Mail rules not working in OS X Lion

[Aravas]

Following mail rules doesn’t work in OS X Lion

• Rules are not practical - though I verify they should.
• Rules really don’t change.

[Aniela]

I am also facing similar trouble. Rules apply to some mail and not others, was fine before update and nothing’s changed on rule settings. I can run 'apply rules now' and it's all fine, just at irregular intervals doesn't apply them. Any advice esteemed

[Jezriah]

I just understand that none of my (many) Mail rules are operational since I upgraded to Lion. I tried fixing with the rules, and it offered to apply them, although nothing happened. These all worked before upgrading .This would appear to be an matter with the new version of Mail.

[Evoldo]

I also faced same trouble and then I realized that mail marked as read by an IMAP server were not having rules applied, while new mail unread on the IMAP server are having rules applied. I don't keep in mind this behavior before, and only have IMAP accounts, so guess Mail in Lion is handling IMAP accounts somewhat in a different way.

Hope this clears your doubt

[Dayanidhi]

The IMAP accounts on my work user account don't seem to be handling rules in any trustworthy way, while the IMAP account on my personal account is operational as it always has. Believe I'll attempt deleting and recreating the rules. Beginning to believe that Lion mail migration process has distress the balance.

[sHaRiCe]

I am running OS X lion.For whatever cause, it can't have numerous actions associated with Inbox Rules. For example, (1) move to folder, (2) assign color, and (3) assign Mail Tags. The rule will shift email to the appropriate folder although it will NOT assign color or Mail Tags. Solutions?

[Phalguni88]

Yes, am running Mail Tags version 3.0b1386. Just retested Inbox rule situation (described above) 11 times. Results: color was by no means assigned and mail tags were only assigned 2 of the 11 times. Unable to figure out pattern.

[ZAHAR]

I think I figured out the difficulty and a workaround. After hours of testing, it appears the trouble is inaccessible to IMAP email. (I'm not using Gmail IMAP.) The trouble does NOT seem to occur with my MobileMe mail.

The Move action needs to be placed in a separate rule. For example, Rule #1 can say set background color, add mailtag 'abc', add mail tag 'xyz', and mark as read. Rule #2 can say shift to folder. Rule #2 MUST occur after Rule #1 in your Preferences list.

[Jessalyn]

I'm experiencing this same trouble with many of my rules not operational. On the other hand, I only have color coding mine and even those don't work reliably. They are IMAP accounts, although I don't have any shift actions. I did notice that I right click on a single note and choose "Apply Rules" the rule performs, although this is no solution.

[Iquau]

Same trouble. When many of my old rules weren't operational right, I went in and re-created all my Mail rules in Lion and some of them work and some don't. A lot of my incoming mails are not being shift to where they should be and I've even created a pair of rules and 'applied' them to the message I created them from and those messages weren't even moved.

[CGale]

Here's a solution. Not a fix to Mail per se, however an add-on that is functioning great for me. Check out Mail Act-on. I installed it last night and it does all things. A rule in the Mail app is working.

In Preferences, Act-on replaces the native preference pane for Rules and inserts it's own -dividing rules into three categories: Incoming, Outgoing and Applied.