I really like using Thunderbird so far because of its smart way of getting rid of spam. One thing that bugs me though is that the filters aren't working like I want them to. I was able to set up the filters and I thought they would be applied on incoming messages as they are received. Unfortunately, the email is not being filtered once they are received. I have to go in and manually apply the filters everytime I send and receive. I was wondering if there is a way to make it apply these filters automatically once messages are received in the inbox.

Hmm... I installed 0.9 and despite loathing it even more than prior versions of Thunderbird (how I wish there were an alternative other than Evolution or a command-line client...), I do find that the filters work OK.

The Mozilla Thunderbird FAQ's say you have to set up the filters for every account, but I'm skeptical. There is an option to set them up for the global inbox, as well, and I don't see why that wouldn't work.

However, I already had filters set up for my three accounts (what fun having to write the same string of filters three different times!) and they do work as the messages are received, just as in prior versions. I'm not about to delete them just to find out the "global" set of filters DOESN'T work. But I don't see why there's an ability to write filters for the global box if they wouldn't work.

On the other hand, this IS Thunderbird, and nothing seems to have to have a reason.

You might check to make sure your filters are in the right order. But that doesn't sound like the problem here--if I understand correctly, your filters are just not working, period. Are you sure they're enabled? I know that sounds like a dumb question, but I've had times that I found something had gone wrong with my mailboxes and it caused my filters to be automatically DISABLED till I fixed the problem.

My filters are working but just not automatically when the messages are received in the Inbox. I have to do it manually. Anyway, I'll try out what you've suggested and see what happens. Thanks for responding to my post.

Wish I could be more helpful. I did go to the Mozilla Thunderbird FAQ page and found reference to having to apply filters manually, but for some reason I've never had to do that. They work all by themselves... Who knows...

Hi,

are you setting the filters to act on the local folders or the email account, If you set it to act on the local folders it only works when you run the filters on those folders, if you sent it to the email account it will filter as the emails arrive,

Richard G.

That was what struck me funny. The knowledge-base or FAQ article I read made it sound as though I'd need to be running the filters manually, yet I don't.

I wonder if it's because though I had three accounts set up (and have for over half a year), I have duplicate filters set up for each of those three acounts.

Now, with release 0.9, and adoption of the global inbox (which I LIKE and had wished for), my filters still run automatically on all three accounts.

I also set up the same filters for the what you might call meta-account represented by the global inbox itself, since the controls allow doing that. I'm reluctant to do away with the filters on the individual accounts just to test it, because it means a lot of work putting them back if it does turn out they no longer automatically work from the "meta" account.

In short I believe I will, for now, leave well enough alone.

My main gripe apart from some quirky operations in Thunderbird ever since I first started using it with version 0.5 or 0.6, is that there is no filtering of outbound mail--a remarkably strange oversight. Several users have lamented this lack on the Mozillazine forums, which I don't like visiting because people are not always friendly there as they almost always are on LQ. They can get very touchy. I don't sit down at my computer just to be made to feel bad.

I believe my Thunderbird is setup to filter messages locally. If I were to filter the messages while they are on the server, that would mean that I would have to get direct access to the email server and tell it to filter? I don't know if this is what you meant. Please clarify... If this is what you meant, how do you go about setting up the email server to filter messages as they come in to my inbox?

No, I didn't mean filtering on the server (I doubt that that would be possible). What happens with my setup is that I download all messages and the Thunderbird filters just put them into the mailboxes my filters are set up to tell it to do. I DO HAVE the same set of filters written three times over: once for each of my accounts. So if you click on "message filters" and get the dialog box, and use the dropdown that is there to select accounts, you will see the same set of filters written each time for each of the three accounts that I use.

But I just noticed the other day that you can select the global inbox itself and write filters for it as though it were an account. Which I did. Only I'm reluctant to delete the thee sets of filters I already had going, just to see if that works for all three accounts, or maybe not at all.

Maybe later today I'll try it as it appears it will be snowing and nasty all day and I'll probably just stay in -- again...

I can probably just save my current ~/.thunderbird directory under a different name and if the experiment doesn't work, restore it and everything will be back the way it was. Stay tuned.

OK, what I did was to DISABLE all my filters except the ones for the global inbox.

Result: Had to run the filters manually to make them work.

So this means, at least in my setup, you have to have filters written for EACH account
in order for them to work automatically.

Global-inbox filters work, but only if they are applied manually.

Too bad. I've complained, and several other users, too, about the inadequate filters in
Thunderbird, on Mozzilazine's T'bird forum. Got sarcastic/unkind comments back from
people who may or may not take part in T'bird development but who have apparently
either never used a GOOD email client like Eudora, or else don't use email much.

Yeah I finally got it to work. I have to apply filters per account to get it working. Doing for the globally mailbox wasn't working. Once I put filter for each account, I managed to get the mail filtered properly. Thanks for all your help!

I just wish the folks on Mozillazine would get over being so defensive and often downright rude when users express problems they're having with Thunderbird. I don't know if it's the developers in some cases (would like to think NOT), or just insensitive other users, but it doesn't help to belittle people and make fun of their problems when they're trying to get help.

The fact is, Thunderbird has a LONG ways to go before it approaches the usability of Eudora or probably even Evolution or maybe even (shudder) Outlook Express, but so many act like it's just wonderful.

I know developers work hard and don't usually get ANY reward for their work, and I respect them a lot. But when improvements need to be made, I wish suggestions could be met with courtesy and understanding that a lot of us users are not experts--and that we depend on a program for real work sometimes, and it's frustrating as can be not to have the tools.

So if other mail clients are pretty good, which ones are the best? I'm using Thunderbird because I like it pretty much. I have little problems with it. Any suggestions of which mail clients I should use in case I want to switch?

I would probably try Evolution (I used it briefly when I first started using Linux in Jan. 2003), but I use JPilot for my PDA and that serves me well as a calendar, and I don't want another calendar hanging around useless, so...

What I'd really like to do is just use Mozilla (combined browser and email). But Mozilla is a product on its way out, to be superseded by Thunderbird and Firefox, so I figured I might as well bite the metaphorical bullet and go with the separates now rather than when forced to.

Maybe they'll decide to combine them someday (à la Mozilla) and call it "Thunderfox."

No--there's probably a dishwashing detergent or something by that name already...

Jonr, I have met rude people on forums too, which is basically an outpoint on their side, as forums are there for people that needs help. To me it seems that you are doing a good piece of work. Your posts answered my wonder regarding the Local Inbox filter not being applied automatically. Do you know whether the Thunderbird team has plans for handling the issue?

No, I don't know about any plan to improve filters. I think some forum contributors on the
Thunderbird forum filed Bugzilla reports about the filters, but it's really not a bug, it's just poor
design.

I obtained version 1.0 yesterday and installed it with no problem but as far as I know the filters
are just the same as before....