Message Filters

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Revision as of 14:25, 14 November 2004 by Wintogreen (talk | contribs) (IMAP --> ImapMail)
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Message filters are useful if you routinely want to perform certain actions on messages, according to criteria that you've specified. For instance, you can have incoming mail automatically sorted into different folders, with certain messages labelled, marked as Junk, or even deleted. Filters can be applied automatically to incoming mail, or you can run them manually when desired.

Creating filters

This tutorial has clear, step-by-step instructions (with screenshots) for how to set up message filters in Thunderbird. You can also create a new filter from any message by right-clicking on the hyperlinked email address of the sender, where it appears above the message pane, and choosing "Create Filter From Message...."

Important: filters must be set up on a per-account basis, and they likewise operate on a per-account basis. There is not currently any option to create "global filters" that will operate on all your accounts. If you are using the global Inbox with multiple POP mail accounts, you can create filters for Local Folders but these filters will not be applied automatically to incoming mail. You must run the filters for Local Folders manually. You can, however, create filters for any specific account that uses the global Inbox, and these account-specific filters will operate automatically on incoming mail.

Running filters

Filters that are enabled will be run automatically, in the order in which they are listed in the Message Filters dialog (Tools > Message Filters...). As noted above, however, filters for Local Folders will not be run automatically on incoming mail. Also, there is currently no option to have filters be applied automatically to outgoing mail.

To run filters manually on the currently opened folder, go Tools > Run Filters on Folder. To manually run only some of your filters rather than all of them, go Tools > Message Filters..., select the filters you want to run, and click the Run Now button.

Other information

  • The file that stores your filter settings in called msgFilterRules.dat. Each account will have its own msgFilterRules.dat file, stored in the account subfolder in the Mail or ImapMail folder in your profile folder. (In the case of filters for Local Folders, msgFilterRules.dat will be found inside Local Folders itself.)