[elipsett]

To minimize flames let me start by saying that I have read dozens of articles on how to fix this problem, and thus far none of them has worked. I realize many of you will recommend the same approach and I will be happy to try again, but I really have tried everything I can find on the internet so far.

I have been running Mail on a Yosemite iMac for years. The Yosemite machine finally got sick, and several months ago I purchased a new iMac (Sierra). I imported all of my Mail database from the old Mac, and it all imported properly, and everything works fine with the exception of smart filters.

Every piece of mail that comes in is automatically flagged red. This function works.
On the old iMac I had a smart folder set up that displayed all the red flags, making it simple to see new mail. As I dealt with each email I moved it to the proper folder in Mail, and eliminated the red flag (sometimes changing the color for other reasons). It worked.

Now, no matter how many times I fiddle with Spotlight or make new smart folders or filters of whatever flavor, Mail will not detect more than half a dozen existing red flags, and will never detect new red flags. That is screwing up my entire workflow.

I have several choices:
- Change my workflow. Possible, but painful.
- Stop using Mail and switch to an app that works the way Mail should. Also possible, but more painful.
- Find a way to get Mail to act normally.

If anyone has any suggestions, or links to helpful pages, I would greatly appreciate it if you could let me know.
I've been using Macs and Windows machines for several decades but cheerfully admit I don't know it all, or even as much as I'd like, and am looking for HELP!

Thanks.

[ghporter]

Is it possible that, in importing your old mail, you've imported something beyond just the mail? Like some deep-down rule that's overriding what you're trying to do with filters?

[elipsett]

it does seem unlikely in this case.

I did scrub and import the database three times, but of course if an imported rule is the problem it would have been imported all three times, so that's not much help.

The rules are the same ones I was using on the old machine (and, now that it's fixed, I've verified that Mail under Yosemite still works normally, with correct filtering).

I also deleted the imported rules and created new smart folders and rules to see if that would solve the issue.
It didn't.

I thought perhaps some permissions might be set wrong on the imported files and did a CHMOD on the entire container/mail directory. AFAIK, that is the only place Mail settings might have been imported into, since Sierra OS was not upgraded or settings imported. Is this a possible cause, and if so, where might I look?

[elipsett]

The RULES are all working normally.
Every piece of incoming mail is flagged red, including spam and specific items marked for instant trashing.
My filters are set up to ignore the trashcan, but not the spam folder, and when things work right I can very quickly whittle my new email down to a few items I need to do something about, with everything already located in the correct folder within Mail.

I use the red flag to mark an email I need to do something about, whether it is a new email or an older one that's been sitting in a folder named "IRS" (or whatever) for a month.

If the red flags don't filter correctly I will have to turn all of my rules off, and individually move incoming email from the inbox to the specific subject folder. Which would be a lot of time and trouble.

[reader50]

Sounds like a bug in smart folder processing. I don't use a workflow like yours, so can't offer detailed suggestions. But if it is a bug, you may be able to work around it.

Have you tried using a different flag color for mail-awaiting-attention? Red is the first color listed, and an Apple developer may have used it to test something. Then forgot to remove the test code. This is pure speculation, but if it were true, the bug would not affect other flag colors.

[elipsett]

Yup, good idea.
Apparently not the correct solution, though.

[elipsett]

I created a new smart folder for only email with PDFs.
Works instantly and perfectly.

Create new smart folder for only green flags. Nothing (but they do exist)

Create new smart folder for a sender address containing a specific character string. Works perfectly.

[reader50]

You may have already run across these ideas:

Rebuild each of your source mailboxes in turn. Click on a mailbox, then (menubar) Mailbox -> Rebuild. This command is not available by right-clicking, only via the menu bar.

Force Spotlight to re-index Mail messages. System Prefs -> Spotlight -> Search Results (tab) -> uncheck "Mail & Messages -> (close system prefs)
... open System Prefs again, go to the same place and recheck the box for Mail & Messages. Close sys prefs. It will be awhile before Spotlight finishes re-indexing all your mail.

If everything has failed, report the bug to Apple. Scroll down to macOS Mail app. The feedback page lets you choose the type of feedback, and "Bug Report" is one of the options.

[elipsett]

Hmm.

I've already done the Spotlight routine(s), but rebuilding EACH MAILBOX is something I haven't done. I have a lot of local mailboxes...
I'll give it a try on a few, and then do the Spotlight reset again.

Thanks for the idea!

[elipsett]

That does appear to have done the trick.
Rebuilding each individual local mailbox is fixing the problem, and now flags are beginning to show up properly.
So if it keeps cooperating, all I have to do is individually rebuild a few hundred mailboxes! Whee!

Thanks very much.
I'll post here again if something strange happens, but it looks like the problem has been fixed.

[reader50]

Heh, I wasn't expecting that. It really sounded like a bug. Good to hear.

btw, you can select multiple mailboxes, then hit Rebuild. I don't see how that would differ from manually doing each individually.

Out of curiosity (and a bit of pride) how many other forums did you try?

[elipsett]

No other fora; I just followed the advice of St. Google and sampled about a dozen bug-fixing pages run by various people or magazines.

[elipsett]

Well, it worked at first.
It is reverting now, although some problems have gone away.

A few emails marked with a flag of one color cannot be unflagged or changed.
New emails do not always show up in the filtered mailbox.
I may take time for a full new catalog, and there is certainly progress, so I'll keep at it for a day or two and see what happens.

[elipsett]

Well, after some sudden flurries of excitement (flagged email appearing in the smart folder), it has reverted to acting exactly the same way as before.
It still does not display all the flagged email I have in any filtered folder, and although incoming email is correctly flagged it does not appear either.
So, back to step one on this.