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The Wolf · Oct 25, 2005, 09:48 AM

This has go me so frustrated. I have an eFax account and in Mail.app I set up two folders. One for sent faxes and one for received faxes. I have rules set up so that Mail.app will "copy" the fax (email) to the appropriate folder for future reference. The sent faxes mailbox works flawlessly.

The problem is that my received faxes mailbox keeps propagating multiple copies of the same message. I checked the rule to see if I did something funky, but that's not it. It seems like the older the message, the more copies there are in the folder. So, a fax I just received will only have two copies, but one that I received 6 months ago will have 6 copies!

I am guessing that there is something that is causing Mail.app to run this rule every so often even on messages that I have already received.

To make things even more strange. I just modified the rule so that it applies a color to the received faxes. Now, when I go into my Received Faxes folder, only the original fax has the color whereas the multiple copies of that same fax do not.

Any thoughts?

Randman · Oct 25, 2005, 09:54 AM

Get rid of the rules and try a Smart Mailbox.

The Wolf · Oct 25, 2005, 10:12 AM

k, I just checked it out. Seems nice, but should I be worried about a mailbox getting corrupted and losing my data? I do complete backups about once every 1-2 weeks and all so maybe I'm being paranoid. hrmmm

Is the following correct about the smart mailbox as it pertains to me?

Pros: Saves space (not duplicating messages)

Cons:
(1) Only have the original message (whereas the rule of 'copying' the message makes a sort of backup to a different mailbox)
(2) Cannot color code messages (need to apply a Rule to do it)

Randman · Oct 25, 2005, 10:17 AM

Yes.

Do you have .Mac? Can set Backup or iSync (or both) to automatically backup Mail messages and rules. Very handy.

Rebuild the mailboxes from time to time to keep the boxes straight (like repairing permissions).

The Wolf · Oct 25, 2005, 12:13 PM

This is really crazy. I just spent 1/2 erasing what probably was 1 gig worth of duplicate emails. I rebuilt the mailbox, I even repaired y permissions. I restarted and did an fsck, opened Mail.app and I AGAIN have 4 copies of each message.

What gives?

The Wolf · Oct 25, 2005, 12:25 PM

OK, now I'm making progress. I created a Smart Mailbox to collect all my received faxes. Guess what?
IT COLLECTS 6 COPIES OF THE SAME FAX!!! I have NO idea how this can happen since my main Inbox only has 1 fax (note: I do NOT have "collect from trash" or anything like that selected). I am at a complete loss as to what could cause this. Anyone have any ideas?