Email rules for iCloud

[Ilfracombe]

I've just moved on to an Apple system, with an iPhone and a MacBook. I use both for email. My mailboxes have become a mess quite quickly. Is there a smooth way to coordinate mailboxes on the iPhone and MacBook? I'm finding the Rules instruction on the web iCloud page to be rather clunky, and difficult to use while actually using email. Thanks

 

[gilby101]

For rules sorting messages into folders, I always use them on the server. For the reason you want - all my devices should get the emails sorted into the same folders.

Having said that, iCloud server rules are very clunky (limited complexity). Gmail server side rules are much more capable, though cumbersome to configure.

I don't think there is a good answer for iCloud mail, except to make do with what Apple provides in the way of server rules.

 

[Ilfracombe]

For rules sorting messages into folders, I always use them on the server. For the reason you want - all my devices should get the emails sorted into the same folders.

Having said that, iCloud server rules are very clunky (limited complexity). Gmail server side rules are much more capable, though cumbersome to configure.

I don't think there is a good answer for iCloud mail, except to make do with what Apple provides in the way of server rules.

OK, thanks. I appreciate the help. So there is no better strategy than to use the clunky procedures that iCloud provides? What if I changed my client to, say, Outlook?

 

[gilby101]

What if I changed my client to, say, Outlook?

Outlook client certainly has better rules than Apple Mail client. But for multiple computers I would be concerned about which client was applying the rules (presumably an always on computer) and how that would work out on the others.

I don't think there is an easy answer. I'm just glad that most of my email comes via gmail and server rules are good enough for me.

 

[NoBoMac]

What @gilby101 said. The "best" solution is to setup rules service side, when available. Gmail, Yahoo!, Outlook all have this capability.

The iCloud rules only apply to iCloud accounts ala Gmail.

MacOS Mail rules only apply to Macs (but can be shared between different Macs via iCloud synching).

Set up iCloud Mail on all your devices

Learn how to set up and access iCloud for the Mail app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Windows device, and on iCloud.com.

support.apple.com

Mail rules (for all macOS devices)

So, yeah, depending on when/where you fetch new mail, will/can result in messages going all over the place if not using server-side rules.

 

[jagooch]

I’ve been frustrated with icloud mail rules for 14 years now! I used to submit feedback for them to make their server side rules competitive with other services, but I gave up and moved to Fastmail. Fastmail has a great rules engine, I think it’s Spamsieve but I’m not 100 % certain on that.

Most other big email providers - outlook, gmail - have a competitive rules engine. I would do some research (google search!) and try a few before switching.

fyi, for me it made sense to move Mail, Contacts, and Calendars all to Fastmail , but ymmv.