (You can also click here to go directly to Full Disk Access.)

   

2. If the lock button in the lower left corner of the window is locked, click on it, enter your Mac’s login password, and click Unlock so that you are allowed to make changes.

3. Click the + button and choose SpamSieve from your Applications folder. Click Quit Now if applicable. SpamSieve should now appear in the list as checked.

4. Double-click the SpamSieve icon to relaunch it.

Troubleshooting Full Disk Access

In rare cases, SpamSieve may not appear in the Full Disk Access list after you add it. First, try restarting your Mac. You can also enter this command in Terminal:

tccutil reset SystemPolicyAllFiles

to reset the system’s database of Full Disk Access privileges and then try adding SpamSieve again.

If you still aren’t able to add SpamSieve, see the Troubleshooting Privacy Access section.

2.6.2   Granting Automation Access

As discussed in the Security & Privacy Access section, SpamSieve needs Automation access in order to fully function.

macOS will automatically ask you when SpamSieve needs to be able to control an application. It will show an alert, and you should click the OK button.

If you accidentally click Don’t Allow and deny SpamSieve access to control an application, macOS will remember this and may not ask you again. However, you can fix this by manually granting access.

To Grant Automation Access on macOS 13 Ventura

1. Go to System Settings ‣ Privacy & Security ‣ Automation. (You can also click here to go directly to Automation.)

   

2. Click the switch(es) under SpamSieve.

To Grant Automation Access on macOS 10.14 Through macOS 12

1. Go to System Settings ‣ Security & Privacy ‣ Privacy ‣ Automation. (You can also click here to go directly to Automation.)

   

2. Checking the box(es) under SpamSieve.

Troubleshooting Automation Access

It may help just to restart your Mac.

You can enter this command in Terminal:

tccutil reset AppleEvents

to reset the system’s database of Automation privileges. Then macOS will ask you again the next time SpamSieve needs access, and you can click OK. If it still doesn’t ask you to grant access, it may help to restart your Mac again or use the maintenance feature of Onyx.

If it still doesn’t work, see the Troubleshooting Privacy Access section.

2.6.3   Troubleshooting Privacy Access

If macOS doesn’t remember the Security & Privacy Access that you granted:

Try Resetting the TCC Service

Try the tccutil reset commands as described in Granting Full Disk Access or Granting Automation Access.

Try Reinstalling the Application

Make sure that the application file is not damaged, e.g. by reinstalling a fresh copy. Also, make sure that you are not modifying the application package, e.g. editing its Info.plist file to try to hide the Dock icon.

Try Resetting the Privacy Database

If it still doesn’t work, you may need to reset the entire privacy database:

1. First, we will temporarily turn off System Integrity Protection so that we have access to delete the database. You may want to print these instructions or write them down so that you have access to them while rebooting your Mac.

2. Restart your Mac in Recovery Mode. The steps for doing this depend on which type of processor your Mac has:

   • On an Intel-based Mac, click on the Apple menu and choose Restart…. Hold down the Command and R keys so that your Mac will reboot in Recovery Mode.
   • On an Apple Silicon–based Mac, click on the Apple menu and choose Shut Down…. Press and hold the power button on your Mac until you see “Loading startup options.” Click Options, then click Continue, then click Continue again.

3. From the Utilities menu, choose Terminal.

4. Type csrutil disable and press Return.

5. Click on the Apple menu and choose Restart. This is necessary for the SIP change to take effect.

6. Drag the file:

   /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db
   

   to the trash. (See How can I open the Library folder? if you have trouble finding it.)

7. You can then repeat Steps 2–5, typing csrutil enable instead, in order to turn SIP back on.

Try Reinstalling macOS

If it still doesn’t work, reinstalling macOS takes a while but always seems to fix the problem.

3.1.1   Enabling and Updating the Apple Mail Plug-In

After you install the plug-in for Apple Mail or SpamSieve auto-updates it to a newer version, Mail might not load the plug-in until you enable it. (Enabling the plug-in is not necessary on macOS 10.13 and earlier.)

To Enable the Plug-In

1. Quit Mail if it’s open.

2. Launch Mail and choose Settings… from the Mail menu.

3. Click on the General tab.

4. Click the Manage Plug-ins… button at the bottom of the window.

5. Make sure that SpamSieve.mailbundle is checked. Click the Allow Access button if Mail asks about that. (If SpamSieve.mailbundle isn’t in the list, please see the If the Apple Mail Plug-In Doesn’t Appear in the List or Doesn’t Stay Enabled section).

   

6. Click Apply and Restart Mail. (If SpamSieve.mailbundle was already checked, Apply and Restart Mail will be disabled and you can just click Cancel.)

If Mail Reports “Incompatible Plug-ins Disabled”

The newest version of SpamSieve is normally compatible with the newest version of macOS. Please make sure that you have updated. The latest information about this will be posted on the support page. Sometimes Mail erroneously reports that the SpamSieve plug-in is incompatible because other incompatible plug-ins were found (in that case, just restart Mail) or because of a problem with Mail’s own files (in that case, see Resetting Mail’s Private Plug-Ins Folder).

Why the Plug-In Needs to Be Enabled

When you first install the plug-in or when a new version of SpamSieve updates it, Mail will not load the plug-in until you have given your permission by enabling it.

If SpamSieve’s Mail plug-in is not loaded, Mail will not filter new messages through SpamSieve, and you will not be able to train SpamSieve. Additionally, if Mail receives new messages while the SpamSieve plug-in is disabled, the SpamSieve rule in Mail will move them to the Junk mailbox without consulting SpamSieve. SpamSieve will try to prevent this by temporarily deactivating the rule if it notices that the plug-in is disabled. You can also do this yourself by unchecking the SpamSieve rule in Mail’s settings before updating SpamSieve. Or you can just drag the messages back to the inbox if you happen to receive any before you’ve had a chance to re-enable the plug-in. (They do not need to be trained as good because SpamSieve did not think they were spam; they were moved by Mail.)

If You No Longer Want to Use Apple Mail With SpamSieve

If you’ve switched to another mail client and don’t want SpamSieve to remind you to enable its Mail plug-in, choose Uninstall Apple Mail Plug-In… from the SpamSieve menu to tell SpamSieve that you are no longer using Mail.

Troubleshooting

Please see:

• If the Apple Mail Plug-In Doesn’t Appear in the List or Doesn’t Stay Enabled
• If SpamSieve Tells You the Apple Mail Plug-In Isn’t Loading, But It Is
• Resetting Mail’s Private Plug-Ins Folder

3.6.1   Outlook IMAP/Exchange Account Rules

When Setting Up Outlook, repeat these instructions for each IMAP and Exchange account that you have:

1. Create a new folder called InboxSpamSieve in the account. You can do this by Control-clicking on the name of the account in Outlook’s main window and choosing New Folder.

2. Go to Outlook’s Tools menu and choose Rules to open the Rules list.

   

3. Click on the source list item under Client Rules corresponding to the type of account you that have (e.g. IMAP or Exchange). Ignore the Server Rules section of the window, if any.

4. Uncheck or delete any (non-SpamSieve) rules for filtering out junk/spam e-mails.

5. Click the + button at the bottom of the window to create a new rule.

6. Change the name of the rule to InboxSpamSieve (AccountName) where AccountName is the name of your account (e.g. iCloud in this example).

7. Under When a new message arrives, choose Folder, Is, and INBOX (AccountName):

   

   If INBOX (AccountName) is not in the third pop-up menu, you can select Choose Folder… from the pop-up menu and then search for it by typing Inbox:

   

8. Under Do the following, choose Move Message and InboxSpamSieve (AccountName). If InboxSpamSieve (AccountName) is not in the second pop-up menu, you can choose Choose Folder… from the pop-up menu and then search for it by typing InboxSpamSieve:

   

9. The rule should now look like:

   

   Click OK to save the rule.

10. In Outlook’s Preferences ‣ Accounts window, select the account in the list and click Advanced…. In the Server tab, make sure that Sync all IMAP folders every _ minutes is checked. We recommend setting it to a small number, such as 2. (You can skip this step if you’re using an Exchange account rather than an IMAP one.)

11. You can now repeat this section for any additional IMAP or Exchange accounts, or return to Setting Up Outlook at Step 5.

3.6.2   Outlook Gmail Account Rules

When Setting Up Outlook, repeat these instructions for each Gmail account that you have.

Gmail Account Types in Outlook

A Gmail account in Outlook can be set up in two different ways:

1. It can be treated as a generic IMAP account. Such accounts look like this in Outlook’s Accounts preferences:

   

   Prior to Outlook version 16.17, this was the only option, so it’s likely what you have if you originally set up your account using an older version of Outlook.

2. It can be set up as a special Google account. Such accounts look like this in Outlook’s Accounts preferences:

   

   This option is only possible with newer versions of Outlook. Using the Google account type enables some Gmail-specific calendar and contacts features in Outlook. However, we generally recommend using an IMAP account instead, due to various limitations and bugs with Google accounts in the current version of Outlook.

Setting Up SpamSieve With a Gmail IMAP Account

SpamSieve works best when a Gmail account is set up as a generic IMAP account. To set up an account to use IMAP:

1. From the Outlook menu, choose Preferences and then click on Accounts.
2. If your account does not already appear in the list, skip to Step 3. If your Gmail account was already set up as a Google account, you can remove it by selecting it and clicking the - button.
3. Click the + button and choose New Account….
4. Enter your Gmail e-mail address and click Continue.
5. Click the Not Google? button at the top of the window.
6. Click IMAP/POP, the fill in the rest of the information, and click Add Account.
7. Now follow the the regular Outlook IMAP/Exchange Account Rules instructions to set up Outlook to filter the account with SpamSieve.

Setting Up SpamSieve With a Gmail Google Account

We recommend using the IMAP setup (above) where possible because, if you have multiple accounts, Outlook may move Google messages to the Inbox or Junk Email mailbox of the wrong account.

However, if you need to set up your Gmail account as a Google account in Outlook, it is still possible to use SpamSieve:

1. Log into the Gmail Web site.

2. Create a new label (folder) called InboxSpamSieve. The + Create new label command is located at the left of the window. You may need to click More in order to see it.

3. Click the gear at the top right, choose Settings, then click on Filters and Blocked Addresses.

4. Click Create a new filter. Enter {(to:me) (deliveredto:USERNAME@gmail.com)} in the Has the words field (replacing USERNAME with your actual Gmail username).

   

   Then click Create filter.

5. Check the Skip the Inbox (Archive it) and Apply the label boxes and select InboxSpamSieve as the label.

   

   Note: This will cause spam messages to be temporarily moved to Gmail’s archive, however they should be automatically removed from the archive when you delete them from Outlook. For more information, see Keeping Spam Messages Out of Gmail’s Archive, which shows how to have Gmail not archive messages that are deleted via IMAP.

6. Click Create filter.

   You can now repeat this section for any additional Gmail accounts, or return to Setting Up Outlook at Step 5.

3.6.3   Outlook POP Account Rules

When Setting Up Outlook, repeat these instructions for each POP account that you have.

1. Create a new folder called InboxSpamSieve. You can do this by Control-clicking on On My Computer in Outlook’s main window and choosing New Folder. (You only need one folder for all your POP accounts.)

2. Go to Outlook’s Tools menu and choose Rules to open the Rules list.

   

3. Click on POP under Client Rules.

4. Uncheck or delete any (non-SpamSieve) rules for filtering out junk/spam e-mails.

5. Click the + button at the bottom of the window to create a new rule.

6. Change the name of the rule to InboxSpamSieve (AccountName) where AccountName is the name of your account (e.g. POPAccount in this example).

7. Under When a new message arrives, choose Account, Is, and AccountName (iCloud in this example):

   

8. Under Do the following, choose Move Message and InboxSpamSieve (On My Computer). If InboxSpamSieve (On My Computer) is not in the second pop-up menu, you can choose Choose Folder… from the pop-up menu and then search for it.

9. Click OK to save the rule. You can now repeat this section for any additional POP accounts, or return to Setting Up Outlook at Step 5.

3.14.1   Converting Your Apple Mail Setup to IMAP

IMAP and Exchange

To use SpamSieve with your iPhone, you’ll need to set both the Mac and the iPhone to connect to your mail server using either the IMAP or Exchange mail protocol:

• Many popular mail hosts—such as Apple’s iCloud, Gmail, and Yahoo automatically use IMAP.
• Most other modern mail hosts also offer IMAP support.
• Some hosts, such as Comcast, can enable IMAP support if you request it.
• Some mail hosts only offer support for the older POP protocol. This makes it impossible for your Mac to clean the spam off your iPhone. We recommend switching to another provider.

Synchronization

When using IMAP or Exchange, all computers and mobile devices that connect to the same mail account will share the same mailboxes. The contents of the mailboxes will be synchronized automatically. The syncing happens when you open the Mail application.

Switching to IMAP

If your mail host supports IMAP but you are not using it, you can change the settings on your Mac to connect via IMAP instead of POP. Macworld has an article about this, or you can follow the instructions below.

1. Choose Settings… from the Mail menu and click on Accounts. Your account(s) will be listed at the left of the window. If it already says IMAP or iCloud under your account, there’s nothing more that you need to do.
2. If it says POP, you will need to disable the POP account and create a new IMAP one. Click on the POP account and make note of the contents of the Server Settings (if present) and Account Information tabs. Then click the Remove now button to remove from the server any messages that you’ve already downloaded.
3. Click the + button at the bottom of the window and follow the steps to create a new account. Choose IMAP for the account type. For the server and login, enter the information that you noted for the POP account. (Note: Some providers use a different incoming mail server name for IMAP.) Put “IMAP” at the end of the account’s description so that you can tell this account apart from the old one.
4. You should now be able to check for mail, and Mail will be using IMAP instead of POP. There will be two sets of mailboxes (Inbox, Sent, etc.) in the main window. If desired, you can go to each of these mailboxes and Option-drag the messages from the old mailboxes to the IMAP ones. Holding down the Option key when dragging the messages will cause Mail to copy the messages to the IMAP server. Your original messages will remain in the POP mailboxes on your Mac in case something goes wrong.
5. Go back to Mail’s Settings window, click on the POP account, and uncheck Enable this account (in the Account Information tab, or the Advanced tab on macOS 10.11 and earlier). You will be using the new IMAP account instead, although the old POP settings, and any messages that you didn’t transfer to the IMAP mailboxes, will still be available should you want to go back to the old setup.
6. On your iOS device, tap on Settings ‣ Mail. For each of your accounts, tap on the account name. At the top of the account settings it should say IMAP or Exchange. If it says POP, you will need to deactivate that account on the iPhone (by sliding the switch next to the Mail setting) and then choose Add Account to re-add your account as IMAP or Exchange.

3.14.2   Recommended Mail Hosts

For best results with SpamSieve—and for e-mail in general—we recommend a mail host that:

Supports IMAP or Exchange (Not Just POP)

This will keep your mailboxes and messages synchronized across multiple devices and let you use SpamSieve on your Mac for iPhone Spam Filtering. IMAP is preferred, as it is supported by more mail clients.

Lets You Control Its Junk Filter

You don’t want the server’s filter to accidentally delete good messages before you even see them. For more information, see the How should I configure the junk filter on my mail server? section.

Is Not Your Internet Service Provider (ISP)

This way you won’t be forced to change your address if you change ISPs, e.g. due to switching cable to fiber or moving to a different city.

Can Use Your Domain Name

If your e-mail address is at a domain name that you control (rather than at the provider’s domain), you won’t be locked into your current host should you ever become dissatisfied with it. You’ll be able to easily switch to a different host without having to change your e-mail address.

E-mail is important. If your mail provider does not offer the features that you want, we recommend switching to one that does. Fastmail, DreamHost, Pair, and Hover are some inexpensive hosts that we’ve used and recommend. Other ones that’ve heard good things about are 1&1, Cotse.Net, and LuxSci.

4.4.1   Setting Up an Apple Mail Drone

This section is a continuation of the Setting Up a Spam Filtering Drone instructions for people using Apple Mail.

1. If you are using the standard rule setup in Apple Mail, you can skip this step. Otherwise, if you are longtime SpamSieve user, we recommend following the Switching From the Spam Mailbox to the Junk Mailbox instructions.

2. Download the Apple Mail - Remote Training script file and put it in the folder:

   /Users/<username>/Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.mail
   

   If you need help finding the right Library folder, see this page.

3. Go to Mail’s Settings window and create a new rule at the top of the list (above the SpamSieve rule) called Remote Training. (The rule’s name must not start with SpamSieve.) The conditions should say:

   Every Message

   The actions should say:

   Run AppleScript […]Apple Mail - Remote Training.scpt

   After choosing Run AppleScript from the pop-up menu, select the file that you created in Step 2 (using either the pop-up menu or the Choose… button).

   Mail may ask if you want to apply the rule; click Don’t Apply.

4. If you are using iCloud to sync your Mail rules between multiple Macs, make sure that both the SpamSieve and Remote Training rules are unchecked on all the Macs except for the drone.

5. If desired, you can set up keyboard shortcuts on any non-drone Macs for moving messages into the Train mailboxes. In Mail’s View menu, choose Show Favorites Bar. Then drag the TrainGood and TrainSpam mailboxes to the favorites bar. There will then be keyboard shortcuts for these messages in the Mailbox ‣ Move to Favorite Mailbox submenu.

Note: You can test that the script works by running it in Script Editor; it should move any messages in the TrainGood mailbox to the inbox and any messages in the TrainSpam mailbox to the Junk mailbox. Errors will be reported in the All Messages section of the Console application.

4.4.2   Setting Up a MailMate Drone

This section is a continuation of the Setting Up a Spam Filtering Drone instructions for people using MailMate 1.7.1 or later.

1. In MailMate’s Settings window, click on the General tab and make sure that next to Experimental 2.0 Features, the Enable box is checked.
2. In MailMate’s Settings window, click on the Security tab and make sure that next to SpamSieve, the Enable box is checked.
3. For each TrainGood mailbox, select the mailbox:
   1. Go to the Mailbox menu, and choose Edit Mailbox….
   2. Click on the Rules tab of the TrainGood window.
   3. Click the + button at the bottom of the window.
   4. In the Description, enter Remote Good Training.
   5. At the bottom of the window, create two actions:
      • Set Tag: Not Junk
      • Move to Mailbox: Inbox
4. For each TrainSpam mailbox, select the mailbox:
   1. Go to the Mailbox menu, and choose Edit Mailbox….
   2. Click on the Rules tab of the TrainSpam window.
   3. Click the + button at the bottom of the window.
   4. In the Description, enter Remote Spam Training.
   5. At the bottom of the window, create two actions:
      • Set Tag: Junk
      • Move to Mailbox: Junk
5. MailMate will check the Train mailboxes according to the Synchronization Schedule in the Mailbox menu.

4.4.3   Setting Up an Outlook Drone

This section is a continuation of the Setting Up a Spam Filtering Drone instructions for people using Microsoft Outlook 2011. Outlook 365 currently does not work with the drone setup because it does not support schedules.

1. Make sure that each of your accounts has its own Junk E-mail mailbox. This can be configured by going to the Accounts section of Outlook’s preferences and clicking on Advanced… and then Folders.

2. If you have a single mail account, follow the normal SpamSieve setup procedure in the Setting Up Outlook 2011 section. When choosing the folder in the SpamSieve - Move Messages rule, be sure to choose the Junk E-mail folder on the server (not On My Computer). You’re now done with this step.

   If you have multiple accounts, create two SpamSieve - Move Messages rules per account. The name of the first rule should be SpamSieve - Move Junk Messages - Account 1 (where Account 1 is the name of your account. It should say:

   If all conditions are met:

   • Folder Is INBOX (Account 1)

   • Category Is Junk

   Do the following:

   Move Message Junk E-mail (Account 1)

   The name of the second rule should be SpamSieve - Move Uncertain Junk Messages - Account 1. It should say:

   If all conditions are met:

   • Folder Is INBOX (Account 1)

   • Category Is Uncertain Junk

   Do the following:

   Move Message Junk E-mail (Account 1)

3. Download the Outlook - Remote Training script file. Open it in Script Editor and add your account name(s) at the top.

4. In Outlook, choose Tools ‣ Run Schedule ‣ Edit Schedules…. Click the + button and create a schedule called Remote Training. The When should be Repeating Schedule with a duration of your choice. The Action should be Rule AppleScript. Click the Script… button and choose the Outlook - Remote Training.scpt file from Step 4.

4.6.1   Change Settings (Apple Mail)

You can choose SpamSieve - Change Settings from Mail’s Message menu to customize SpamSieve’s behavior in Mail.

The settings are:

• When you choose “Train as Spam,” should the spam messages be moved to the special Junk mailbox?

  If you click No, it will ask:

  • Which mailbox should spam messages be moved to when you use “Train as Spam”?
  • Should messages marked using “Train as Spam” be stored in a local spam mailbox (rather than on the server)?

• Should “Train as Spam” mark the messages as read?

• When you use “Train as Good” on a message in the junk/spam mailbox, should the message be moved back to the inbox?

• When you use “Train as Good” on a message in the junk/spam mailbox, should the message be marked as unread?

• Should incoming spam messages be colored according to how spammy they are (darker means more spammy)?

4.6.2   Apple Mail Keyboard Shortcuts

The keyboard shortcut for the SpamSieve - Train as Spam command is Command-Control-S. The keyboard shortcut for the SpamSieve - Train as Good command is Command-Control-G. You can change the keyboard shortcuts:

1. Open System Settings.
2. Click on the Keyboard icon.
3. Click on the Shortcuts (or Keyboard Shortcuts on older versions of macOS) tab.
4. Select App Shortcuts (or Application Shortcuts on older versions of macOS).
5. Click the + button.
6. For Application, select Mail.
7. For the Menu Title, enter SpamSieve - Train as Spam (or the localized title of the menu item if you are running your Mac in a different language).
8. Click in the box next to Keyboard Shortcut and enter your desired shortcut.
9. Click the Add button.

4.6.3   Spam Message Colors in Apple Mail

Using Background Colors to Show Spam Levels

SpamSieve sets the colors of spam messages to reflect how spammy it thinks they are. The order, from most to least spammy, is: Blue, Gray, Purple, Red, Orange, or Yellow. Good messages are left uncolored. Thus, if you are skimming the Junk mailbox for false positives, pay the most attention to the yellow and orange messages. The SpamSieve - Change Settings command lets you enable or disable spam message coloring.

Spam messages caught by a server junk filter are not processed by SpamSieve and, thus, not colored. (See also: Separating Spam Caught by SpamSieve and Server Filters.)

Using a [Score] Rule to Filter Spam Messages By Color

The Setting Up Apple Mail section of the manual shows how to create a single rule in Mail that puts all the spam messages in a single Junk mailbox. You can also use multiple rules in Mail to file messages into different mailboxes (or otherwise process them differently) based on how spammy they are. The normal SpamSieve rule looks like this:

To separate spam messages by color (spamminess), you should instead create two or more rules. The first rule should be named SpamSieve [Score]. As above, you probably want the conditions to be Every Message. When this rule is applied, SpamSieve will calculate the spam score of the message and set its color accordingly. The actions of the [Score] rule will be ignored.

Below the [Score] rule, you can create one or more rules that process messages based on their color:

• Each of these rules should have a name that starts with SpamSieve, followed by one or more color names in square brackets. For example, to make a rule that matches the most spammy Blue and Gray messages, you would name it SpamSieve [Blue][Gray] (or SpamSieve [Gray][Blue]). You can include additional descriptive text after the brackets to remind you of what the rule does.
• The rule conditions should be Every Message.
• As a shorthand for listing all of the colors, you can simply write [Spam].
• To match non-spam messages you can write [White]. Additionally, if you have rules to process every color and those rules’ actions either move the messages or stop rule processing, any subsequent rules will automatically apply only to the non-spam messages.

Example 1: Blocklisted Messages in Trash

To move blocklisted messages to the trash and other spam messages to the Spam mailbox, you would need three rules:

1. SpamSieve [Score] (calculates the spam score/color) / Every Message / Move Message to mailbox All Junk

   

2. SpamSieve [Blue] (move very spammy messages to the trash) / Every Message / Move Message to mailbox All Trash

   

3. SpamSieve [Spam] (move the remaining spam messages) / Every Message / Move Message to mailbox All Junk

   

Example 2: Per-Color Spam Mailboxes

To put each color of spam in a separate mailbox, you would need seven rules:

1. SpamSieve [Score] (calculates the spam score/color) / Every Message / Move Message to mailbox Spam
2. SpamSieve [Blue] (messages with scores from 99 to 100) / Every Message / Move Message to mailbox Spam99
3. SpamSieve [Gray] (messages with scores from 95 to 98) / Every Message / Move Message to mailbox Spam95
4. SpamSieve [Purple] (messages with scores from 88 to 94) / Every Message / Move Message to mailbox Spam88
5. SpamSieve [Red] (messages with scores from 81 to 87) / Every Message / Move Message to mailbox Spam81
6. SpamSieve [Orange] (messages with scores from 75 to 80) / Every Message / Move Message to mailbox Spam75
7. SpamSieve [Yellow] (messages with scores from 50 to 74) / Every Message / Move Message to mailbox Spam50

The unnumbered Spam mailbox will hold the messages that you manually train as spam. If desired, you can drag the other mailboxes inside the Spam mailbox.

Example 3: Sorting Messages By Spamminess

You can sort the messages by spamminess. Apple Mail in macOS 10.7 and later cannot sort messages by color, but it can sort them by flags. Thus, you can set up rules like this:

1. SpamSieve [Score] (calculates the spam score/color) / Every Message / Move Message to mailbox Spam
2. SpamSieve [Blue] (messages with scores from 99 to 100) / Every Message / Mark as Flagged Gray / Move Message to mailbox Spam
3. SpamSieve [Gray] (messages with scores from 95 to 98) / Every Message / Mark as Flagged Purple / Move Message to mailbox Spam
4. SpamSieve [Purple] (messages with scores from 88 to 94) / Every Message / Mark as Flagged Blue / Move Message to mailbox Spam
5. SpamSieve [Red] (messages with scores from 81 to 87) / Every Message / Mark as Flagged Green / Move Message to mailbox Spam
6. SpamSieve [Orange] (messages with scores from 75 to 80) / Every Message / Mark as Flagged Yellow / Move Message to mailbox Spam
7. SpamSieve [Yellow] (messages with scores from 50 to 74) / Every Message / Mark as Flagged Orange / Move Message to mailbox Spam

and then choose View ‣ Sort By ‣ Flags. (The flag colors are chosen so that the messages will sort in order of spamminess; this is why they do not match the message colors.) When using this rule, you should set the AppleMailTrainGoodClearFlags option in the Esoteric Preferences to have SpamSieve clear the flags when training a message as good.

Currently, there is a bug (Radar 21468415) in macOS 10.11 where the feature to sort by flags does not work.

4.6.4   Marking Incoming Spam Messages

Normally, SpamSieve puts incoming spam messages in the Junk mailbox, and it colors them according to how spammy they are. You can customize this behavior by editing the actions of the SpamSieve rule in Mail’s settings. For example, to mark the spam messages as read, click the + button at the bottom of the rule sheet, and choose Mark as Read from the pop-up menu. When all the messages in a mailbox are marked as read, Apple Mail will stop showing a number next to the mailbox.

Do not add an action that changes the color of the message, as it will not do what you expect.

4.6.5   Processing Messages Before SpamSieve

Sometimes you may wish to prevent certain messages from being examined by SpamSieve. You can do this by making an Apple Mail rule above the SpamSieve rule that moves the messages to a different mailbox or deletes them.

1. You may receive messages that are unwanted but not spam, for example if someone you know sends you a certain type of annoying message. You don’t want to see these, but it’s not appropriate to train SpamSieve that they’re spam because they’re from a legitimate sender.

   Solution: Make a Mail rule above the SpamSieve rule that moves these messages to the trash.

2. The messages may be ambiguously spam. For example, you may run a Web site that sends you an e-mail every time someone fills out a form. The messages themselves are not spam; they are being sent by your own server. But some of the content in the e-mails may be spammy, depending on what the users (or robots) filled into the form. You want to receive all these messages to review them, but you don’t want to train SpamSieve that all the user-generated text is good.

   Solution: Make a Mail rule above the SpamSieve rule that moves these messages to a separate mailbox.

3. You may have a way of identifying certain messages as definitely spam, and you want Mail to delete them so that you don’t have to see them in your Junk mailbox.

   Solution: Make a Mail rule above the SpamSieve rule that deletes the messages.

   (If you merely want to move the more spammy messages to the trash, see the Spam Message Colors in Apple Mail section.)

Here’s an example of how to create a rule for #3:

1. Choose Settings… from the Mail menu and click the Rules button in the toolbar.

2. Click the Add Rule button.

3. Change the description to Delete Spam.

4. Say that you want to block messages from certain e-mail addresses. The rule conditions already say From contains. Enter the first address to block in the text field to the right of contains.

5. For each additional address, click the + button and enter the address in the new From contains condition.

6. At the bottom of the sheet, change Move Message to say Delete Message. The rule should now look like:

   

7. 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.

8. Drag the Delete Spam rule to the top of the list, above the SpamSieve rule.

4.6.6   Switching From the Spam Mailbox to the Junk Mailbox

With earlier versions of SpamSieve, we recommended configuring Apple Mail to move the spam messages caught by SpamSieve to a Spam mailbox under On My Mac. This was for several reasons:

• Mail had a special built-in Junk mailbox, but (prior to macOS 10.9) it would hide this mailbox when Mail’s own junk mail filter was turned off.
• Mail providers had smaller account quotas, so removing spam messages from the server right away freed up valuable space.
• If there was also a server junk filter active, having the SpamSieve messages in a separate mailbox made it easier to see which filter had moved which messages, which helped with troubleshooting.

With SpamSieve 2.9.45 and later, we recommend using the Junk mailbox instead:

• Mail now makes the special Junk mailbox available at all times. That’s where new users expect their spam messages to go, and it’s simpler not to have to create a new mailbox.
• Mail accounts typically offer much more space, and network connections are faster so that accessing the messages from the server is less burdensome.
• Consolidating the spam messages caught by multiple filters makes it easier to review and to delete it automatically or all at once using the Erase Junk Mail command. It is still possible to see which filter caught which messages.
• With more people accessing their mail account from multiple devices, storing the messages on the server makes it possible to see and train them when you’re away from your Mac.
• Mail can automatically put the spam messages from each account into a separate Junk mailbox, without the more elaborate multi-rule setup that was previously required. You can also easily view all the spam messages together in the special All Junk mailbox, offering the best of both worlds.
• Moving the spam messages to per-account server Junk mailboxes avoids two Mail bugs in macOS 10.15 and later. One bug caused messages to be colored as spam and moved out of the inbox on the server but still shown in the inbox on your Mac. The other bug caused Mail to delete the spam messages instead of moving them. For the small percentage of users affected by these bugs, we’ve been recommending various rule and preferences changes to work around them. Using the Junk mailbox instead of the Spam mailbox will protect all customers from these bugs from the outset, and with a much simpler setup than before.
• Future versions of Mail will use Mail App Extensions rather than Mail plug-ins. At least initially, Mail App Extensions only support the Junk mailbox. Switching from Spam to Junk will help prepare you for this transition.

New installations of SpamSieve will use the Junk mailbox by default, and the Setting Up Apple Mail instructions have been updated to reflect this.

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.

If you want, you can switch an existing SpamSieve installation (on macOS 10.11 or later) from Spam to Junk:

1. Choose Install Apple Mail Plug-In from the SpamSieve menu to make sure that you have the latest version of the plug-in. Restart your Mac.
2. Open Mail’s Settings window, click on Rules, and open the SpamSieve rule. Where it says Move Message, change the mailbox from Spam to the special All Junk or top-level Junk mailbox.
3. Make sure that Mail is set to use a Junk mailbox on the server.
4. Choose SpamSieve - Change Settings from the Message menu in Mail. When it asks if you want Train as Spam to use the special Junk mailbox, click Yes.
5. If you are using any extra SpamSieve AppleScripts, such as Apple Mail - Remote Training or Apple Mail - SaneBox, update them to the latest versions. If you are using the Apple Mail - Server Junk Mailbox script, switch to the new Apple Mail - Rescue Good Messages script.

4.6.7   Only Filtering Certain Accounts

SpamSieve normally filters all of the accounts set up in Apple Mail. If you want to exclude certain accounts from filtering, you can edit the SpamSieve rule to list only the accounts that you do want filtered:

4.6.8   Changing the Name of the Spam Mailbox

We recommend having SpamSieve move your spam messages to Mail’s special Junk mailbox, but it is also possible to change this:

1. Change the mailbox where SpamSieve moves incoming spam messages:

   1. If your preferred mailbox does not exist yet, choose Mailbox ‣ New Mailbox… to create it.
   2. Open the SpamSieve rule in Mail’s settings and choose that mailbox from the pop-up menu next to Move Messages.

2. Change the mailbox for manually trained spam messages, i.e. when you use the SpamSieve - Train as Spam command:

   1. Choose SpamSieve - Change Settings from Mail’s Message menu.

   2. When it asks if you want to use the special Junk mailbox, click No. When prompted, enter the new mailbox name. If a top-level mailbox with this name does not exist, SpamSieve will create one when you train a message as spam.

      Note: This does not have to be the same name as in Step 1. In other words, you can have separate mailboxes for automatically caught vs. manually trained spam messages if you want. Some people like to enter Deleted Messages so that messages trained as spam are moved directly to the trash.

3. If you are using the Apple Mail - Remote Training, Apple Mail - SaneBox, or Apple Mail - Server Junk Mailbox script, you may want to modify the top of the script to tell it to use your new mailbox name.

4.6.9   Using a Spam Mailbox on the Server

We recommend having SpamSieve move your spam messages to Mail’s special Junk mailbox and configuring Mail so that the messages in this mailbox are stored on the mail server. Mail normally does this automatically, but you can check its settings to be sure that it is set up to do this.

• On macOS 10.12 and later, go to Settings ‣ Accounts ‣ Mailbox Behaviors (sometimes also called Special Mailboxes).
  • For an IMAP or Gmail account, next to Junk Mailbox, choose the junk or spam mailbox that’s inside your account (not the one under On My Mac). If there are multiple such mailboxes, choose the one that your server junk filter is moving spam messages to. For a Gmail account, this is [Gmail]/Spam.
  • For an Exchange account, make sure that Store junk messages on the server is checked.
• On macOS 10.11 and earlier, there is no way to see which mailbox Mail is using as the special Junk mailbox. You can try creating a new Junk or Spam mailbox in your server account and then select it and choose Mailbox ‣ Use This Mailbox As ‣ Junk Mailbox. When you do this, the previously selected Junk Mailbox will become visible as a regular mailbox. You can either use Use This Mailbox As to go back to that mailbox (if it’s on the server) or keep using the new mailbox that you had created.

If you have multiple mail accounts, you’ll need to repeat the above for each account.

Now that incoming spam messages will go to the Junk mailbox on the server, that means they will also be visible on other Macs and iOS devices, and via Webmail. If you find a good message in the Junk mailbox and you’re at your Mac, use the SpamSieve - Train as Good command as normal. If you’re using an iPhone, iPad, Webmail, or a different Mac:

• If you are using the regular SpamSieve setup, do not move the message out of the Junk mailbox. Instead, when you get back to your Mac, select the message and choose SpamSieve - Train as Good.
• If you are using the drone setup, you can move the message to the TrainGood mailbox. The Mac will automatically train it as good and move it to your inbox.

4.6.10   Separate Spam Mailboxes for Each Account

SpamSieve normally puts the spam messages from all your Apple Mail accounts into the special All Junk mailbox, so they are separated into each account’s Junk mailbox automatically. You can also manually choose a separate spam mailbox for each account. First, create the requisite empty mailboxes. Then, create one rule in Mail for each account. The description for the rule should be SpamSieve - <AccountName> where <AccountName> is any text that helps you identify the account. The rule’s condition should be that the account is <AccountName>, and the action should be to move the message to the spam mailbox for that account.

As this example demonstrates, you can have multiple SpamSieve rules in Apple Mail, with arbitrary conditions, so long as all of their descriptions start with SpamSieve. It is recommended that you arrange the conditions such that only one SpamSieve rule will be applied to any given message.

4.6.11   Separating Spam Caught by SpamSieve and Server Filters

With the standard setup, spam messages caught by server junk filters and by SpamSieve both go to the Junk mailbox. It can be important to know which filter moved which messages there. For example, if a good message was incorrectly moved to Junk by SpamSieve, you should train it as good. Whereas, if it was moved by a server junk filter, training SpamSieve wouldn’t help and you might want to turn off the server filter or set SpamSieve to rescue the good messages.

• The easiest way to see which messages SpamSieve moved to Junk is that they will have black text and a colored background in Mail’s message list:

  

  Messages caught by other filters will have brown/gold, or black text on a white background:

  

  Note that the SpamSieve background colors only show up on the Mac where SpamSieve is running. Mail does not sync them to the server or to other Macs or iOS devices. If you need to see, on another device, which messages were caught by SpamSieve, you can use separate mailboxes as described below.

• You can also look in SpamSieve’s log to see which messages SpamSieve has predicted to be spam.

• If desired, you can configure Mail to use a separate mailbox for SpamSieve. Create a new mailbox in each account called SpamSieveSpam. Then tell Mail to use this as the special Junk mailbox:

  • On macOS 10.12 and later, go to Settings ‣ Accounts ‣ Mailbox Behaviors and choose SpamSieveSpam from the Junk Mailbox pop-up menu.
  • On macOS 10.11 and earlier, select the SpamSieveSpam mailbox and choose Mailbox ‣ Use This Mailbox As ‣ Junk Mailbox.

  Now, the spam messages caught by SpamSieve will go to the special Junk mailbox (shown as SpamSieveSpam in Webmail), and messages caught by server filters will go to a regular Spam/Junk/Bulk mailbox that has just become visible.

4.6.12   Consolidating Spam From Multiple Filters

As described in the How should I configure the junk filter on my mail server? section, we generally recommend turning off other spam/junk filters and only using SpamSieve. If you choose not to do this you may end up in a situation where server filters are putting spam messages in one or more Spam/Junk/Bulk mailbox. There are several different ways this can be configured:

A. Have All Filters Use the Special Junk Mailbox

To do this, for each account, use Mail’s Settings ‣ Accounts ‣ Mailbox Behaviors to set the special Junk mailbox to the mailbox that the server filter is using. (On macOS 10.11 and earlier, select the mailbox and choose Mailbox ‣ Use This Mailbox As ‣ Junk Mailbox.) You will still be able to tell which filter moved each message to Junk. On macOS 11 and later, you can use the + button next to Favorites at the top of Mail’s mailbox list to control whether the Junk mailboxes from all accounts are shown under a special All Junk mailbox.

B. Have Separate Mailboxes for Each Spam/Junk Filter

Some users like having separate Junk and Spam mailboxes. If this is what you want, just be sure to check both locations for false positives, so that no good messages get stuck there. Only good messages in the special Junk mailbox need to be trained as good because good messages in the Spam or Bulk mailbox are not SpamSieve mistakes. This is described more in the Separating Spam Caught by SpamSieve and Server Filters section of the manual.

C. Use a Smart Mailbox to Show All the Spam in One Place

You can store the spam messages from different filters in separate mailboxes but use a smart mailbox also see them all in the same place. For example, the smart mailbox might look like this:

Contains messages that match any of the following conditions:

• Message is in mailbox Junk

• Message is in mailbox Spam

4.6.13   Rescuing Good Messages Caught By a Server Filter

You can use the Apple Mail - Rescue Good Messages script to work around a problematic server junk filter. Whenever the script runs, it will tell SpamSieve to examine the messages in the Junk mailbox, leaving the spam messages in place but moving any messages caught by the server filter that SpamSieve thinks are good to the inbox. In order for this to work, you should follow the instructions in the Consolidating Spam From Multiple Filters section of the manual to make sure that SpamSieve and the server filters are both using the special Junk mailbox.

4.6.14   Filtering Spam During Power Nap

Keeping Your Mac Awake

In order for SpamSieve to filter your mail immediately, your Mac needs to be awake with the mail program running. Otherwise, there will be delays for iPhone spam filtering and for remote training using the drone setup. To prevent your Mac from going to sleep:

• On macOS 13, go to Displays in System Settings and enable the Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off option.
• On macOS 12 and earlier on a desktop Mac, go to Energy Saver in System Preferences and check the Prevent your Mac from sleeping automatically when the display is off option.
• On macOS 12 and earlier on a laptop Mac, go to Battery in System Preferences, click on Power Adapter, and check the Prevent your Mac from sleeping automatically when the display is off option.

Note that even though the Mac itself is awake, you can still save energy by setting the display and hard disks to sleep.

Enabling Power Nap

It’s also possible for SpamSieve to filter mail, once per hour, while your Mac is asleep, using macOS’s Power Nap feature. To enable Power Nap:

• On Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 or M2), Power Nap is always enabled.
• On macOS 13, you can control Power Nap from the Battery or Energy Saver pane of System Settings. Laptop Macs have separate settings for enabling Power Nap when on battery or AC power.
• On macOS 12 and earlier, you can control Power Nap from the Battery or Energy Saver pane of System Preferences.

In order for Power Nap to work, the Mac needs to be connected to the Internet, and Apple Mail needs to be running before you put the Mac to sleep. (Power Nap does not support other mail clients.) macOS will suspend Power Nap operations in situations where your Mac is likely to overheat. When everything is set up as described above, Mail will check for new messages and filter them through SpamSieve once per hour.

4.6.15   Keeping Spam Messages Out of Gmail’s Archive

The standard Apple Mail setup has you configure Mail to move all spams that SpamSieve catches to the special Junk mailbox. This should prevent Gmail from archiving the spam messages in All Mail. (If you are using an older setup, see Switching From the Spam Mailbox to the Junk Mailbox.) Make sure that Mail is set for Using a Spam Mailbox on the Server and that you’ve set the Junk mailbox in Mail’s settings to the same Spam mailbox that Gmail’s own junk filter uses. Otherwise, you may see incoming spam messages in both the Archive and Junk mailboxes, and training messages as spam may not move them out of Archive.

If you’ve instead chosen to use a local Spam mailbox under On My Mac, you should tell Gmail not to archive messages that are deleted via IMAP (which includes messages moved to local mailboxes on your Mac):

1. Click the gear at the top right, choose Settings, then click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP.

   

2. Select Auto-Expunge off and Immediately delete the message forever.

   

4.6.16   Hiding Special Gmail Mailboxes From IMAP

Gmail has some special mailboxes that most users do not want to appear in Apple Mail. This is because these mailboxes contain duplicate copies of messages that are already in your other mailboxes. Additionally, the contents of these mailboxes are not filtered by SpamSieve or other Mail rules. When using Gmail, it is recommended that you hide these mailboxes from IMAP:

1. In Gmail, click on the gear menu at the top right and select Settings.
2. Click on Labels (which is next to General at the top of the screen).
3. In the System labels section:
   1. Uncheck Show in IMAP on the line for Starred.
   2. Uncheck Show in IMAP on the line for Important.
   3. Uncheck Show in IMAP on the line for All Mail.

4.6.17   Apple Mail Script Rule

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:

1. Choose Settings… from the Mail menu and click the Rules button in the toolbar.
2. Click the Add Rule button.
3. Change the description to Move If SpamSieve Spam.
4. 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.)
5. Change the Move Message pop-up menu to say Run AppleScript.
6. 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.)
7. 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.

4.6.18   Redirecting Good Messages to Another Account

When traveling, especially with a mobile device, you might want to avoid downloading spam messages from the server. If your server and mobile device support IMAP or Exchange, you can do this by following the instructions in the Using a Spam Mailbox on the Server section.

If your mobile device only supports POP, you can do this by letting your Mac at home filter the messages from your main mail account and redirect the non-spam messages to the account that you access when traveling. The spam messages will stay in the Junk mailbox on your Mac.

Open Mail’s Settings window and click the Add Rule button. Enter a description, such as “Redirect good messages to handheld.” Change the condition from From to Every message. Then change the action from Move Message to Redirect Message and enter the e-mail address of the account that you check when traveling. Click OK. Finally, drag your newly created rule so that it is just below the SpamSieve rule.

4.6.19   Faster Apple Mail Training

macOS 10.10 and Later

The issue described below for macOS 10.9 rarely affects later versions, but there are still some cases where Mail is slow at moving messages when you train them as spam or as good. To speed up the training, you can enable the workarounds by using these special esoteric preferences links:

AppleMailTrainSpamGUIScriptingYosemite

Click this link to enable the workaround for making SpamSieve - Train as Spam faster. The first time you try to train a message, SpamSieve will ask you to give it accessibility privileges. Then it will ask you to add your Spam mailbox as a favorite in Mail. Thereafter, it will move the trained messages via GUI scripting. If an error occurs, SpamSieve will move the message via the more reliable but slower method. Click this link to disable the workaround.

AppleMailTrainGoodGUIScriptingYosemite

Click this link to enable the workaround for making SpamSieve - Train as Good faster. SpamSieve it will ask you to add your inbox as a favorite in Mail. Trained messages will now move to the inbox that you added in the favorites bar, whereas without the workaround SpamSieve will try to find the appropriate account’s inbox. Click this link to disable the workaround.

AppleMailChangeJunkStatus

Another potential slowdown is that Mail can hang when it’s telling its own junk filter that the message is junk. Normally, SpamSieve tries to keep Mail in the loop so that when you train a message as spam, SpamSieve tells Mail that the message is junk. However, in rare circumstances a bug in Mail or a slow mail server can cause Mail to freeze when setting the message as junk. You can tell SpamSieve not to tell Mail’s filter that the message is junk by clicking this link. Or, click this link to go back to the default behavior.

macOS 10.9

There is a known issue where Apple Mail on macOS 10.9 is slower at moving messages via AppleScript. This can cause delays/freezes of up to 10 seconds when using the SpamSieve - Train as Spam and SpamSieve - Train as Good commands. SpamSieve includes workarounds to move messages faster by using GUI scripting instead of regular AppleScript.

You can enable one or both workarounds by using these special esoteric preferences links:

AppleMailTrainSpamGUIScripting

Click this link to enable the workaround for making SpamSieve - Train as Spam faster. The first time you try to train a message, SpamSieve will ask you to give it accessibility privileges. Then it will ask you to add your Spam mailbox as a favorite in Mail. Thereafter, it will move the trained messages via GUI scripting. If an error occurs, SpamSieve will move the message via the more reliable but slower method. Click this link to disable the workaround.

AppleMailTrainGoodGUIScripting

Click this link to enable the workaround for making SpamSieve - Train as Good faster. SpamSieve it will ask you to add your inbox as a favorite in Mail. Trained messages will now move to the inbox that you added in the favorites bar, whereas without the workaround SpamSieve will try to find the appropriate account’s inbox. Click this link to disable the workaround.

Accessibility Troubleshooting

• Due to an OS bug, SpamSieveHelper may not automatically appear in the list of Accessibility applications. To add it manually, you can:

  1. If necessary, click the lock button next to Click the lock to make changes.
  2. Command-click on the SpamSieve icon in the Dock to reveal the SpamSieve application file in the Finder.
  3. Control-click on the SpamSieve application file and choose Show Package Contents.
  4. Open the Contents folder and then the MacOS folder.
  5. Drag and drop the SpamSieveHelper file into the Allow the apps below to control your computer list in System Settings.

• In rare cases, SpamSieve may report that SpamSieveHelper is not checked in the Accessibility settings, even though it actually is. This typically means that macOS’s privacy database has been corrupted. You can reset the database by entering this command in Terminal:

  tccutil reset Accessibility
  

The Drone Setup

Aside from the GUI Scripting workaround (above), you can also speed up training by following the Setting Up a Spam Filtering Drone instructions. Instead of using the Message menu commands to train messages, you would move the messages into the special TrainGood and TrainSpam mailboxes.

4.7.1   Change Settings (Outlook)

You can choose SpamSieve - Change Settings from Outlook’s Scripts menu to customize SpamSieve’s behavior in Outlook.

The settings are:

• Should “Train as Spam” mark the messages as read?
• When you use “Train as Good” on a message in the spam folder, should the message be moved back to the inbox?
• When you use “Train as Good” on a message in the spam folder, should the message be marked as unread?
• Should incoming spam messages be marked with category “Uncertain Junk” rather than “Junk” if SpamSieve thinks they are not as spammy?

4.7.2   Duplicate Outlook Calendar Invitations

If you receive calendar invitations by e-mail and have Outlook set to automatically add them to your calendar, Outlook may see a good message that SpamSieve moves back from the InboxSpamSieve folder to Inbox as a new invitation. To prevent a duplicate calendar event from being created, you can set up your Outlook rules to not move the invitation e-mails to InboxSpamSieve. For example, you could add a rule above the SpamSieve rules that moves the invitation messages to another folder.

4.7.3   Outlook Keyboard Shortcuts

If you would like keyboard shortcuts for the training commands described in Step 7, you can set up the standard SpamSieve keyboard shortcuts as follows:

1. Download and install FastScripts. (It is free for up to 10 keyboard shortcuts.)
2. Launch FastScripts.
3. From the FastScripts icon menu, go to the FastScripts submenu and choose Settings….
4. Click on the Script Shortcuts tab.
5. In the Microsoft Outlook section, double-click on (none) in the Shortcut column next to SpamSieve - Train as Good. It will enter edit mode. Type Command-Control-G to set the shortcut.
6. In the Microsoft Outlook section, double-click on (none) in the Shortcut column next to SpamSieve - Train as Spam. It will enter edit mode. Type Command-Control-S to set the shortcut.

4.7.4   Filtering Other Outlook Folders

You can use Outlook rules to automatically organize messages into folders. If you want SpamSieve to filter these additional folders (rather than just the inbox), create an additional SpamSieve inbox folder for each folder that you want to be filtered. For example, if you messages from x@y.z to end up in folder XYZ, create two folders: XYZ and InboxSpamSieveXYZ. Create an Outlook rule called InboxSpamSieve (XYZ) that moves the desired messages into folder InboxSpamSieveXYZ. When SpamSieve checks for new messages, it will move the good messages in InboxSpamSieveXYZ to XYZ and the spam messages to Junk.

4.7.5   Spam Message Categories (Outlook)

SpamSieve colors spam messages in Outlook using one of two categories:

Junk

This is for messages that you mark as spam (using the SpamSieve - Train as Spam command) and for most incoming messages that SpamSieve thinks are spam.

Uncertain Junk

This is for incoming messages that SpamSieve thinks are spam, but whose scores are below the uncertainty threshold. For more information about scores and uncertainty, see the A spam message is uncertain if preference.

To change the colors associated with these categories, choose Message ‣ Categorize ‣ Edit Categories….

To turn off the uncertain spam feature, so that all spam messages are marked using the Junk category, use the SpamSieve - Change Settings command.

Outlook 2011

Normally, both Junk and Uncertain Junk messages are put into the same Junk E-mail folder. It is also possible to separate the messages by category. To do this:

1. Create a new folder in Outlook called Uncertain Junk.
2. Create a third rule called SpamSieve - Move Uncertain Messages. It should say “If Category Is Uncertain Junk, Then Move message Uncertain Junk.”
3. Drag the new rule between the SpamSieve - Set Category and SpamSieve - Move Messages rules.

4.7.6   Separate Spam Folders for Each Account (Outlook 2011)

Normally, SpamSieve puts the spam messages from all your Outlook 2011 accounts into a single folder called Junk E-mail.

If you want to have a separate spam folder for each account, first create the requisite empty folders.

Then, instead of the single SpamSieve - Move Messages rule described in the Setting Up Outlook 2011 section, create two rules per account. For example:

1. SpamSieve - Move messages - Account 1 - Junk

   When a new message arrives: If all conditions are met:

   • Category Is Junk
   • Folder Is INBOX (Account 1)

   Do the following:

   • Move Message Junk E-mail (Account 1)

2. SpamSieve - Move messages - Account 1 - Uncertain Junk

   When a new message arrives: If all conditions are met:

   • Category Is Uncertain Junk
   • Folder Is INBOX (Account 1)

   Do the following:

   • Move Message Junk E-mail (Account 1)

And similarly create two rules for Account 2, etc.

5.1.1   About SpamSieve

The About SpamSieve window shows the credits, download and support information, and the current version numbers of SpamSieve’s plug-ins.

You can always download the latest version of SpamSieve from the SpamSieve Web site.

Questions about SpamSieve may be sent to spamsieve@c-command.com. We’re always looking to improve SpamSieve, so please feel free to send any feature requests to that address.

To make sure that you have the latest version of SpamSieve, you can use the Software Update… command.

5.1.2   Software Update…

Checking for Updates

Click the Check Now button, and SpamSieve will tell you whether a newer version is available for download. By default, SpamSieve will automatically check for new versions each time it is launched and once per day. You can disable this feature by unchecking the Check for updates automatically checkbox.

Updating

If a new version is available, SpamSieve will tell you what’s new in that version. Click Download to have SpamSieve download the .dmg file for the new version to your downloads folder. Click Download & Install to have it download the .dmg and then update the installed SpamSieve application to the new version. For more information, please see Updating From a Previous Version.

Installing a Fresh Copy

You can hold down the Option key when you click Check Now to make SpamSieve always download the latest version, even if your version is already up-to-date. This is an easy way to download and re-install a fresh copy of SpamSieve if your copy is damaged.

Privacy

To check for a new version, SpamSieve contacts a Web server at c-command.com over a secure connection. SpamSieve transmits the following information to the server: the name of the product (SpamSieve) and its version, the version of macOS, the kind of Mac and processor, whether SpamSieve has been purchased, whether it is running in dark mode, the name and version of the current mail program, and the name of the current language. This information is used to guide future development. No personal information is transmitted.

Mac App Store

If you purchased DropDMG or EagleFiler via the Mac App Store, the Software Update… menu command is not present, and updates are available via the App Store application.

5.1.3   Purchase…

When you launch SpamSieve for the first time, the Purchase window will automatically open. You can also open it by choosing Purchase… from the SpamSieve menu.

Trial/Demo Period

SpamSieve has a free trial. During the trial period, SpamSieve is fully functional; the only difference in behavior is that it will periodically remind you that you are using the trial. To use SpamSieve in trial mode, you can simply close the Purchase window.

The trial period lasts for 30 days. (After the 30 days, if you haven’t had a chance to use SpamSieve very much, you can continue using it for up to a total of 7 launches.) To use SpamSieve beyond the trial period, you must purchase it. This entitles you to free updates and support.

Purchasing

Click the Purchase Online button to enter the online store.

After Purchasing

Soon after paying, you’ll receive an e-mail with your serial number. Enter the name and serial number from the e-mail into the Purchase window and click Personalize. You do not have to “install the purchased version”; rather, SpamSieve will then know that you have purchased and you can keep using it as before—with all the preferences that you had set and data that you had entered.

Reinstalling a Previous Purchase

If you need to re-install SpamSieve, you can simply re-enter your Serial Name and Serial Number and click Personalize; there’s no need to purchase again.

If you cannot find your serial number, click the Look Up My Serial Number button. This will open a form where you can enter your e-mail address and look up your order information.

License Information

A license for SpamSieve is good for one person or one computer. This means that you can use it on your desktop Mac and your laptop, or you and your family can use it (in separate user accounts) on a shared Mac. If there are multiple users on multiple Macs, you should purchase multiple licenses. Discounts for packs of 2, 10, and 50 licenses are available above. A family (all living in the same household) can share a 2-user license. If you already have a single license, you can upgrade to a family license. To do this, e-mail your old order number to sales@c-command.com, and we’ll send you a coupon code.

Upgrade Policy

All maintenance releases (1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.6.1, etc.) and minor feature updates (1.1, 1.2, 1.5, etc.) are free. We have a track record of many such updates, and they have included significant new features. Major upgrades (2.0, 3.0) are free if you purchased the previous version within the last six months. If you purchased longer ago than that, you get a discount. (Note: The upgrade discounts are only available if you originally purchased direct from C-Command, since the Mac App Store does not support upgrades.)

Mac App Store

The Purchase… menu command is not present if you purchased via the Mac App Store. In that case, there is no trial period, and licensing is based on your iTunes account rather than the number of people or computers.

5.1.4   Mac App Store

Due to Apple’s store guidelines, SpamSieve is currently not available from the Mac App Store. It can be purchased direct from C-Command.

5.1.5   Install Apple Mail Plug-In

Note: You may need to show SpamSieve’s Dock icon in order to access the SpamSieve menu and this command.

The Install Apple Mail Plug-In command installs (or updates) the plug-in that SpamSieve uses to integrate with Apple Mail. If the plug-in is successfully installed, you will see the SpamSieve commands in Mail’s Message menu. For more information, see the Setting Up Apple Mail and Why don’t I see the SpamSieve commands in Apple Mail’s Message menu? sections of the manual.

Installing the plug-in also causes SpamSieve to install a launch agent so that the SpamSieve application will launch and be available for filtering when Apple Mail launches. On macOS 13, this will cause macOS to show a notification saying Background Items Added. This is normal. SpamSieve will show up under System Settings ‣ General ‣ Login Items ‣ Allow in the Background, and you should not uncheck it there, as that would prevent it from working with Apple Mail. The login item will automatically be removed if you choose Uninstall Apple Mail Plug-In….

A macOS 13 bug can cause the system to incorrectly and/or repeatedly report Background Items Added when SpamSieve didn’t change anything. This may stop after a safe boot. If it doesn’t, please click here to enable some additional debug logging and send in a diagnostic report after the next time the problem occurs.

5.1.6   Install Entourage Scripts

This command installs (or updates) the AppleScript files that SpamSieve uses to integrate with Entourage. Occasionally, the script files can become damaged, causing Entourage to ask you to locate the SpamSieve application each time you receive mail or try to train SpamSieve. Using this command to install fresh copies of the scripts should fix that problem.

This command also makes sure that you have an Entourage category called Uncertain Junk.

For more information, see the Setting Up Entourage section of the manual.

5.1.7   Install Outlook Scripts

This command installs (or updates) the AppleScript files that SpamSieve uses to integrate with Outlook.

This command also makes sure that you have an Outlook category called Uncertain Junk.

For more information, see the Setting Up Outlook section of the manual.

5.1.8   Show Other Scripts

This opens a folder containing AppleScript files for integrating SpamSieve with DragThing, PowerMail 4, and Mailsmith. These can be installed by dragging them into the proper locations.

Opening the containing folder (using Command-Up-Arrow) reveals the scripts for Entourage and Outlook, as well as SpamSieve’s plug-in for Apple Mail. Normally, there is no need to access these items directly, as SpamSieve can install them automatically (see above). They are accessible here in case you want to install them manually.

5.1.9   Update Address Book “Me” Card

When you use this command, SpamSieve looks at the account information for any e-mail programs that are currently running and adds any e-mail addresses that it finds to the “Me” card of Contacts (previously Address Book). The “Me” card has “me” written on top of the picture; to find it, choose Go to My Card from the Card menu. SpamSieve uses the addresses on this card to determine when a message that you receive includes your return address. This can help it detect spam messages that were forged to look like you sent them, in conjunction with the Exclude my addresses preference. Also, SpamSieve will avoid automatically creating whitelist rules for addresses listed on the “Me” card.

5.1.10   Uninstall Apple Mail Plug-In…

This command will prompt you to remove any SpamSieve Mail rules, then uninstall the SpamSieve plug-in and launch agent. The SpamSieve application and training data files will remain. SpamSieve will then quit Mail itself so that the plug-in code is unloaded.

For more information, see the Uninstalling SpamSieve section.

If you no longer want to use SpamSieve with Mail (e.g. because you are now using a different mail client), you can choose Uninstall Apple Mail Plug-In… from the SpamSieve menu. This will prevent SpamSieve from reminding you to enable the Mail plug-in.

5.2.1   Import Addresses…

This imports either good or spam e-mail addresses from a text file. For each address, a rule is created on the whitelist (or blocklist) that matches messages sent from that address. If such a rule already exists, SpamSieve makes sure that it’s enabled. Rules in the opposite list are not affected.

This feature is usually not needed, as SpamSieve will automatically create whitelist and blocklist rules based on the messages that you receive.

Many file formats are supported: the addresses can be return- or comma-delimited, or they can be mixed in with message text as part of a mbox file.

• To import addresses from Entourage, choose Export… from the File menu and select the option to Export contacts to a tab-delimited text file.
• To import addresses from Eudora, ask SpamSieve to import the Eudora Nicknames file inside the Eudora Folder (which is likely in your Documents folder).
• To import addresses from Outlook, choose Export… from the File menu and select the option for Contacts to a list (tab-delimited text).
• To import addresses from the macOS address book, open the Contacts (previously Address Book) program. Select all the names in the middle column and drag them to the desktop. This will create a .vcf file, which you can import into SpamSieve.

You may be wondering why you would want to import addresses from the macOS address book instead of using the Use macOS Contacts preference, or why you would import addresses from Entourage or Outlook instead of using the Use Entourage/Outlook address book preference. The difference is as follows. When you ask SpamSieve to use an address book directly, it will always consider messages from senders in the address book to be good—even if you receive many spam messages that are forged to appear as if they were sent by your friends.

When the addresses are imported to the whitelist, however, they are subject to SpamSieve’s normal whitelist behavior. That is, if Train SpamSieve whitelist is checked, when you receive a spam message from someone on the whitelist, SpamSieve will disable the corresponding whitelist rule. Subsequent messages from that sender will no longer be whitelisted. In short, the address book is safer because it makes sure messages from people in your address book always get through. The whitelist is less safe, but it allows you to block forged spam messages.

If you prefer the address book behavior but don’t have all of your addresses entered into the address book, you can use Import Addresses… to create whitelist rules from your addresses, and then select the rules and use this script to convert the rules into address book cards.

5.2.2   Import Corpus…

This imports the words in a corpus that was exported in XML format. This is the same format used by SpamSieve 1.x. Importing a corpus merges it with the active corpus. To replace the active corpus with the one you are importing, use the Reset Corpus… command before importing.

5.2.3   Export Corpus…

This exports the active corpus to XML format. You might do this in order to import the corpus on another machine.

5.3.1   Show Corpus

The corpus is a collection of messages, both spam and good, with which you have trained SpamSieve. SpamSieve’s Bayesian classifier analyzes the contents of the messages and uses this information to predict whether future messages are spam or good. The contents of the corpus are managed by SpamSieve; therefore, once you’ve trained SpamSieve with a message, deleting the message from your e-mail program will not affect SpamSieve because the information from that message is stored in the corpus.

The Show Corpus command opens the Corpus window so that you can examine the words that SpamSieve has found in your e-mails. You can click on the name of a column to sort by that column. Click again on the column to reverse the sort direction. The meanings of the columns are as follows:

Word

A word in the corpus.

Spam

The number of times the word has occurred in spam messages.

Good

The number of times the word has occurred in good messages.

Total

The total number of times the word has occurred.

Prob.

The probability that a message is spam, given that it contains the word (and in the absence of other evidence).

Last Used

The date that the word was added to the corpus, or the date that it last appeared in a received message (whichever is later).

You can copy the selected rows to the clipboard or drag and drop them into another application.

With the window sorted by Word, you can type the first few letters of a word to locate that word in the corpus. Similarly, you can sort by one of the other columns and type a number to locate the first word whose value for the sorted column matches the number you typed.

You can edit the spam and good counts associated with a word by double-clicking on the number in the Spam or Good column. Changing the numbers for important words can greatly affect SpamSieve’s accuracy, so you shouldn’t make changes without good reason.

You can remove words that you don’t want in the corpus by selecting them and pressing Delete.

5.3.2   Reset Corpus…

This command removes all the words and messages from the corpus. (It does not change the whitelist or blocklist.) After resetting the corpus, you can retrain SpamSieve from scratch, and SpamSieve will let you use your old messages in the retraining. Resetting the corpus and re-training SpamSieve with a proper mix of recent messages can increase SpamSieve’s accuracy and reduce its memory use.

Before you reset the corpus, SpamSieve automatically saves a backup in case you need to go back to the old corpus. The backups are saved in this folder:

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/SpamSieve/

(See the How can I open the Library folder? section.) To restore from a backup, choose Import Corpus… from the File menu and choose the appropriate Corpus <date>.plist file.

5.3.3   Show Statistics

This command opens the Statistics window, which displays the following information:

Filtered Mail

Good Messages

The number of non-spam messages that SpamSieve has filtered.

Spam Messages

The number of spam messages that SpamSieve has filtered.

Spam Messages Per Day

The average number of spam messages received per 24-hour period.

SpamSieve Accuracy

False Positives

The number of good messages that SpamSieve identified as spam.

False Negatives

The number of spam messages that SpamSieve identified as good.

% Correct

The percent of messages that SpamSieve identified correctly.

Corpus

Good Messages

The number of non-spam messages that are used to identify spam messages.

Spam Messages

The number of spam messages that are used to identify spam messages.

Total Words

The total number of unique words in the corpus.

Rules

Blocklist Rules

The number of rules on SpamSieve’s blocklist.

Whitelist Rules

The number of rules on SpamSieve’s whitelist.

You can copy all the statistics to the clipboard using the Copy command in the Edit menu or by clicking the Copy Stats button.

Normally, SpamSieve shows statistics for all the messages that it processed since it was installed. Because the accuracy and the number of messages you receive change with time, you may wish to only see recent statistics. Click the Set Date… button at the bottom of the window to control which old statistics are hidden from view. You can edit the date and time shown in the sheet, or enter an entirely new date. SpamSieve will also accept dates specified in natural language, such as “last Sunday at dinner” or “today.” The Now button enters the current date and time.

If you’ve chosen a suitable date and the “Filtered Messages” section shows zero filtered messages, that means that your mail program did not ask SpamSieve to filter any incoming messages. You should check to make sure that the mail program setup is correct.

5.3.4   Open Log

SpamSieve keeps a log of which messages it has filtered, which messages you’ve trained it with, and any errors that have occurred. The Open Log command in the Filter menu opens the log file so that you can look at it.

Normally, there is no reason (aside from curiosity) to look at the log file. However, if you believe SpamSieve is not working as it should, the log file provides useful information about what SpamSieve has done.

“Predicted: Good/Spam” Log Entries

For each incoming message, there should be a log entry that says Predicted: Good or Predicted: Spam. Here are some questions that these entries can help you answer:

1. Why did a particular spam message make it to my inbox?
   1. If there is no Predicted: Good log entry for the message, SpamSieve was never given a chance to analyze it.
      • Check the setup of your mail program, as described in the Why is SpamSieve not catching my spam? section.
   2. If there is a Predicted: Good log entry for the message, the Reason will say why SpamSieve thought the message was good. For example:
      • If it says sender <address> in address book, you might want to remove that address from address book, add it to the Me card, or else uncheck SpamSieve’s option to Use macOS Contacts. See also the How do I make SpamSieve catch spams sent from my own address? section.
      • If it says sender <address> in Entourage/Outlook address book, you might want to remove that address from Entourage’s address book (then click Load while holding down the Option key) or uncheck SpamSieve’s option to Use Entourage/Outlook address book.
      • If it says <From (address) Is Equal to "[…]"> in SpamSieve whitelist, SpamSieve thought the message was good because (a) you had trained a previous message from that sender as good, or (b) you had received a previous message from that sender, SpamSieve thought it was good for other reasons, and you had not trained the message as spam (see the Correct All Mistakes section).
      • If spam messages are being predicted as good and you don’t understand why, please send in a report.
2. Why is a particular good message in my spam mailbox?
   1. If there is no Predicted: Spam log entry for the message, SpamSieve did not move the message out of the inbox. In fact, SpamSieve was never even given a chance to analyze the message.
      • Check the setup in your mail program to make sure that the built-in junk mail filter is disabled and that SpamSieve is the only rule that moves messages to the spam mailbox.
      • Check the Why is every message going to the Spam mailbox? section to see if any of those items apply to you.
      • Check the How should I configure the junk filter on my mail server? section in case the message is being classified as spam before it even gets to your Mac.
   2. If there is a Predicted: Spam log entry for the message, the Reason will say why SpamSieve thought the message was spam.
      • If good messages are being predicted as spam and you don’t understand why, please send in a report.

“Trained: Good/Spam (Manual)” Log Entries

These log entries represent messages that you had trained as good or spam using the menu commands in your mail program.

“Trained: Good/Spam (Auto)” Log Entries

These log entries represent messages that SpamSieve auto-trained. It’s normal for SpamSieve to auto-train a message as good if it thinks that the message isn’t spam. This will add the sender to the whitelist to ensure that future messages from that sender get through to your inbox. If you later train the message as spam, SpamSieve will disable (uncheck) the whitelist rule. Thus, auto-training should not ordinarily cause problems unless you receive a large flurry of messages from the same sender address, or if you forget to train the message as spam and then the address remains enabled on the whitelist. For more information, see the Auto-train with incoming mail section.

Searching the Log

If you have a question about a particular message, you can search the log to see whether there’s a Predicted entry for it. It’s best to search the log using Console’s Edit ‣ Find ‣ Find… command, rather than the Filter search field in the toolbar.

You may also find it easier to search by using the Edit Log command.

Accessing the Log Files

SpamSieve stores its log in the folder:

/Users/<username>/Library/Logs/SpamSieve/

(See the How can I open the Library folder? section.) If you find that the logs are taking up too much disk space, you can delete the .bz2 files at any time.

Help With the Log

The Sending in the SpamSieve Log File section describes how you can e-mail your log file to spamsieve@c-command.com if you need help interpreting it.

5.3.5   Edit Log

This command opens the log file in a text editor such as TextEdit or TextWrangler instead of Console. This makes it easier to read and search large log files. You can control which editor SpamSieve uses by choosing Get Info in the Finder on a .txt file, changing the application in the Open with pane, and pressing Change All.

5.3.6   Show Blocklist

The Show Blocklist command in the Filter menu opens the Blocklist window. The blocklist consists of a list of rules. If a message matches one or more enabled rules on the blocklist (and Use SpamSieve blocklist is checked), SpamSieve will predict that it is spam. As always, SpamSieve does not prevent you from receiving the spam messages; rather, the blocklist ensures that they will go to the spam mailbox rather than the inbox. You can also configure Apple Mail so that the blocklisted messages go directly to the trash.

The counterpart to the blocklist is the whitelist.

Creating Rules

There is normally no need for you to manually create or delete blocklist rules because SpamSieve learns to recognize your spam automatically. Thus, it’s OK if you receive spam from constantly changing addresses; you don’t have to worry about creating blocklist rules to match all of them. If a lot of spam is in your inbox, your first step should be to follow the instructions in Why is SpamSieve not catching my spam? rather than to create blocklist rules that may not be needed or even used (e.g. if the real problem is that your mail program isn’t set up properly).

Rules and Training

By default, the Train SpamSieve blocklist preference is enabled. This means that SpamSieve will automatically create blocklist rules when you train a message as spam. You won’t get spam from the same address or sender name twice.

SpamSieve will also disable (uncheck) matching blocklist rules when you train a message as good. This prevents a bad blocklist rule from blocking similar good messages.

Editing Rules

You can edit a rule’s Header or Match Style by clicking in the corresponding column and choosing from the pop-up menu. To edit a rule’s Text to Match, double-click the text. For more information about the available options see the Rule Columns, Headers, and Match Styles section.

Deleting and Disabling Rules

You can delete a rule from the blocklist by selecting it and pressing Delete. Generally, there is little reason to delete rules. SpamSieve is optimized such that having lots of rules does not reduce performance.

If you don’t like what a rule is doing, you should uncheck the rule rather than deleting it. This will prevent SpamSieve from re-learning the rule automatically (see “Rules and Training” above). For example, say that you get forged spam messages from your own address. When you receive such a message, and tell SpamSieve that it’s spam, any rule on the whitelist with your address would be disabled. This will enable future such spam messages to be caught. If you later get a legitimate message from your own address and tell SpamSieve that it’s good, the whitelist rule will remain disabled, so SpamSieve will still be able to catch that spam. If you had previously deleted the rule instead of disabling it, telling SpamSieve that the message was good would create a new, enabled whitelist rule, which would prevent those spam messages from being caught.

Blocklisting Domains and Countries

You can tell SpamSieve to classify every message from a particular domain as spam. For example, to block every message from Spammy Company, open the Blocklist window, click the + button, and create a rule that says From (address) Ends With @spammycompany.com. You can also create rules for particular countries. For example, to block every message from an e-mail address in Nigeria, create a rule that says From (address) Ends With .ng

Blocking Messages to Invalid Addresses

If you have your own domain name, it’s best to configure the server not to have a catch-all address because that would lead to your receiving spam messages send to addresses that are not even valid. SpamSieve could filter out those spams, but it’s better if you can avoid downloading them and cluttering your spam mailbox in the first place.

If you cannot configure your server in that way, you can use the Matches Regex match style to create a blocklist rule that matches messages sent to invalid addresses at your domain. For example, this regex:

^.*(?<!^sales|^support)@domain\.com$

would match all messages where the match field ends with @domain.com but is not sales@domain.com or support@domain.com.

Finding Rules

You can type the first few letters of a rule’s Text to Match to quickly locate that rule, or use the search field in the toolbar to focus on a group of related rules.

Exporting Addresses

You can use the Copy Whitelist/Blocklist Addresses script to get a list of addresses, e.g. to add to the configuration of a server-side spam filter.

Troubleshooting Rules

Blocklist rules will not match a message if:

• One of the Filters above the blocklist classified the message as good.
• The blocklist rule is disabled.
• The mail program did not send the message to SpamSieve for analysis. See the Why is SpamSieve not catching my spam? section.

5.3.7   Show Whitelist

The Show Whitelist command in the Filter menu opens the Whitelist window. The whitelist consists of a list of rules. If a message matches one or more enabled rules on the whitelist (and Use SpamSieve whitelist is checked), SpamSieve will predict that it is good. The whitelist is most commonly used for matching messages sent from particular addresses, domains, or mailing lists.

The counterpart to the whitelist is the blocklist.

Creating Rules

There is normally no need for you to manually create or delete whitelist rules because SpamSieve learns to recognize your good automatically. If a lot of good messages are in your Spam mailbox, your first steps should be to check the setup in your mail program and to check the log rather that to create whitelist rules.

Rules and Training

By default, the Train SpamSieve whitelist preference is enabled. This means that SpamSieve will automatically create whitelist rules when you train a message as good. Once you receive one good message from a person, all future messages will get through to your inbox.

SpamSieve will also disable matching whitelist rules when you train a message as spam. This prevents a bad whitelist rule from letting through similar spam messages.

By default, the Auto-train with incoming mail preference is enabled. This means that if you receive a message that SpamSieve thinks is good, SpamSieve will automatically add whitelist rules so that future messages from that same sender are also classified as good. Thus, it is important to correct all the mistakes to avoid having incorrect whitelist rules.

Editing Rules

You can edit a rule’s Header or Match Style by clicking in the corresponding column and choosing from the pop-up menu. To edit a rule’s Text to Match, double-click the text. For more information about the available options see the Rule Columns, Headers, and Match Styles section.

Deleting and Disabling Rules

You can delete a rule from the whitelist by selecting it and pressing Delete. Generally, there is little reason to delete rules. SpamSieve is optimized such that having lots of rules does not reduce performance.

Spammy Whitelist Rules

It is normal to see spammy rules on the whitelist that are unchecked. This is because of auto-training. When SpamSieve thinks an incoming message is good, SpamSieve also adds a rule to the whitelist. SpamSieve may be wrong about that message, and that’s OK. If SpamSieve makes a mistake and lets a spam message through, when you train the message as spam it will disable the corresponding whitelist rules. The rules will then be shown as unchecked. A disabled rule won’t match any messages, so it won’t cause any spam to get through.

If you see spammy rules that are checked, this is not normal. It means that you have not been correcting all the mistakes.

Do not delete spammy whitelist rules. This is almost never a good idea:

• If the rules are disabled, you should leave them in place to prevent SpamSieve from creating those incorrect rules again in the future.
• If the rules are enabled, you should find the spam messages from those addresses and train them as spam. Not only will this disable the rules, but it will also update SpamSieve’s corpus and statistics.

Whitelisting Domains

You can tell SpamSieve to classify every message from a particular domain as good. For example, to whitelist every message from Apple, open the Whitelist window, click the + button, and create a rule that says From (address) Ends With @apple.com.

Mailing List Messages

The whitelist has special support for mailing lists. If you train SpamSieve with a good message from a mailing list, it will add a rule to the whitelist that matches the message’s mailing list header (List-ID, List-Unsubscribe, or Mailing-List). Then SpamSieve will know that all messages from that mailing list are good, regardless of who sent them.

Codewords

You can use the whitelist to create codewords. For instance, you could create a rule in the whitelist that matches subjects containing “eggplant” (or some other word unlikely to occur in regular mail). You can tell select people to put “eggplant” in the subject of messages that they send you, and then you can be assured that their messages will get through, even if the sender addresses are not in your address book or whitelist.

Finding Rules

You can type the first few letters of a rule’s Text to Match to quickly locate that rule, or use the search field in the toolbar to focus on a group of related rules.

Exporting Addresses

You can use the Copy Whitelist/Blocklist Addresses script to get a list of addresses, e.g. to add to the configuration of a server-side spam filter.

Troubleshooting Rules

Whitelist rules will not match a message if:

• One of the Filters above the whitelist classified the message as spam.
• The whitelist rule is disabled.
• The mail program did not send the message to SpamSieve for analysis. See the Open Log section.

5.3.8   Add Rule

This command creates a new rule in either the whitelist or blocklist. This is useful if you want to add your own rules to the whitelist or blocklist, rather than having SpamSieve learn the rules when you train it with messages. For example, you could create a blocklist rule to catch spam messages with a particular subject, or a whitelist rule to always accept messages sent from a certain domain.

6.1.1   Check for message in corpus

SpamSieve learns as you train it, but training is not instant. Training SpamSieve with a message will not necessarily give it enough information to classify that message correctly based only on the words in the message. However, once you have added a message to the corpus, SpamSieve knows whether it is good or spam, even though it might not make the correct prediction based on word probabilities. This option causes SpamSieve to see if it knows whether a message is good or spam before trying to calculate its spam probability. This is especially useful when testing the setup in your mail program. If SpamSieve has seen the message before, it will always classify it correctly. You can disable this option if you want to see what SpamSieve would have predicted if it did not already know whether the message was good or spam.

6.1.2   Use macOS Contacts

With this option enabled, SpamSieve will never predict a message to be spam if its sender’s e-mail address is in the Contacts (previously Address Book) application.

You can add addresses to the system address book using the Contacts or Address Book application (located in the /Applications folder), or directly from an e-mail program that supports the system address book.

If spam messages get through to your inbox because they are sent from addresses in your address book, you can either uncheck Use macOS Contacts or see the Exclude my addresses section. For more information, please see the How do I make SpamSieve catch spams sent from my own address? section.

Access to Your Contacts

The first time you use SpamSieve to filter messages, it will ask for permission to access your contacts. You can change the access setting by opening System Settings, going to the Security & Privacy pane, clicking on the Privacy tab, clicking on Contacts in the list, and checking or unchecking SpamSieve.app. (Please note that the applications in the list are not sorted alphabetically.)

Repeated Access Prompts

If the system keeps asking you for permission to access your contacts and does not remember this between launches:

• You may need to reset the privacy database by entering this command in Terminal:

  tccutil reset AddressBook
  

• Your copy of SpamSieve may be damaged. Please see the Reinstalling a Fresh Copy section.

Mail Client Address Books

Entourage users may prefer to use Entourage’s address book as a whitelist instead of Apple’s. This is described in the Setting Up Entourage section.

PowerMail users should be sure to enable the option to use Apple’s address book.

6.1.3   Exclude my addresses

Enable this option so that spam messages with your own return address are not marked as good. (Spammers sometimes forge the return address to be your own, in an attempt to get through spam filters.) Disable this option if you send yourself messages and want to make sure that they are never marked as spam. SpamSieve looks on the “Me” card in Apple’s Contacts (previously Address Book) application to determine which addresses are yours. The easiest way to add your addresses to the “Me” card is to open your mail program and then use SpamSieve’s Update Address Book “Me” Card command.

You can also use this feature to catch spam messages sent from certain addresses in your address book. Normally, if you have Use macOS Contacts checked, messages from addresses in your address book will never be classified as spam. This is generally what you want, but there may be one or two particular addresses that spammers keep forging. By using Exclude my addresses and adding those addresses to the “Me” card in Contacts, you can get SpamSieve to analyze the full contents of those messages to determine whether they are spam. SpamSieve will continue to use the other addresses in the address book as before, always classifying messages from them as good.

For more information, please see the How do I make SpamSieve catch spams sent from my own address? section.

Excluding Extra Addresses

You can use Terminal to add additional addresses that you want to exclude but that are not listed on the “Me” card. Enter a command such as:

defaults write com.c-command.SpamSieve ExtraAddressesToExclude -array a@b.com d@e.com

To remove the list of addresses to exclude, enter this command:

defaults delete com.c-command.SpamSieve ExtraAddressesToExclude

Changes take effect the next time you launch SpamSieve. You can see which extra addresses are excluded by entering this command:

defaults read com.c-command.SpamSieve ExtraAddressesToExclude

6.1.4   Use Entourage/Outlook address book

With this option enabled, SpamSieve will never predict a message to be spam if its sender’s e-mail address is in the contacts list for Entourage or Outlook. When you install SpamSieve, you should click the Load button to make SpamSieve read in the addresses in the Entourage or Outlook address book. The addresses are loaded into SpamSieve’s memory and stored in its preferences file, but they are not displayed in the Whitelist window because they are not whitelist rules.

Re-loading Addresses

Whenever you add addresses to the Entourage or Outlook address book, you should go back to SpamSieve’s settings and click Load so that SpamSieve learns about the new addresses. (This is not necessary for addresses that have already sent you e-mails, as SpamSieve will automatically see those messages and add the addresses to its whitelist.)

If you remove addresses from the Entourage or Outlook address book, you should hold down the Option key when clicking Load; this tells SpamSieve to forget the old addresses before loading the new ones. Do not click Load while Entourage or Outlook is downloading and filtering mail, as this may cause it to freeze.

Your Own Addresses

If you have Exclude my addresses checked, addresses on the macOS Contacts app’s “Me” card will not be checked against Entourage or Outlook’s address book. This helps prevent forged spams from getting through. For more information, please see the How do I make SpamSieve catch spams sent from my own address? section.

Multiple Identities

If you have multiple Entourage or Outlook identities, you can load the addresses into SpamSieve in sequence. Click Load, then change to another identity and click Load again, etc.

Sync Services

Prior to macOS 10.8, Entourage and Outlook could automatically synchronize their address books with the system address book using a technology called Sync Services. SpamSieve could access the system address book directly, so there was no need for SpamSieve to load the addresses from Entourage or Outlook. As of macOS 10.8, Apple has deprecated Sync Services, and customers report that it no longer works reliably. Thus, it is recommended that you use the Use Entourage/Outlook address book option instead.

6.1.5   Use SpamSieve whitelist

Enable this option so that messages that match (enabled) rules on the SpamSieve whitelist are never marked as spam.

6.1.6   Use SpamSieve blocklist

Enable this option so that messages that match (enabled) rules on the SpamSieve blocklist are always marked as spam.

6.1.7   Use Habeas Safelist

The Habeas Safelist is list of senders who agree to only send e-mail that meets Habeas’ stringent compliance requirements. With this option checked, SpamSieve will consider a message to be non-spam if finds the sending mail server’s IP address on the Habeas Safelist. This entails contacting Habeas’ server to lookup the address, but there is little performance penalty for doing this, since SpamSieve only contacts the server when the message contains Habeas headers:

X-Habeas-SWE-1: winter into spring
X-Habeas-SWE-2: brightly anticipated
X-Habeas-SWE-3: like Habeas SWE (tm)
X-Habeas-SWE-4: Copyright 2002 Habeas (tm)
X-Habeas-SWE-5: Sender Warranted Email (SWE) (tm). The sender of this
X-Habeas-SWE-6: email in exchange for a license for this Habeas
X-Habeas-SWE-7: warrant mark warrants that this is a Habeas Compliant
X-Habeas-SWE-8: Message (HCM) and not spam. Please report use of this
X-Habeas-SWE-9: mark in spam to <http://www.habeas.com/report/>.

or:

Accreditor: Habeas
X-Habeas-Report: Please report use of this mark in spam to <http://www.habeas.com/report/>

6.1.8   “ADV” messages are spam

This option causes SpamSieve to always mark messages as spam if they contain some variant of “ADV” at the start of the subject line. The “ADV” marker is used by some commercial bulk mailers.

6.1.9   Encoded HTML mail is spam

Many spammers encode the contents of their messages with base-64 so that filters cannot see the incriminating words they contain. SpamSieve can decode and look inside these messages. This option causes it to mark all such as spam, regardless of their contents, on the theory that legitimate senders do not try to obscure their messages. This does not affect messages encrypted with PGP or unencoded HTML messages.

6.1.10   Use Bayesian classifier

This enables SpamSieve’s main spam detector, which uses the corpus and word probabilities to identify spam messages. If you uncheck Use Bayesian classifier, SpamSieve will stop examining the full contents of the incoming messages, so this should only be done for testing purposes.

6.2.1   Play sound

This makes SpamSieve play a sound when new good messages are received (as described in the Notification section). To add a sound to the menu, copy the sound file to the Sounds folder in your Library folder. (See the How can I open the Library folder? section.) SpamSieve will also look for sounds that are built into your installed e-mail programs.

You can adjust the Alert volume in the Sound Effects tab of the Sound pane in System Settings. If the volume is set to zero, the Mac flashes the screen instead of playing the sound.

If you are not hearing the sounds, make sure that you have selected an appropriate speaker in the Play sound effects through pop-up menu.

6.2.2   Bounce Dock icon

This makes SpamSieve bounce its Dock icon once when new good messages are received.

6.2.3   Keep bouncing

You might not be looking at the Dock icon when it first bounces, so this makes SpamSieve continue bouncing its Dock icon until you activate SpamSieve or your e-mail program.

6.2.4   Show number of new good messages in Dock

This option makes SpamSieve show the number of new good messages in its Dock icon. “New” means “since the last time the number was reset”; it’s not related to the number of messages that are unread. “Good messages” means “messages for which there is a Predicted: Good entry in SpamSieve’s log.”

If there are no new good messages or if SpamSieve or the mail program is frontmost, SpamSieve will not show any number (rather than showing zero).

Clicking the Dock icon, activating your e-mail program, or training SpamSieve with a message will reset the count.

The slider lets you control the size of the number in the Dock icon.

If you’re using DragThing 5.3 or later, SpamSieve can show the message count in its tile in DragThing’s process dock.

6.2.5   Flash PowerMate

If you have a Griffin PowerMate, this option will make it flash when new good messages arrive. The flashing will stop when you activate SpamSieve or your mail program.

This feature is compatible with version 3.0 of the PowerMate software.

6.2.6   A spam message is uncertain if

SpamSieve assigns each message a score between 0 and 100, and it considers messages with scores 50 or greater to be spam. The farther the score is away from the middle (50), the more confident SpamSieve is about whether the message is spam. Put another way, if you are trying to double-check SpamSieve’s work, you should focus your attention on the messages with scores closer to 50. If SpamSieve has made any mistakes, it is more likely to be with messages scored at 70 or 30 than with those scored at 95 or 5.

Spam messages that SpamSieve thought were good (false negatives) are generally easy for humans to spot. They tend to stick out amongst lots of good messages in the inbox.

Good messages that SpamSieve thought were spam (false positives) are harder to spot. They can be buried amongst piles of messages in the spam folder. To help you find these messages, SpamSieve can notify you about uncertain spam messages, i.e. the messages in the spam folder that you should focus your attention on.

The pop-up menu lets you control the range of scores that SpamSieve considers to be uncertain. For example, if you set it to 75 (the default), messages that SpamSieve thought were spam but which have scores below 75 will be considered uncertain.

• Growl will show a notification bubble for each uncertain message. For more information, see the Use Growl global notification system section.
• In Outlook, the uncertain messages will be categorized as Uncertain Junk instead of Junk and will appear in a different color. For more information, see the Spam Message Categories (Outlook) section.

By making it easier to spot uncertain messages, these mechanisms help you to efficiently verify whether SpamSieve has filtered your mail correctly.

Uncertain messages are considered to be spam, unless you tell SpamSieve otherwise, so you should not train SpamSieve that they are spam.

6.2.7   Use Growl global notification system

Growl is a third-party application that can enhance SpamSieve’s notification abilities. Once you have downloaded and installed Growl, the next time SpamSieve is launched it will use Growl to notify you when new messages arrive. If you are not using Growl, turn off this option in order to improve performance.

Growl is not available on Apple Silicon Macs, unless SpamSieve is running in Rosetta (which is not recommended due to a macOS bug).

The following notifications are available:

Good Message Count

This notification mimics the red number in SpamSieve’s Dock icon (see Show number of new good messages in Dock). After a batch of good messages arrives, it tells you how many new messages there are and then fades away.

Good Messages (in Address Book)

This posts one notification for each good message that arrives (where the sender is in your address book), showing the message’s subject, the first few lines of its body, and (if possible) a picture of the sender.

Good Messages (Not in Address Book)

This posts one notification for each good message that arrives (where the sender is not in your address book), showing the message’s subject and the first few lines of its body.

Uncertain Spam

This notification helps you spot false positives by telling you when a message has arrived that SpamSieve thinks is spam, but that may actually be good. For more information, see the A spam message is uncertain if preference. By watching these notifications, you can spot false positives without having to look through the entire contents of the spam folder in your mail program. Unlike the other notifications, Uncertain Spam notifications will persist until you click to dismiss them. Clicking to close the notification does not change whether SpamSieve thinks the message is spam. For messages that are actually spam, you don’t need to do anything. For messages that are not spam, you should find the message in your mail program’s spam mailbox and train it as good.

You can customize the notification style and enable/disable notifications:

Growl 2.x

Open the Growl application and choose Preferences… from the Growl menu. Click on the Applications tab and select SpamSieve at the left of the window.

Growl 1.3.x

Choose Open Growl Preferences… from the Growl menu.

Growl 1.2

Open the Growl pane in System Preferences.

6.2.8   Include message bodies

Growl notifications always include the message’s subject and sender. This setting controls whether they also include the first few lines of the message’s body. Including the message body provides more context, which is particularly useful for Uncertain Spam notifications, but it also uses more screen space.

6.3.1   Allow duplicates in corpus

If you allow duplicate messages in the corpus, training SpamSieve with the same message twice will increase the corpus counts for the words in that message. If you do not allow duplicate messages, the second and subsequent trainings with that message will have no effect. By default, duplicate messages are not allowed in the corpus. This is nice because it means that you do not have to remember which messages you have already trained SpamSieve with; accidentally training with the same message more than once will not skew the data that you are providing to SpamSieve. If you wish to intentionally skew the data, you can check one or both boxes to allow duplicates.

6.3.2   Auto-train with incoming mail

This option causes SpamSieve to automatically train itself with newly received messages based on their predicted categories. The whitelist will stay up-to-date so that messages from previous correspondents are never marked as spam. Also, after the initial training you would only need to train SpamSieve to correct its mistakes. It would automatically learn from the other new messages, as needed, trying to keep a proper balance of good and spam messages in the corpus. As the corpus increases in size, the rate of auto-training will automatically decrease to prevent it from growing too large.

Most SpamSieve users should keep auto-training on at all times. Reasons that you might turn it off include:

Testing Purposes

If you’re trying to figure out why SpamSieve is processing a certain kind of message in a certain way, turning off auto-training reduces the interactions among SpamSieve’s components and makes it easier to see what’s happening.

Unable to Correct Mistakes

When auto-training is enabled, it is imperative that you correct SpamSieve when it makes a mistake; otherwise it will “learn” things that aren’t true and begin making predictions based on that incorrect information. If your mail program and filters are set up such that you cannot tell when SpamSieve has made a mistake (or if you can see the mistakes but sometimes forget to correct them), then you should not use auto-training.

Multiple Copies of SpamSieve

If you are using multiple copies of SpamSieve (on different Macs) to filter the same IMAP account, it’s hard to know which one(s) to correct when a mistake is made. With auto-training off, you don’t have to worry about that.

Bulk Processing

For example, if SpamSieve will be processing a large number of incoming messages in a row, and you will not be able to correct any mistakes until later. In this case, using auto-training could magnify one or two mistakes into many, as SpamSieve would assume that it had classified the earlier messages correctly, and learned from that (possibly incorrect) assumption.

Delayed Corrections

If it will be a long time between when SpamSieve filters some messages and when you can correct any mistakes, the situation is similar to Bulk Processing, so you may want to turn off auto-training. If you’ll be away from your SpamSieve Mac but have other mail access, you can eliminate the delay by using remote traininng. See the Setting Up a Spam Filtering Drone section.

6.3.3   Train SpamSieve whitelist

With this option enabled, training SpamSieve with a good message will add the message sender’s name and address to SpamSieve’s whitelist. This will make SpamSieve classify all future messages from that sender as good. Training SpamSieve with a spam message will disable the name and address if they appear in the whitelist (unless you’ve changed DisableWhitelistRules in the esoteric preferences).

Example

You receive an Amazon order receipt and train SpamSieve with it as a good message. This puts auto-confirm@amazon.com on the whitelist so that future order receipts are always marked as good. A spammer might decide that auto-confirm@amazon.com would make a good fake return address. If you receive such a spam, SpamSieve would mark it as good because the sender was on the whitelist. If you then tell SpamSieve that the message is spam, it will disable the whitelist rule so that it can catch future spam messages with that return address.

6.3.4   Train SpamSieve blocklist

With this option enabled, training SpamSieve with a spam message will add the message sender’s name and address to SpamSieve’s blocklist. This will make SpamSieve classify all future messages from that sender as spam. Training SpamSieve with a good message will disable the sender’s name and address if they appear in the blocklist.

6.3.5   Train Bayesian classifier

With this option enabled, training SpamSieve with a message will add the words from that message to SpamSieve’s corpus. It is highly recommended that you train the Bayesian classifier, as it is what SpamSieve uses to catch most spam messages.

6.4.1   Spam-catching strategy

This slider lets you adjust SpamSieve’s bias. The bias controls how aggressive SpamSieve’s Bayesian classifier is at catching spam. When SpamSieve is more aggressive, it is better at catching spam messages that share some characteristics with your good mail. When SpamSieve is more conservative, it will be better at marking borderline messages such as order confirmations and press releases as good. This setting is very powerful, and most users should stick to the middle range. It is also not a substitute for training SpamSieve or making sure that it’s setup properly. Only change the bias if SpamSieve is consistently making errors in the same direction.

6.4.2   Save false negatives to disk

False negatives are spam messages that SpamSieve examined but didn’t think were spam. This option causes SpamSieve to save such messages for later analysis. Clicking the Show button in the Advanced settings opens the folder containing the saved messages. You can e-mail this folder, along with SpamSieve’s log file, to spamsieve-fn@c-command.com. By looking at the messages that SpamSieve missed, we can improve its algorithms to catch such messages in the future.

No False Negatives Files

If the False Negatives folder is empty, even after enabling Save false negatives to disk and training SpamSieve with an uncaught spam message, there is probably a setup problem in your mail program. Use the Open Log command to see whether SpamSieve made a prediction for that message.

Anti-Virus Alerts

It is OK for your anti-virus software to find viruses in the False Negatives folder. For more information, see the Does SpamSieve protect me from viruses? section. If you don’t want to see anti-virus alerts, you can either exclude the False Negatives folder from scans or uncheck Save false negatives to disk and delete all the files in that folder.

6.4.3   Use photo-realistic Dock icon

This option causes SpamSieve to use a more modern Dock icon, which may or may not fit in better with your other Dock icons.

6.4.4   Quit when mail client quits

With this checked, SpamSieve will quit itself when you quit an e-mail program, provided that there are no other mail programs running. This prevents SpamSieve’s icon from filling up your Dock when it’s not actually being used (unless you have Show recent applications in Dock checked in the Dock pane of System Settings).

7.1.1   Checking the Apple Mail Setup

1. If you do not see the SpamSieve training commands in Mail’s Message menu, choose Install Apple Mail Plug-In from the SpamSieve menu. There is more information about this in the Why don’t I see the SpamSieve commands in Apple Mail’s Message menu? section.
2. Make sure that SpamSieve has Full Disk Access and Automation access to control Mail (if you are using macOS 10.14 or later).
3. Go to the Junk pane of Mail’s Settings window and make sure that Enable junk mail filtering is unchecked.
4. Go to the Rules pane of Mail’s Settings window and make sure that you have a rule like the one shown in the Setting Up Apple Mail section:
   1. Make sure there is a check mark next to the SpamSieve rule, indicating that it’s active.
   2. Make sure that the rule’s name starts with SpamSieve.
   3. Make sure that the rule’s conditions say Every Message.
   4. Make sure that the rule does not have any Set Color actions.
   5. Make sure there are no other rules that move spam messages to another mailbox or the trash. (Exception: in rare cases, you may want to create an “unwanted messages” rule, as described in the Correct All Mistakes section.)
   6. Drag the SpamSieve rule to the top of the list, if it isn’t there already. (Exceptions: If you’re using the drone setup, the Remote Training rule should be above the SpamSieve rule. If you are using an “unwanted messages”, as in (e), it should be above the SpamSieve rule.)
   7. Even if the rule looks correct, it can help to delete it and create a new one. (If you do this, be sure to click Don’t Apply when it asks whether you want to re-apply the rules.)
5. iCloud syncing can cause problems with Apple Mail. If you are not actually using Mail on multiple Macs, you can turn off its iCloud support to prevent these problems. On macOS 10.10 or later, open System Settings, click on iCloud, click the Options… button next to iCloud Drive, then uncheck Mail.app.
6. If training a spam message in the inbox as spam does not cause it to change color and move to the spam mailbox, please see Duplicate Apple Mail Accounts section. If you are using macOS 10.14 or later, check that SpamSieve has Automation access and that you are not using the workarounds for Faster Apple Mail Training.

Testing That the Rule Works

1. Select a spam message in Mail.

2. Choose SpamSieve - Train as Spam from the Message menu to tell SpamSieve that it is spam. (If messages don’t move to the spam mailbox when trained, please see the Duplicate Apple Mail Accounts section.)

3. Drag the message to your inbox and select it again.

4. Choose Apply Rules from the Message menu.

   Note: This will also apply your other Mail rules.

If the message moved to the Junk mailbox after Step 4, the rule worked. SpamSieve will be able to catch other messages like this if it’s properly configured and trained.

If the message did not move to the spam mailbox, there is some other problem with Mail or SpamSieve. Please contact technical support and explain what happened when you followed these instructions.

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Mail/Plug-ins/

7.1.2   Checking the Airmail Setup

The Setting Up Airmail section describes how to set up Airmail to filter your mail using SpamSieve.

• The SpamSieve application must be stored directly in your Applications folder, as shown in the Installing SpamSieve section.
• In Airmail’s Settings ‣ Accounts ‣ Mapping, each account must have a Spam folder configured.
• Make sure that Airmail has Automation access to control SpamSieve (if you are using macOS 10.14 or later).

To test that the setup works:

1. When you receive a new message, note its subject.
2. Click on SpamSieve’s icon in the Dock.
3. Choose Open Log from the SpamSieve menu.

The setup is correct if there’s a log entry (near the bottom) that says Predicted: Good or Predicted: Spam and shows the subject for the new message.

If you don’t see the expected log entries for new messages:

1. Uncheck Use SpamSieve in Airmail’s settings.
2. Quit Airmail, and then launch Airmail.
3. Check Use SpamSieve in Airmail’s settings.
4. Repeat the steps above to test whether the setup works.

If you don’t see the expected log entries for new messages, please contact technical support and explain what happened when you followed these instructions.

Messages Classified as Spam But Not Moved to Spam Mailbox

If you see spam messages in your inbox, it might be because SpamSieve thought they were good, but it might also be that SpamSieve thought they were spam but Airmail was unable to move them to the Spam mailbox. To see whether this is the case:

1. Choose Open Log from the SpamSieve menu. If the log entries for the messages in question say Predicted: Spam, that means that SpamSieve did correctly classify them as spam.
2. From Airmail’s Window menu, choose Operations. This will show a log of Airmail’s actions, which may provide clues about messages that Airmail tried to move out of the inbox.

7.1.3   Checking the Entourage Setup

1. Choose Install Entourage Scripts from the SpamSieve menu.
2. Choose Junk E-mail protection… from Entourage’s Tools menu and make sure it’s set to None.
3. Choose Mailing List Manager from Entourage’s Tools menu. If there are any rules, for each rule click on the Advanced tab and make sure that Do not apply rules to list messages is unchecked. (If you continue to experience problems, try unchecking each rule itself, to disable it.)
4. Choose Rules… from Entourage’s Tools menu and make sure that you’ve created two SpamSieve rules, as shown in the Setting Up Entourage section:
   1. Make sure that the rules are of the proper type. That is, if you have a POP mail account, you need two POP rules; if you have an IMAP account, you need two IMAP rules.
   2. Make sure that the SpamSieve - Move Messages rule says “if any criteria” rather than “if all criteria.”
   3. Make sure that the SpamSieve rules are at the top of the list.
   4. Make sure that the SpamSieve - Move If Spam rule is above the SpamSieve - Move Messages rule.
   5. Make sure both SpamSieve rules have check marks next to their names, indicating that they are enabled.
   6. Make sure there are no other rules that move messages to the Junk E-mail folder.

To test that the rules work:

1. Select a spam message in Entourage.
2. Choose SpamSieve - Train Spam from the Scripts menu to tell SpamSieve that it is spam.
3. Change the category of the message to None (using Edit ‣ Categories ‣ None).
4. Choose Apply Rule ‣ SpamSieve - Move If Spam from the Message menu.

If the message’s category was changed to Junk after Step 4, the rule worked. SpamSieve will be able to catch other messages like this if it’s properly configured and trained.

If the message’s category did not change to Junk, there is some other problem with Entourage or SpamSieve. Please contact technical support and explain what happened when you followed these instructions.

7.1.4   Checking the GyazMail Setup

1. Make sure that you have followed the instructions in the Setting Up GyazMail section.
2. Make sure that the SpamSieve rule is at the top of the list.
3. If you are using macOS 10.14 or later, make sure that GyazMail has Automation access to control SpamSieve.

To test that the rules work:

1. Select a spam message in GyazMail.
2. From the Message menu, choose Junk ‣ Mark as Junk.
3. Drag the message back to your inbox and select it there.
4. From the Message menu, choose Apply Rule ‣ All Rules.

If the message moves back to your spam mailbox, the rule worked. SpamSieve will be able to catch other messages like this if it’s properly configured and trained.

Otherwise, there is some other problem with GyazMail or SpamSieve. Please contact technical support and explain what happened when you followed these instructions.

7.1.5   Checking the MailMate Setup

1. Make sure that you have followed the instructions in the Setting Up MailMate section.
2. If you are using macOS 10.14 or later, make sure that MailMate has Automation access to control SpamSieve.
3. If you are using an Apple Silicon Mac, make sure that you are using version r5782 of MailMate or later to work around a suspected bug in Rosetta.

To test that the setup works:

1. When you receive a new message, note its subject.
2. Click on SpamSieve’s icon in the Dock.
3. Choose Open Log from the SpamSieve menu.

The setup is correct if there’s a log entry (near the bottom) that says Predicted: Good or Predicted: Spam and shows the subject for the new message.

If you don’t see the expected log entries for new messages, please contact technical support and explain what happened when you followed these instructions.

It may also help to enable MailMate debug logging by entering this command in Terminal:

defaults write com.freron.MailMate DebugSpamDetection -bool YES

7.1.6   Checking the Mailsmith Setup

The Setting Up Mailsmith section describes how to set up Mailsmith to filter your mail using SpamSieve.

1. Make sure that you are using version 2.3.1 or later of Mailsmith.
2. Make sure that Use SpamSieve is checked in the preferences. If that option is disabled:
   1. Make sure you have only one copy each of Mailsmith and SpamSieve installed. If there are any old versions in the trash, empty the trash.
   2. Launch SpamSieve directly from the Finder, by double-clicking its icon. (Do not use the Dock icon or an application launcher.)
   3. Launch Mailsmith (again, by double-clicking its icon).
   4. Open Mailsmith’s Preferences window, and verify that the Use SpamSieve option is enabled.
3. If you are using the Leave it in “(incoming mail)” option, make sure that a deposit or transfer filter isn’t acting on the spam messages before your spam filter can.
4. To test the connection between Mailsmith and SpamSieve, select a message and choose Recalculate Spam Score from Mailsmith’s Message menu. Then choose Open Log in SpamSieve and verify that a “Predicted” entry for that message was added to the log.

7.1.7   Checking the Outlook 2011 Setup

1. Make sure that Outlook has Automation access to control SpamSieve (if you are using macOS 10.14 or later).
2. Choose Install Outlook Scripts from the SpamSieve menu.
3. Choose Junk E-mail protection… from Outlook’s Tools menu and make sure it’s set to None.
4. Choose Mailing List Manager… from Outlook’s Tools menu. If there are any rules, for each rule click on the Advanced tab and make sure that Do not apply rules to list messages is unchecked. (If you continue to experience problems, try unchecking each rule itself, to disable it.)
5. Choose Rules… from Outlook’s Tools menu and make sure that you’ve created two SpamSieve rules, as shown in the Setting Up Outlook 2011 section:
   1. Make sure that the rules are of the proper type. That is, if you have a POP mail account, you need two POP rules; if you have an IMAP account, you need two IMAP rules.
   2. Make sure that the SpamSieve - Move Messages rule says “If any conditions” rather than “If all conditions.”
   3. Make sure that the SpamSieve rules are at the top of the list.
   4. Make sure that the SpamSieve - Set Category rule is above the SpamSieve - Move Messages rule.
   5. Make sure both SpamSieve rules have check marks next to their names, indicating that they are enabled.
   6. Make sure there are no other rules that move messages to the Junk E-mail folder.
6. Choose Accounts… from Outlook’s Tools menu. If you have any IMAP accounts, click the Advanced… button, then click the Folders tab, and make sure that it’s set to Move deleted message to this folder. Otherwise, the caught spams may still appear on your iPhone.
7. Choose Settings… from the Outlook menu and click on Reading. Make sure that Hide IMAP messages marked for deletion is checked. This will ensure that you do not see spam messages that were caught on another computer.

To test that the rules work:

1. Select a spam message in Outlook.
2. Choose SpamSieve - Train as Spam from the Scripts menu to tell SpamSieve that it is spam.
3. Remove the categories of the message (using Message ‣ Categorize ‣ Clear All).
4. Drag the message back to your inbox and select it there.
5. Choose Rules ‣ Apply ‣ SpamSieve - Set Category from the Message menu.

If the message’s category was changed to Junk after Step 5, the rule worked. SpamSieve will be able to catch other messages like this if it’s properly configured and trained.

If the message’s category did not change to Junk, there is some other problem with Outlook or SpamSieve. Please contact technical support and explain what happened when you followed these instructions.

7.1.8   Checking the Outlook Setup

These instructions apply to Microsoft Office 365 (also known as Outlook 2016 and Outlook 2019, versions 15.x and 16.x). For other versions of Outlook, please see the Checking the Outlook 2011 Setup section.

1. Temporarily quit the Outlook - Filter Mailboxes app. When Outlook - Filter Mailboxes is not running, new messages should collect in the InboxSpamSieve folder. If this is not happening, check that you have created rules for all your accounts, as described in Step 4 of the Setting Up Outlook section. As an alternative to creating the rule in Outlook in Steps 5–9 of the Outlook IMAP/Exchange Account Rules section, if your mail server lets you create rules you could create one that moves all new messages to the InboxSpamSieve folder. This can sometimes work around problems where Outlook rules don’t work reliably.

2. Make sure that the Outlook - Filter Mailboxes app is running in your Dock, as described in Step 5 of the Setting Up Outlook section.

   

3. If you are using macOS 10.14 or later, make sure that Outlook Filter Mailboxes has Automation access to control Outlook and SpamSieve. Script Menu or FastScripts (depending on which you are using) also needs Automation access to control Outlook and SpamSieve.

4. Choose Install Outlook Scripts from the SpamSieve menu.

5. Select a spam message in Outlook.

6. Choose SpamSieve - Train as Spam from the Scripts menu to tell SpamSieve that it is spam.

7. Remove the categories of the message (using Message ‣ Categorize ‣ Clear All).

8. Drag the message back to your inbox and select it there.

9. Choose SpamSieve - Move If Spam from the Scripts menu.

If the message moved to the Junk E-mail folder and its category was changed to Junk after Step 7, the script worked. SpamSieve will be able to catch other messages like this if it’s properly configured and trained.

If the message’s category did not change to Junk, there is some other problem with Outlook or SpamSieve. Please contact technical support and explain what happened when you followed these instructions. Please include your Console log. There are also links on the script page to enable debug logging so that additional information is logged.

7.1.9   Checking the Postbox Setup

The Setting Up Postbox section describes how to set up Postbox to filter your mail using SpamSieve.

1. Go to Postbox’s Tools menu and choose Add-ons. The Installed Add-Ons section of the window should show SpamSieve Postbox Plug-in.
2. Make sure that Do not mark mail as junk if the sender is in… is not checked.
3. Make sure that Trust junk mail headers set by… is not checked.

To test that the setup works:

1. When you receive a new message, note its subject.
2. Click on SpamSieve’s icon in the Dock.
3. Choose Open Log from the SpamSieve menu.

The setup is correct if there’s a log entry (near the bottom) that says Predicted: Good or Predicted: Spam and shows the subject for the new message.

If you don’t see the expected log entries for new messages, please contact technical support and explain what happened when you followed these instructions.

7.1.10   Checking the PowerMail Setup

1. Quit PowerMail, delete the folder:

   /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/PowerMail
   

   and then re-launch PowerMail. (See the How can I open the Library folder? section.) If the script files that PowerMail uses to communicate with SpamSieve are damaged, this will fix them.

2. Make sure that you’ve followed the instructions in the Setting Up PowerMail section.

   • Make sure that the conditions for the Spam: evaluate filter are not excluding the messages that you want SpamSieve to filter. For example, try editing the filter so that it has just a single condition that says Always.
   • Make sure that the Spam: evaluate filter is at the top of the list.
   • Make sure that the Spam: actions filter is directly below the Spam: evaluate filter.

To test that the setup works:

1. Select a spam message in PowerMail.
2. Choose Mark as Spam from the Mail menu to tell SpamSieve that it is spam.
3. Choose Perform Filter ‣ Spam: evaluate from the Mail menu.
4. Click on SpamSieve’s icon in the Dock. Then choose Open Log from the SpamSieve menu.

The setup is correct if the last entry in the log says Predicted: Spam and shows the subject for the message that you had selected. SpamSieve will be able to catch other messages like this if it’s properly configured and trained.

Otherwise, there is some other problem with PowerMail or SpamSieve. Please contact technical support and explain what happened when you followed these instructions.

7.1.11   Checking the Training

SpamSieve is nearly 100% accurate, but only when properly trained. Here’s how you can check the training:

1. Choose Show Statistics from the Filter menu. Does the Corpus section show at least 100 spam messages and 100 good messages? If not, follow the instructions in the Do an Initial Training section.

2. If SpamSieve has misclassified any messages, it needs to know this or its accuracy will decline. This is described in the Correct All Mistakes section. If SpamSieve misclassified some messages and you have not yet corrected its mistakes, do so now. If you’ve already deleted the misclassified messages, it’s too late to correct the mistakes; choose Reset Corpus from the Filter menu and then follow the instructions in the Do an Initial Training section.

3. Check the percentage of spam messages in the Corpus section of the Statistics window. It should be between 55% and 75%. If not, train SpamSieve with more spam or good messages so that the percentage is in this range.

4. Check the number of spam and good messages in the Corpus section of the Statistics window. If the corpus is very large (more than 4,000 messages) and SpamSieve is not catching your spam, the corpus may contain incorrect or obsolete messages that reduce SpamSieve’s effectiveness and make it slower to adapt. Choose Reset Corpus from the Filter menu and then follow the instructions in the Do an Initial Training section.

   Note: You should only reset the corpus after you’ve checked all the other items in the Why is SpamSieve not catching my spam? section.

7.1.12   How do I make SpamSieve catch spams sent from my own address?

Sometimes spammers forge one of your e-mail addresses and send you spam messages that appear to be coming from yourself. If SpamSieve is not properly configured, these spams will keep coming into your inbox even after you train them as spam. (Yes, you should train them as spam if they get through to your inbox.) Once you fix the configuration, SpamSieve will be able to catch these messages as easily as any other spams.

Why does SpamSieve let these obvious spams into my inbox?

SpamSieve does what you tell it to do. Under the standard configuration, the Use macOS Contacts option is enabled in SpamSieve’s settings. This is safety feature so that messages from people in your address book are never marked as spam. If your address is in the address book and a spammer sends a message from that address, SpamSieve will let it through to your inbox. It will do this no matter how blatantly spammy the message is; doing otherwise would counteract the safety feature.

How can I tell whether I need to fix the setup?

The Open Log section of the manual explains how SpamSieve keeps a log of all the messages that it filtered and why it thought they were good or spam. For each incoming message that SpamSieve thought was not spam, there is a Predicted: Good entry in the log. If it says Reason: sender <address> in address book or Reason: sender <address> in Entourage address book, that means that SpamSieve thought the message was good because it was sent from an address that’s in your address book. If the address is one of your addresses, please follow the instructions below. (If there’s no Predicted entry for the message, please see the Why is SpamSieve not catching my spam? section for instructions on checking the setup in your mail program.)

How do I make SpamSieve catch these spams?

SpamSieve has a feature specifically for catching this kind of spam. For messages sent from your address, SpamSieve will ignore the fact that your own address is in your address book. It will apply its normal Bayesian filtering engine to examine the entire contents of the message and evaluate whether it is spam. To use this feature, you need to do two things:

1. Make sure that Exclude my addresses is checked in SpamSieve’s settings. This tells SpamSieve to pretend that your address is not in the address book, thus bypassing the Use macOS Contacts safety feature (but only for messages sent from one of your own addresses).

2. Tell SpamSieve which addresses are yours. You do this by listing them on your card in the Contacts (previously Address Book) application.

   If the addresses are already entered in your e-mail program’s settings, you can quickly add them by choosing Update Address Book “Me” Card from the SpamSieve menu. If you have other addresses, you’ll need to add them manually from the Contacts application. Add the addresses to your card, making sure to enter them in the e-mail address section rather than the phone number section.

   Your card is the one that has your name and photo (or login image). It says “me” on top of the photo, and in the name list it has a black silhouette of a head and shoulders instead of a white address book card. To find your “me” card, choose Card ‣ Go to My Card. If you don’t have a “me” card, you can make one by creating a new card with your name and addresses and choosing Card ‣ Make This My Card.

7.2.1   Sending in an Error Report

If an error window appeared on your screen, please include the exact text of the error message in your e-mail. (It may help to use Copy and Paste.)

Please also send in any errors that were reported in the system log:

1. From SpamSieve’s Help menu, choose Save Diagnostic Report… at the bottom. (If you can’t access the Help menu because the Dock icon is hidden, click this link to save a diagnostic report. If you can’t launch SpamSieve to access its Help menu, see below.)
2. Choose a location such as your desktop and click Save. Saving the report may take a minute or so.
3. Create an e-mail to spamsieve@c-command.com and drag the Diagnostic Report.tbz file into the e-mail message to include it as an attachment/enclosure.

If you can’t launch SpamSieve, you can access the log directly, rather than using the automated diagnostic reporter:

macOS 10.12 and Later

1. Click on Finder in the Dock.
2. From the Go menu, choose Utilities.
3. Double-click the Console application.
4. Click on your Mac under Devices at the left side of the window. (It may be necessary to first choose Show Sources from the View menu.)
5. From the Action menu, choose All Messages. Make sure that Include Info Messages and Include Debug Messages are both unchecked. If you are using macOS 11 or later, choose Start Streaming from the Action menu.
6. If Activities is selected (blue) in the toolbar, click it to turn off activities mode.
7. If the main part of the window shows any recent error messages, select them (or choose Edit ‣ Select All).
8. There are two ways to share the selected part of the log with us:
   • Easier: Click the Share button in the toolbar and choose Mail. (If you do not use Apple Mail as your mail client, you can instead Copy and Paste the log messages into your mail client.)
   • Preferred: Choose Edit ‣ Copy. Open TextEdit and Paste the text into a new plain text document. Save the TextEdit document to disk and attach it to your e-mail message.

macOS 10.11 and Earlier

1. Click on Finder in the Dock.

2. From the Go menu, choose Utilities.

3. Double-click the Console application.

4. Click on All Messages at the left of the window. (It may be necessary to first click the Show Log List toolbar button if you don’t see All Messages at the left.)

5. If it shows any recent error messages, select them (or choose Edit ‣ Select All).

   Note: You may need to click the Earlier button at the bottom of the window to find errors that did not occur recently.

6. Choose File ‣ Save Selection As… and save the file as My Log.log on your desktop.

7. Drag this file into your e-mail message to include it as an attachment/enclosure.

7.2.2   Sending in the SpamSieve Log File

SpamSieve’s log file contains information about the incoming messages that it has processed as well as the messages that you’ve trained it with. If SpamSieve is not behaving the way that you expect, the log file can help pinpoint the source of the problem.

To send in the log file:

1. From SpamSieve’s Help menu, choose Save Diagnostic Report… at the bottom. (If you can’t access the Help menu because the Dock icon is hidden, click this link to save a diagnostic report. If you can’t launch SpamSieve to access its Help menu, see below.)
2. Choose a location such as your desktop and click Save. Saving the report may take a minute or so.
3. Create an e-mail to spamsieve@c-command.com and drag the Diagnostic Report.tbz file into the e-mail message to include it as an attachment/enclosure.

If you can’t launch SpamSieve, you can access the log directly, rather than using the automated diagnostic reporter. The log file is stored at:

/Users/<username>/Library/Logs/SpamSieve/SpamSieve Log.log

You cannot find the log file by searching your Mac because Spotlight does not index the folder the contains it. Instead, you can find the log file by following these instructions:

1. Open your user Library folder, as described in the How can I open the Library folder? section.

2. Inside the Library folder, open the Logs folder.

3. Inside the Logs folder, open the SpamSieve folder.

4. Inside the SpamSieve folder, find the SpamSieve Log.log file.

   Note: In most cases, you can ignore old, dated log files, whose names end with .log.bz2. Just send the SpamSieve Log.log file.

5. Drag the SpamSieve Log.log file into the message window in your e-mail program to attach it to your message. The file should be included as an attachment/enclosure, not as text in the body of the message.

7.2.3   Sending in Screenshots

To help troubleshoot problems in your mail program, please include screenshots of:

1. Any errors that were reported (if applicable).
2. The message list in your mail program.
3. The rule list in your mail program (including both regular rules and mailing list manager rules, if applicable).
4. The individual SpamSieve rule(s) that you created in the mail program.

To take a screenshot, hold down the Command and Shift keys and press the number 4. Then use the mouse to select the area of the screen that you want to take a picture of. This will create a file called Screen Shot <date> at <time>.png on your desktop. Pressing the keys again will create Screen Shot <date> at <new time>.png, etc.

You can also take screenshots using the File ‣ Take Screenshot command in the Preview application.

To send in screeenshots, drag the files into your e-mail window to attach them to your message. If you’re using Apple Mail, be sure to set the Image Size pop-up menu at the bottom of the message window to Actual Size.

7.2.4   Sending in False Negative Files

In the Advanced tab of SpamSieve’s Settings window, make sure that Save false negatives to disk is checked. When you train a message as spam that SpamSieve thought was good, it will save that message as a file. Click the Show button in the Settings window to open the folder. You can then drag the folder (or particular files in it) into the message window in your e-mail program. You can use Quick Look to view the message files to help find the ones that you want.

If a spam message gets through and is not saved in the False Negatives folder, this likely means that there is a setup problem and that SpamSieve was not given an opportunity to filter that message. Please see the Why is SpamSieve not catching my spam? page for information about how to fix setup problems.

7.2.5   Sending in a “Sample” Report

If an app is slow, hangs (e.g. with a spinning beachball), or freezes, a “sample” report can record what your Mac was doing in order to locate the source of the problem. Depending on which app is slow or not responding, you may want to record samples from SpamSieve, Apple Mail, and/or another app.

1. Click on Finder in the Dock.
2. From the Go menu, choose Utilities.
3. Double-click the Activity Monitor program.
4. Select the app in the Activity Monitor window.
5. Do whatever it is in the app that causes the slowness, hang, or freeze. Immediately, click on Activity Monitor in the Dock and choose Sample Process from the View menu.
6. After Activity Monitor has finished taking the sample, click the Save… button in the “Sample of <App>” window. Save the file to your desktop and then include it in your e-mail message to spamsieve@c-command.com as an attachment. (Please do not copy and paste the text from the Activity Monitor window.)

7.2.6   Sending in Crash Log Files

If SpamSieve itself crashes, the SpamSieve Crash Reporter window should automatically come up. Make sure that you enter a valid e-mail address and then click the Send Report button.

If your mail program (or a helper process such as spamsieve-reader) crashes, you’ll need to send in the crash log file manually.

Crash logs are stored in the folder:

/Users/<username>/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

First click on the Finder in the Dock, then click on the Go menu, and hold down the Option key as you choose Library. Open the Logs folder, then DiagnosticReports.

Once you’ve opened the DiagnosticReports folder, find the most recent crash log file for the app that crashed and add it to your e-mail message to spamsieve@c-command.com as an attachment.

The crash log file’s name will end with either .crash or .ips. It may be in the DiagnosticReports folder or in the Retired folder inside of DiagnosticReports.

Note: You may be able to temporarily stop crashes in Apple Mail by removing all of the .mailbundle files from the folder:

/Users/<username>/Library/Mail/Bundles/

7.2.7   Sending in Apple Mail Rules

If there is a problem setting up your rules in Mail, or if the rules don’t work as you expect, please send in the rules file(s).

1. From SpamSieve’s Help menu, choose Save Diagnostic Report… at the bottom. (If you can’t access the Help menu because the Dock icon is hidden, click this link to save a diagnostic report. If you can’t launch SpamSieve to access its Help menu, see below.)
2. Choose a location such as your desktop and click Save. Saving the report may take a minute or so.
3. Create an e-mail to spamsieve@c-command.com and drag the Diagnostic Report.tbz file into the e-mail message to include it as an attachment/enclosure.

If you can’t launch SpamSieve, you can access the rules files directly, rather than using the automated diagnostic reporter, On macOS 13, the files are stored at:

/Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail/V10/MailData/RulesActiveState.plist
/Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail/V10/MailData/SyncedRules.plist
/Users/<username>/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Mail/V10/MailData/UnsyncedRules.plist

1. Click on the Finder in the Dock.
2. Click on the Go menu at the top of the screen, hold down the Option key, and then choose Library.
3. Open the Containers folder, then com.apple.mail, then Data, then Library, then Mail, then V9, then MailData to find the RulesActiveState.plist, SyncedRules.plist, and UnsyncedRules.plist files.
   • On macOS 12, the MailData folder is inside of the V9 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 11, the MailData folder is inside of the V8 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.15, the MailData folder is inside of the V7 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.14, the MailData folder is inside of the V6 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.13, the MailData folder is inside of the V5 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.12, the MailData folder is inside of the V4 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.11, the MailData folder is inside of the V3 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.7 through 10.10, the MailData folder is inside of the V2 folder rather than V10.

7.6.1   Turning Off the AOL Spam Filter

It is not possible to turn off the AOL spam filter, however:

• You can set up SpamSieve to rescue good messages caught by AOL’s junk filter and move the spam messages to SpamSieve’s mailbox.
• You can tell AOL to move certain known good messages to a specific folder to prevent them from being moved to Junk:
  1. Log into your AOL account using a Web browser.
  2. Go to Options ‣ Mail Settings ‣ Filter Settings ‣ Create filter.
  3. Under Look for incoming messages matching all of the follow, select From contains and enter an e-mail address or domain.
  4. Next to Move matched messages to folder, select a folder for your good messages. (Unfortunately, AOL does not let you select the inbox itself.)
  5. Click Save.

7.6.2   Turning Off the DreamHost Spam Filter

You can set certain addresses to always be allowed or turn off spam filtering entirely.

7.6.3   Turning Off the Fastmail Spam Filter

1. Log into Fastmail’s Web mail and click on the Mail menu at the top left.

2. Click on Settings, then Spam Protection.

3. Make sure that Custom is selected:

   

4. Make sure that Move and Permanently delete are unchecked.

5. Make sure that Mark spam as read is unchecked.

6. You can optionally click Show advanced preferences, go to the Backscatter section, and select With bounce spam: Do nothing to have Fastmail ignore messages where it thinks a spammer impersonated you to send spam.

7.6.4   Turning Off the Gmail Spam Filter

SpamSieve users often find that Gmail’s spam filter is unnecessary because SpamSieve catches more of the spam, and they want to turn off the Gmail filter to prevent any good messages from accidentally being caught. To disable Gmail’s junk mail filter:

1. If you normally log into https://gmail.com in your browser, do that now and then move on to Step 2. If you normally use https://inbox.google.com, you can get to regular Gmail by clicking the 3×3 grid button at the top and then clicking the Gmail icon:

   

2. Click the gear at the top right, choose Settings, then click on Filters and Blocked Addresses.

   

3. Click Create a new filter. Enter {(to:me) (deliveredto:USERNAME@gmail.com)} in the Has the words field (replacing USERNAME with your actual Gmail username). Click Create filter.

   

4. Make sure that Never send it to Spam is checked and click Create filter.

   

6. Your filter should now look like this:

   

7. If you use multiple variants of your Gmail address, e.g. some with periods and some without, you may need to create an addition filter using the USERNAME for each variant.

7.6.5   Turning Off the GoDaddy Spam Filter

GoDaddy has two levels of junk mail filtering. The mail servers (both Exchange and IMAP) have built-in global spam filtering (affecting all users) that cannot be disabled. There are also per-user additional settings that can be disabled by selecting Turn off filtering.

7.6.6   Turning Off the HostGator Spam Filter

The instructions here explain how to disable SpamAssassin.

7.6.7   Turning Off the Hover Spam Filter

1. Log into your Hover Webmail at https://mail.hover.com.
2. Go to Settings ‣ Spam Settings.
3. Change the folder so that spam messages are moved to your inbox.

7.6.8   Turning Off the iCloud Spam Filter

It is not possible to turn off iCloud’s junk filter, and iCloud deletes some suspected spam messages without even putting them in your Junk mailbox. Thus, iCloud is not one of our Recommended Mail Hosts.

If iCloud’s junk filter is moving good messages to the Junk mailbox, they will show up in Apple Mail’s message list with a white background and/or brown text, as compared with the messages caught by SpamSieve, which have black text and a colored background.

You can can train iCloud with those messages using iCloud.com (not from within Mail) or set up SpamSieve to scan the Junk mailbox and rescue the good messages.

7.6.9   Turning Off Microsoft Spam Filters

Rule Method

To turn off the server junk filter for an Outlook.com, Hotmail, or Office 365 mail account:

1. Log into the account using your Web browser, e.g at https://outlook.live.com.

2. Click on the gear icon at the top right, then click View all Outlook settings.

   

3. Click on Mail, then Rules, then Add new rule.

   

4. Set the rule’s name to Turn off Spam Filter, set the condition to Apply to all messages, and set the action to Move to Inbox.

   

5. Click the Save button.

Power Automate Method (Requires School or Work Account)

We’ve heard that for some users Outlook does not honor a rule created in the above manner. In such cases, there is another way to disable the server junk filter using Power Automate:

1. Log into Microsoft Flow.

2. Click on Connectors at the left, then Outlook.com (not Office 365 Outlook).

   

3. Click on the When a new email arrives (V2) trigger.

   

4. Choose Junk Email for the Folder and click New Step.

   

5. Search for move email and select Move email (V2) as the action.

   

6. Set the Folder to Inbox and click Save.

7.6.10   Turning Off the Proton Mail Spam Filter

This can be done by creating a custom filter using SIEVE (unrelated to SpamSieve):

1. Log into Proton Mail with your browser.

2. Go to Settings ‣ Filters.

3. Click the Add sieve filter button.

4. Replaced the existing code in the text box with:

   require “fileinto”;
   fileinto “Inbox”;
   

7.6.11   Turning Off the Yahoo Mail Spam Filter

New Yahoo Mail

1. Log into your Yahoo Mail at https://mail.yahoo.com.

2. Click on the gear menu.

   

3. Click on More Settings.

   

4. Click on Filters.

   

5. Click + Add new filters and create a filter named Turn Off Spam Filter, with From contains @ that moves the messages to Inbox. If Inbox is not selectable from the Choose folder to move to menu at the left, you may need to type Inbox in the text field that says Folder name.

   

6. Click Save.

7. Make sure that the new rule is at the bottom of the list. You can move it by selecting the rule and clicking the down-arrow button.

Classic Yahoo Mail

1. Log into your Yahoo Mail at https://mail.yahoo.com.

2. Click on the gear menu.

   

3. Click on Settings, then Filters.

   

4. Click Add and create a filter that matches @ in the sender and delivers the messages to Inbox.

   

5. Click Save.

6. Make sure that the new rule is at the bottom of the list. You can move it by selecting the rule and clicking the down-arrow button.

7.6.12   Turning Off Other Spam Filters

Many mail hosts offer SpamAssassin or a similar filter. Make sure the filter is set not to add **Junk**, [Spam], or another tag to the message’s subject. Also, try to configure the filter not to move the messages out of the inbox. It is actually good if you can leave the filter on, but set so that it only tags the message’s headers (e.g. by adding X-Spam-Status and X-Spam-Report headers). This will allow SpamSieve to incorporate the work that the server filter has done into its analysis.

7.12.1   Why doesn’t my serial number work?

You need to enter the serial name and serial number exactly as they appear on your order confirmation e-mail. If you no longer have this e-mail, you can look up the name and number. Launch SpamSieve and choose Purchase from the SpamSieve menu. Then click the Look Up My Serial Number button.

7.12.2   Should I download SpamSieve from this free site?

No. We only recommend downloading SpamSieve from https://c-command.com and from reputable download sites such as Apple and MacUpdate. The C-Command Store lists all the vendors that are authorized to sell SpamSieve. Downloads from other sites may include adware or viruses.

The following sites:

DropDMG.downloads4mac.com
DropDMG.install4mac.com
DropDMG.macsoftware.com
DropDMG.onFreeDownload.com
EagleFiler.downloads4mac.com
EagleFiler.install4mac.com
EagleFiler.macsoftware.com
EagleFiler.onFreeDownload.com    
SpamSieve.downloads4mac.com
SpamSieve.install4mac.com
SpamSieve.macsoftware.com
SpamSieve.onFreeDownload.com

are not authorized to distribute our software. They have been a source of confusion because they often appear in ads at the top of search results for Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo. We do not recommend downloading from these sites. In many cases, they will say that they are offering an “official” copy of SpamSieve that is anything but. In fact, the installer asks for your administrator password, installs adware, and makes other changes that may damage your Mac.

CNET’s Download.com offers a Direct Download Link, which is valid; however it also offers a more prominent Download Now Installer Enabled link, which we do not recommend. The CNET installer installs toolbar adware and changes browser settings. This page explains how you can remove the toolbar.

7.12.3   How can I hide SpamSieve’s Dock icon?

To hide SpamSieve’s icon from the Dock and the Command-Tab application switcher, click the special link below:

• To hide SpamSieve’s Dock icon, click this link.
• To show SpamSieve’s Dock icon, click this link.

SpamSieve will automatically remember these settings when you update to a new version.

A future version of SpamSieve will include a settings checkbox for more easily hiding and showing SpamSieve’s Dock icon, as well as a way to access this preference while SpamSieve’s Dock icon and menu bar are hidden.

If the SpamSieve Icon Is Still In Your Dock

macOS 10.14 and later include a section of the Dock for recent applications, and this can include the icons even of applications that have hidden their icons. To hide SpamSieve from this section, first quit SpamSieve. Then you can either:

• Click and hold on the SpamSieve Dock icon and choose Options ‣ Remove from Dock from the menu; or

• Drag the SpamSieve icon off the Dock; or

• Go to System Settings ‣ Dock & Menu Bar ‣ Dock & Menu Bar and uncheck Show recent applications in Dock to hide that section entirely.

  Note: On macOS 10.15 and earlier, this is in System Settings ‣ Dock ‣ Show recent applications in Dock.

Opening Windows From Apple Mail

When SpamSieve’s Dock icon is hidden, its menu bar is inaccessible. Therefore, a new command called SpamSieve - Open Window will appear in Apple Mail’s Message menu after quitting and relaunching Apple Mail. This lets you configure SpamSieve’s settings, view the statistics, and access other parts of SpamSieve’s user interface. With other mail programs, you will need to use the Open Window script in order to do that.

7.12.4   How can I copy my training data to another machine?

SpamSieve’s Data Files

SpamSieve stores its training data in the folder:

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/SpamSieve/

and it stores its preferences in the file:

/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/com.c-command.SpamSieve.plist

You should back up both of these. (See the How can I open the Library folder? section for how to access them.)

Moving or Copying SpamSieve to Another Mac (or User Account)

To transfer SpamSieve’s data to another machine, first quit both copies of SpamSieve. Then copy the folder and the preferences file to the corresponding locations on the other machine. For example, you could temporarily copy them from one Mac to iCloud Drive and then from iCloud Drive to the other Mac.

Your SpamSieve license will be transferred when you copy the preferences file. You can also transfer it manually, by looking up your order information.

When copying your SpamSieve setup to a Mac that didn’t previously have SpamSieve installed, you’ll need to put the SpamSieve application file in the Applications folder and do the setup in your mail program, but you can skip the initial training process because of the files that you copied above.

If you are copying the training data because you want to use SpamSieve on both Macs (rather than just moving it from one to the other), please see the SpamSieve and Multiple Macs section.

Restoring From a Backup

1. Restore the SpamSieve folder and the com.c-command.SpamSieve.plist file that are mentioned above.
2. Go to the SpamSieve Web site and click the Download button.
3. Complete the installation steps in the Installing SpamSieve and Using SpamSieve sections, except that you can skip the initial training.

7.12.5   Does SpamSieve launch automatically?

Yes. Once it’s installed, you do not need to launch SpamSieve yourself. The mail client will automatically launch it as needed:

• Apple Mail will launch SpamSieve when it launches.
• The other mail clients will launch SpamSieve when they receive new e-mail messages that need to be processed or when you train a message as spam or as good. (For Outlook 365, you need to launch the Outlook - Filter Mailboxes app yourself; it will launch SpamSieve.)

If SpamSieve is not auto-launching as it should, please:

• Make sure that it’s installed in the /Applications folder as described in the Installing SpamSieve section.
• Find the appropriate section to check the setup in your mail client.
• See the Sending in an Error Report section.

Although the SpamSieve application must be running in order to filter your mail, it ordinarily runs in the background with no user interface visible. The Dock icon can be hidden if desired, and you can also set it to quit when your mail client quits.

7.12.6   Can I use SpamSieve with more than one mail program at a time?

Yes; many people do this to separate their personal and business mail, and you can even use the two mail programs simultaneously. Whether you’re using multiple mail programs or just switching from one to another, you just need to follow the setup instructions once for each mail program. SpamSieve will automatically share its training data, rules, and statistics among all the mail programs.

7.12.7   Why does SpamSieve need to access my contacts?

SpamSieve tries to read your macOS address book in order to prevent marking messages as spam if they were sent by one of your known contacts. This is controlled by the Use macOS Contacts preference.

It also reads which e-mail addresses are yours, in order to detect spam messages that may have been forged to come from your own address. This is controlled by the Exclude my addresses preference.

Normally, macOS will remember when you’ve given SpamSieve permission to access the contacts. If it keeps prompting you each time SpamSieve is launched, this is probably because you have modified your copy of the SpamSieve application, breaking its code signature. It is no longer necessary to modify SpamSieve to hide its Dock icon; please see the How can I hide SpamSieve’s Dock icon? section.

7.12.8   How can I open the Library folder?

The user library folder is stored at the path /Users/<username>/Library/. The way to access it is different depending on which version of macOS you are using:

macOS 10.12.3 and Later

The Library folder is hidden by default. To open it, click on Finder in the Dock. Click on the Go menu at the top of the screen, hold down the Option and Shift keys, and then choose Library. (Only one of Option and Shift is needed, but due to an OS bug, which one you need to hold down can vary. Thus, it is easier to hold down both.)

Another way to access the Library folder is to choose Home from the Go menu, then type Command-Shift-Period to show invisible files, and then open the Library folder.

Mac OS X 10.7 Through 10.12.2

The Library folder is hidden by default. To open it, click on Finder in the Dock. Click on the Go menu at the top of the screen, hold down the Option key, and then choose Library.

Another option is to go to your home folder, choose View ‣ Show View Options and then make sure that Show Library Folder is checked.

Mac OS X 10.6

Click on Finder in the Dock, click on the Go menu, and choose Home. This will show your home folder, and you can open the Library folder directly.

7.12.9   What can I do if the corpus file is damaged?

A damaged corpus file can cause SpamSieve to crash at launch. Corpus file damage can be caused by crashes or disk errors.

There are several ways that you can fix this. First, quit both your mail program and SpamSieve. Then:

• If you have a backup from before the damage occurred, you can replace the file:

  /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/SpamSieve/Corpus.corpus
  

  with a working copy. See the How can I open the Library folder? section for how to find this file and this page for how to restore files via Time Machine.

• You can have SpamSieve reset the corpus for you:

  1. Open your Applications folder and select SpamSieve.

  2. While holding down the Command and Option keys on the keyboard, double-click the SpamSieve icon.

     Note: If holding down the Command and Option keys does not work for you, you can instead enter this command:

     defaults write com.c-command.SpamSieve ShowResetAlert YES
     

     into Terminal and press Return before launching SpamSieve.

  3. Click the Reset Corpus button in the window that pops up.

  4. Re-train SpamSieve as described in the Do an Initial Training section.

• You can reset the corpus by deleting the file manually:

  1. Open your Library folder. See the How can I open the Library folder? section for how to do this.

  2. Find the file:

     /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/SpamSieve/Corpus.corpus
     

     Inside Library, find the Application Support folder. Inside that is the SpamSieve folder. Inside that is the Corpus.corpus file.

  3. Drag the Corpus.corpus file to the trash.

  4. Re-train SpamSieve as described in the Do an Initial Training section.

7.12.10   What can I do if the statistics database is damaged?

A damaged statistics database can cause SpamSieve to crash, report internal errors, or show incorrect accuracy numbers in the Statistics window. Database damage can be caused by crashes or disk errors.

If you have a backup from before the damage occurred, you can quit SpamSieve and your mail program and replace the file:

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/SpamSieve/History.db

with a working copy. See the How can I open the Library folder? section for how to find this file.

Otherwise, you can have SpamSieve reset the database and start a new one. (This will not affect SpamSieve’s training data or filtering accuracy.)

1. Quit SpamSieve and your mail program.

2. Open your Applications folder and select SpamSieve.

3. While holding down the Command and Option keys on the keyboard, double-click the SpamSieve icon.

   Note: If holding down the Command and Option keys does not work for you, you can instead enter this command:

   defaults write com.c-command.SpamSieve ShowResetAlert YES
   

   into Terminal and press Return before launching SpamSieve.

4. Click the Reset History button in the window that pops up.

7.13.1   Why does the “Junk” mailbox appear in Apple Mail?

SpamSieve

With new installations of SpamSieve 2.9.45 and later, or if you have followed the Switching From the Spam Mailbox to the Junk Mailbox instructions, it’s normal for spam messages caught by SpamSieve to be moved to the special Junk mailbox.

Apple Mail’s Junk Filter

The Setting Up Apple Mail instructions have you turn off Mail’s built-in junk mail filter, so it will not put messages in the Junk mailbox.

Server Junk Filters

If your mail server has its own junk filter, it is normal for that filter to also put spam messages in the Junk mailbox. Because the messages are filtered at the server level, they never arrive in your inbox. Your Mac therefore does not see them as new messages, so it does not apply your regular Mail rules (or the SpamSieve rule) to them. Since these messages are not SpamSieve mistakes, you should not train them as spam. This is described more in the Separating Spam Caught by SpamSieve and Server Filters section.

The How should I configure the junk filter on my mail server? section has more information about server junk filters, how SpamSieve interacts with them, and how they can be turned off.

As of April 2015, Apple has made its iCloud server junk filter much more aggressive. It is putting a lot more spam messages (and also some good ones) into the Junk mailbox. It also deletes some messages so that they do not appear in any mailbox. This affects all icloud.com, mac.com, and me.com e-mail accounts. There is no way to turn off iCloud’s junk filter and prevent it from putting messages in the Junk mailbox, however SpamSieve can be configured to rescue good messages after the server filter has moved them to the Junk mailbox.

The Junk Bar and Messages Marked as Junk

It is normal for Mail to show a brown bar above some messages that SpamSieve or a server filter classified as spam. SpamSieve marks the messages as junk to protect you from Web bugs. Do not click the Not Junk button. If the message is not spam, you should instead choose SpamSieve - Train as Good from the Message menu.

7.13.2   Why don’t I see the SpamSieve commands in Apple Mail’s Message menu?

Normally, the Message menu in Apple Mail should contain several SpamSieve commands, after completing Step 2 of the Setting Up Apple Mail section.

Note that these commands should be in the Message menu at the top of the screen, not in the contextual (right-click) menu.

If you don’t see these commands, that means that SpamSieve’s Mail plug-in is not loaded. If the plug-in is not loaded, you will not be able to train SpamSieve, and Mail will move good messages to the spam mailbox without consulting SpamSieve.

• The plug-in might have been disabled by an update to macOS. To prevent this from happening, it’s best to update to the latest version of SpamSieve before updating macOS. See also the Why does SpamSieve always need an update when macOS is updated? section.
• To re-install the plug-in, choose Install Apple Mail Plug-In from the SpamSieve menu.

If you are using macOS 10.14 or later, you will need to click Manage Plug-ins… in Mail’s settings and enable SpamSieve.mailbundle. This is described in more detail in the Enabling and Updating the Apple Mail Plug-In section.

Troubleshooting

First, see the troubleshooting information in the Enabling and Updating the Apple Mail Plug-In section if you don’t see the plug-in in Manage Plug-ins… or if it doesn’t stay enabled there.

If you still don’t see the SpamSieve commands in the Message menu after relaunching Mail, try restarting your Mac. There may also be errors reported in the Console that point to the source of the problem.

In rare cases, Mail may be set not to load plug-ins and “stuck” so that this setting cannot be changed. To fix this, make sure that the Terminal application has Full Disk Access, open the Terminal application and enter these commands:

cd ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/Preferences/
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy com.apple.mail.plist -c 'Add EnableBundles bool YES'
killall -SIGTERM cfprefsd

7.13.3   Why do good messages move to the wrong inbox when trained in Apple Mail?

When you train a message in the Spam or Junk mailbox as good, SpamSieve normally moves it back to your inbox. (You can adjust this behavior using the Change Settings command.) If the messages are not going to the inbox, see the Why does a message disappear or go back to the spam mailbox after I train it as good? section.

If you have multiple mail accounts, you may sometimes find that SpamSieve moved the message to the inbox of a different account than the account that received the message.

The reason this happens it that Apple Mail does not keep track of which account received each message. Therefore, SpamSieve has to try to figure out the proper account by looking at the addresses in the message and the addresses associated with your accounts. Most of the time, this will work automatically. There are some exceptions, however:

• If you have multiple account aliases, SpamSieve will only know about them if they are configured in Mail’s settings. See “Adding Account Aliases” below.
• If you receive a “Bcc” message, where your address does not appear in the “To” or “Cc” header, SpamSieve can’t tell which address it was sent to, so it can’t determine the proper account. In that case, it will choose the first account in Mail that is not disabled.
• If you are using the AppleMailTrainGoodGUIScripting esoteric preference described in the Faster Apple Mail Training section, this bypasses SpamSieve’s telling Mail which inbox to use. The message will always move to the inbox that you added to the favorites bar.

Adding Account Aliases

Some users configure multiple aliases for a single e-mail account. For example, if your iCloud account is john.q.public@icloud.com, you may also want to receive messages sent to johnp@icloud.com.

Go to the Accounts tab of Mail’s Settings window and click on your account in the list. In this example, Mail’s settings would have the User Name entered as john.q.public. By default, the Email Address field would say john.q.public@icloud.com.

In order for SpamSieve to know which account’s inbox to move a message to when you use the Train as Good command, you should enter all of your e-mail addresses (the main one and the aliases).

macOS 10.12 and 10.13

Click on the Email Address pop-up menu and choose Edit Email Addresses. Click the + button to add additional aliases.

macOS 10.11

Click on the Alias pop-up menu and choose Edit Aliases. Click the + button to add additional aliases.

macOS 10.10 and Earlier

Enter the aliases into the Email Address field, separated by commas. In this example, the contents of the Email Address field should be:

john.q.public@icloud.com, johnp@icloud.com

For regular IMAP, Exchange, and POP accounts, you can edit the Email Address field directly. For iCloud accounts, first choose Custom from the Alias pop-up menu so that the Email Address field becomes editable.

Per-Account Spam Mailboxes

Another way to help SpamSieve find the proper inbox is to have a separate spam mailbox for each account. If you are using the standard setup, you have a single spam mailbox stored On My Mac. If you instead use per-account spam mailboxes, each spam message will be stored on the same account that received the message. SpamSieve can then move the message to the inbox on that same account, and the message will always end up in the right place.

To use this setup, follow the instructions in the Using a Spam Mailbox on the Server section and then follow the instructions in the Separate Spam Mailboxes for Each Account section, being sure to create each account’s spam mailbox on that account.

7.13.4   Why do I see spam messages in my “Unread” smart mailbox in Apple Mail?

A smart mailbox in Apple Mail is not a mailbox in the sense of “a place where messages are stored.” Rather, a smart mailbox is a “saved search” across multiple actual mailboxes. When you’re viewing a smart mailbox, the message list shows the name of the mailbox that actually stores the message.

Thus, a smart mailbox that searches for unread messages will, by default, also find unread messages in the Junk mailbox. To avoid seeing spam messages in your Unread smart mailbox, make sure it’s set up as follows:

• Contains messages that match all of the following conditions:
• Message is Unread
• Message is not in Mailbox All Junk

7.13.5   Why does the Spam mailbox in Apple Mail appear empty even though there’s a number beside it?

Mail shows a number next to the Junk mailbox to indicate how many unread messages it contains. Sometimes you’ll see the number, but when you click on the mailbox to see its contents you’ll see either no messages or no unread messages. This may be because:

1. The unread messages are actually in a second mailbox, inside the Junk mailbox. If there’s a triangle to the left of the mailbox icon, click to make it point down. This will reveal any mailboxes inside and allow you to access their contents.
2. Mail’s database is damaged so that the numeric display is out of sync with the actual mail that’s stored on your Mac and/or your server. You can fix this by rebuilding Apple Mail’s database.

7.13.6   What can I do if my Spam or Junk mailbox in Apple Mail disappeared?

First, from Mail’s View menu, choose Show Sidebar (or Show Mailbox List on older versions of macOS) if necessary so that the mailboxes are visible.

Junk Mailbox

If you’re using the recommended setup described in Switching From the Spam Mailbox to the Junk Mailbox, the special Junk mailbox should always be visible within each account. To see the spam messages from all accounts consolidated into a single All Junk mailbox, you can click the + button next to Favorites at the top of Mail’s mailbox list and then add the All Junk mailbox to the favorites.

Spam Mailbox

If you are instead using a Spam mailbox under On My Mac, it is most likely it’s still there but Mail is currently hiding it. To show the Spam mailbox:

1. Locate the On My Mac section of the mailbox list. It is typically below the Mailboxes and Smart Mailboxes sections of the mailbox list. You may need to scroll down in order to find this. (macOS may have made the scroll bars invisible, but you can scroll down by two-finger dragging on your Mac’s trackpad or by using the scroll ball on the mouse.)
2. Move your mouse over On My Mac in the mailbox list. Then click the > or Show button that becomes visible at the right.

7.13.7   Why are messages marked as spam in Apple Mail but not moved?

Sometimes SpamSieve may classify a message as spam (as shown in the log), and change its color in Apple Mail, but the message does not move to the Junk mailbox; it remains in the inbox.

Here are some ways to fix this:

1. Make sure that your SpamSieve rule in Apple Mail looks like the one shown in the Setting Up Apple Mail section of the manual. If Mail loses track of the Junk mailbox, there may be no mailbox specified in the rule’s actions, and so Mail will not move the spam messages.
2. You can test that the rule works and that Mail is able to move the messages by manually applying the SpamSieve rule. Select one of the messages in the inbox that was marked as spam and choose Apply Rules from the Message menu. You can check in the Open Log section of the manual whether SpamSieve predicted the message to be spam. If it did, but the message did not move, Mail may be encountering an error when it tries to move the message. Please see Sending in an Error Report.
3. Sometimes Mail rules will not move messages that were processed immediately after the Mac woke from sleep. You can work around this problem by quitting Mail before sleeping your Mac or by setting your Mac to not go to sleep, as described in the Filtering Spam During Power Nap instructions. You can also use the QuitMailWhenMacSleeps esoteric preference to make SpamSieve automatically quit Mail before the Mac sleeps and launch it when it wakes.
4. A bug in macOS 10.15 through macOS 13, affecting a small number of customers, can prevent Mail rules from moving messages to certain mailboxes. Although the server may show them as moved, Mail on the Mac may also show them colored in the inbox. You can work around this by ensuring that the rule moves the messages to a mailbox that’s on the same server. The easiest way to do this is to use Mail’s special Junk mailbox, as described in Switching From the Spam Mailbox to the Junk Mailbox.
5. See whether the problem still occurs if you disable other Mail plug-ins, as described in the Can other Apple Mail plug-ins cause problems with SpamSieve? section.
6. Mail’s database may be damaged. Please see the How can I rebuild Apple Mail’s database? section of the manual.

7.13.8   Why does SpamSieve always need an update when macOS is updated?

The top of the SpamSieve Support page always has the latest information about compatibility and public beta versions.

It is important (see below) to update SpamSieve before updating macOS. To prevent macOS from updating itself without asking you:

• macOS 10.14 and later: Go to the Software Update section of System Settings and make sure that Automatically keep my Mac up to date is unchecked (or use the Advanced… button to tell it to only install security updates).
• macOS 10.13 and earlier: Go to the App Store section of System Preferences and make sure that Install macOS updates is unchecked.

Compatibility With macOS Updates

SpamSieve is developed using best practices, so it ordinarily continues to run normally when macOS is updated. That said, newer versions of SpamSieve are better at recognizing the latest types of spam—and contain many other improvements—so it’s best to run the latest version of SpamSieve that your Mac supports. You can easily update to the latest version by choosing Software Update… from the SpamSieve menu.

Compatibility With Apple Mail Updates

If you are using Apple Mail, you may have to update SpamSieve each time you update macOS. The reason for this is that SpamSieve uses a plug-in to integrate with Apple Mail. Each time Apple makes a change to Mail—which it does in most OS updates—there is a chance that the plug-in will stop working properly. Depending on the nature of the changes, an old plug-in running in a newer version of Mail could prevent Mail itself from working properly. (This has never actually happened with the SpamSieve plug-in, but we can’t rule out the possibility.)

Apple Mail Compatibility UUIDs

There are many Mail plug-ins, and Apple understandably cannot test all of them, let alone their interactions with each other. Thus, starting around macOS 10.6, Apple adopted a policy where each plug-in declares (using UUIDs) which versions of Mail it has been tested with. If a plug-in has not been tested with the version of Mail that you’re using, Mail will not load it.

The advantage to this system is that it makes Mail more reliable; it will not load any untested code. The disadvantage is that plug-ins like SpamSieve’s, which make only a few hooks into very stable areas of Mail, usually do not require any changes to work with the new version of Mail. When Apple updates Mail, we have to ship a new version of the plug-in, with the new UUID to prove that it was tested with that version; customers have to update SpamSieve and its plug-in; but the new plug-in has the exact same code as the old one (aside from improvements unrelated to OS compatibility). Nevertheless, the UUID system does improve Mail’s reliability and does not cause problems so long as customers are aware that they need to update SpamSieve (and any other plug-ins).

Timing of SpamSieve Update Availability

Typically we ship an update to SpamSieve the same day that Apple updates macOS. Some customers have asked why SpamSieve updates do not become available until after Apple has shipped a macOS update.

From macOS 10.1 through 10.8, we would test SpamSieve with pre-release version of the OS. If a SpamSieve update was needed for compatibility with the new OS, we would try to ship the update before that version of the OS was released to the public. This was possible because there was generally only one set of UUIDs for each public release of macOS.

With later releases of macOS 10.8 through macOS 10.12 (but not 10.10.3 through 10.10.5), there are new UUIDs for most pre-release versions of macOS. With this new policy, we still test with pre-release versions of the OS, so we can have a SpamSieve update ready to go, but we cannot actually ship it until after the OS update ships. The reason for this is that the compatibility UUID that we need to declare is not known until we have the final shipping version of the OS update. This is the system working as designed: the UUID certifies that we have tested SpamSieve on the exact version of the OS that is running on your Mac.

Update SpamSieve Before Updating macOS

The smoothest way to update macOS and SpamSieve is to update SpamSieve before updating macOS.

The reason for this is that if you update macOS first, and then open Mail, Mail will not load the old version of the SpamSieve plug-in. Without the plug-in loaded, you will not see the SpamSieve commands in Mail’s Message menu, and Mail will move good messages to the spam mailbox without consulting SpamSieve. If you get into this situation, quit Mail and then update SpamSieve. The next time you launch SpamSieve, it should detect that the plug-in was disabled by an OS update and reinstall the plug-in. If this does not happen automatically, you can choose Install Apple Mail Plug-In from the SpamSieve menu.

On the other hand, if you update SpamSieve before updating macOS, you will have the latest version of the plug-in when you launch the new version of Mail, so Mail will not disable it.

Using Pre-Release Versions of macOS

If you are using a pre-release version of macOS, it will likely have a different compatibility UUID than the shipping version of SpamSieve. There are several ways to deal with this:

• You can temporarily disable SpamSieve by unchecking its rule in Mail’s settings. This will prevent all your messages from going to the Junk mailbox, but you will get spam messages in your inbox.
• You can use an Apple Mail Script Rule to filter your spam without needing to use an Apple Mail plug-in.
• There are public betas of SpamSieve corresponding to public betas of macOS. You can click this link (after installing SpamSieve) to sign up to receive beta versions of SpamSieve via the built-in Software Update… command. When updating to the beta, please read all of the release notes. You can click this link if you want to stop receiving beta updates.
• If you are using a newer pre-release version of macOS that does not work with the public beta of SpamSieve, please try installing the Apple Mail plug-in and then use the More Info button in the error window to send us the error information via e-mail.
• Previous versions of SpamSieve would let you hold down the Option key to install the Apple Mail plug-in on non-supported versions of macOS. This workaround stopped working with macOS 10.10 and has been removed.

7.13.9   Why do Apple Mail messages bounce back to the inbox after I train them as spam?

Sometimes when you train an uncaught spam message in the inbox as spam, the message will move to the spam mailbox and then appear to “bounce back” to the inbox. That is, the same message (not a new one that looks similar) will appear again in the inbox and no longer be in the spam mailbox. Usually, the same thing will happen if you move the message via drag and drop rather than training it with SpamSieve, which indicates that it’s a general problem with moving messages rather than something specific to spam filtering.

Typically, this means that Apple Mail and the mail server did not successfully move the message in the first place. Mail moved the message locally, but it did not get moved on the server, and so the next time Mail synchronized with the server it reinstated the message in the inbox.

Sometimes this is caused by a problem with Mail’s database, and you can fix it by doing a complete rebuild of the database.

Other times, most commonly with Gmail, there can be a problem moving the message from the inbox (on the server) to a local mailbox (the Spam mailbox under On My Mac). We recommend Switching From the Spam Mailbox to the Junk Mailbox.

7.13.10   How can I rebuild Apple Mail’s database?

Many common problems with Mail can be fixed by rebuilding all or part of its index database. For example:

• You have a mailbox that shows a number of unread messages in the mailbox list, but when you click on the mailbox there do not seem to be any unread messages inside.
• Messages seem to have disappeared; they show up when you search your Mac using Spotlight but not when browsing or searching in Mail.
• A smart mailbox doesn’t seem to be finding the messages that you think it should.
• You click on a mailbox that you know contains some messages, but Mail doesn’t show any.
• Messages are colored as spam but remain in the inbox, even though your SpamSieve rule is set to move them to the Spam mailbox.
• You try to delete messages, but they come back or Mail reports an error.
• Mail is very slow at browsing or searching messages.

First, try a quick rebuild. Select the problem mailbox, go to the Mailbox menu, and choose Rebuild.

If this doesn’t solve the problem, try a complete rebuild:

1. Quit Mail.

2. Locate the Envelope Index file. On macOS 13, the file is stored at:

   /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V10/MailData/Envelope Index
   

   Open your user Library folder. (See the How can I open the Library folder? section if necessary.) Then open the Mail folder, then V9, then MailData to find the Envelope Index file.

   • On macOS 12, the MailData folder is inside of the V9 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 11, the MailData folder is inside of the V8 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.15, the MailData folder is inside of the V7 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.14, the MailData folder is inside of the V6 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.13, the MailData folder is inside of the V5 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.12, the MailData folder is inside of the V4 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.11, the MailData folder is inside of the V3 folder rather than V10.
   • On macOS 10.7 through 10.10, the MailData folder is inside of the V2 folder rather than V10.

3. Once you’ve found the Envelope Index file, drag it to the trash. Also delete Envelope Index-shm and Envelope Index-wal (if they exist).

   Note: Rebuilding the index database is normally perfectly safe. Even though it seems that you are deleting a file, Mail stores its primary copy of your message data elsewhere. When you delete the damaged database, Mail uses this primary copy to create a new index database. However, please be careful if you are using macOS 10.15. We’ve heard some reports that rebuilding the Envelope Index can lose messages in On My Mac mailboxes on macOS 10.15.0–10.15.2 due to a bug in Mail. If you are using macOS 10.15 prior to macOS 10.15.3, be sure that you have a backup first, and proceed with caution.

4. Relaunch Mail. It will welcome you as if you haven’t used it before. This step may take a few minutes, as Mail searches through all of your stored messages to build your new database file. IMAP and Exchange messages will need to be re-downloaded from the server.

7.13.11   How can I reset Apple Mail’s junk database?

A corrupt database for Mail’s built-in junk mail filter can cause Mail to crash when processing incoming messages or when training messages with SpamSieve. To reset the database, find the LSMMap2 file and drag it to the trash.

• On macOS 13, the file is stored at:

  /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V10/MailData/LSMMap2
  

  See the How can I open the Library folder? section. Open the Mail folder, then V10, then MailData to find the LSMMap2 file.

• On macOS 12, the file is stored at:

  /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V9/MailData/LSMMap2
  

  See the How can I open the Library folder? section. Open the Mail folder, then V9, then MailData to find the LSMMap2 file.

• On macOS 11, the file is stored at:

  /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V8/MailData/LSMMap2
  

  See the How can I open the Library folder? section. Open the Mail folder, then V8, then MailData to find the LSMMap2 file.

• On macOS 10.15, the file is stored at:

  /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V7/MailData/LSMMap2
  

  See the How can I open the Library folder? section. Open the Mail folder, then V7, then MailData to find the LSMMap2 file.

• On macOS 10.14, the file is stored at:

  /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V6/MailData/LSMMap2
  

  See the How can I open the Library folder? section. Open the Mail folder, then V6, then MailData to find the LSMMap2 file.

• On macOS 10.13, the file is stored at:

  /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V5/MailData/LSMMap2
  

  See the How can I open the Library folder? section. Open the Mail folder, then V5, then MailData to find the LSMMap2 file.

• On macOS 10.12, the file is stored at:

  /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V4/MailData/LSMMap2
  

  See the How can I open the Library folder? section. Open the Mail folder, then V4, then MailData to find the LSMMap2 file.

• On macOS 10.11, the file is stored at:

  /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V3/MailData/LSMMap2
  

  See the How can I open the Library folder? section. Open the Mail folder, then V3, then MailData to find the LSMMap2 file.

• On macOS 10.7 through 10.10, the file is stored at:

  /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/LSMMap2
  

  See the How can I open the Library folder? section. Open the Mail folder, then V2, then MailData to find the LSMMap2 file.

7.13.12   Can other Apple Mail plug-ins cause problems with SpamSieve?

We try to ensure that SpamSieve is compatible with other Apple Mail plug-ins. Nevertheless, it is possible for another plug-in—especially an old version—to prevent SpamSieve or Mail from working properly.

Known Issues

GPGMail

There is a known bug in the GPGMail plug-in that causes it to re-apply Mail’s rules (including SpamSieve) to non-new messages and even to sent messages.

MailTags

MailTags has generally been fully compatible with SpamSieve. Please make sure that you are using the latest version of MailTags. If you encounter any problems, see if disabling it helps.

Troubleshooting

If you are using multiple Mail plug-ins and seeing hangs, problems launching, or other unexpected behavior, it’s best to check whether the problem goes away when only the SpamSieve plug-in is installed.

• On macOS 10.14 and later, you can disable Mail plug-ins by unchecking them from Settings ‣ General ‣ Manage Plug-ins….

• On earlier versions of macOS, Mail plug-ins can be installed in the global Bundles folder (which not all users will have):

  /Library/Mail/Bundles
  

  and also in the user Bundles folder:

  /Users/<username>/Library/Mail/Bundles
  

  To access this folder, see the How can I open the Library folder? section.

  Please check both Bundles folders for any .mailbundle files/folders. You can temporarily disable a plug-in by dragging its .mailbundle to your desktop and then re-launching Mail.

If disabling the other Mail plug-ins fixes the problem:

• You have a temporary fix for the problem: uninstalling the other plug-ins.
• You can report the problem to us and to the other plug-in developer so that we can find a way for the plug-ins to work better together.

7.13.13   What can I do if Apple Mail is crashing?

Under normal circumstances, Apple Mail does not crash, whether or not you are using SpamSieve. If you find that Mail is crashing, here are some things that you can do:

1. First, please send us a crash report so that we can look into the cause. Note that if you are seeing a spinning beachball cursor rather than a crash report window, Mail is probably hanging rather than crashing. In that case, you should instead record a “sample” log of Mail during the hang.

2. Often, it helps just to restart your Mac.

3. Make sure that any other Mail plug-ins are updated to their latest versions. If that doesn’t help, see whether disabling the other plug-ins stops the crashes.

4. The most common Mail crash that we see is due to a bug in Mail’s own junk mail filter. SpamSieve normally tells Mail which messages it thinks are junk in order to protect you from Web bugs. Resetting Mail’s junk database may fix the problem.

   You can also tell SpamSieve not to mark the messages as junk if analyzing the spam messages is causing Mail’s filter to crash. To do this, click the link for AppleMailPlugInSetIsJunk in the Esoteric Preferences.

5. In macOS 10.10, there is an Apple Mail bug that can cause crashes if you are using an Exchange account and have a rule that moves messages to a mailbox on the Exchange server. To work around this, make sure that your Mail rule is moving the messages to a Spam mailbox On My Mac.

6. Try renaming the SpamSieve rule in Mail to Move to Spam. This will cause Mail to treat it like a regular rule, bypassing SpamSieve. If Mail still crashes when applying the rule, this will show that the crash is due to Mail moving the message to the spam mailbox and not because of SpamSieve.

   This test will cause Mail to move all incoming messages to the spam mailbox. After the test, you can disable the rule, move the messages back to the inbox, and use the Message ‣ Apply Rules command to re-filter them.

7. If Mail is crashing when applying the SpamSieve rule (regardless of the results of #4) you can try using an Apple Mail Script Rule instead of the regular SpamSieve rule. Because this uses a different code path in Mail, it may bypass the source of the crash.

8. SpamSieve works with a variety of mail programs. You could temporarily use a different one, either for reading your mail or just for spam filtering. With an IMAP or Exchange mail account, you will see the same mailboxes and messages in each mail program.