Mac Mail Managing Spam vs Comcast

[VideoBeagle]

My mail goes through Comcast. I use the built in Mac Mail app to connect to it (IMAP).

It has two ways of handling SPAM..moving it to "the spam folder"/deleting it OR not doing that.

IF I have comcast filtering spam, then alert messages I get from a forum (not unlike the ones that this place sends) get caught in the filter. Those messages (and the real spam) goes into the Spam Folder in mac mail.

IF I don't have comcast filtering spam, then the messages I want go to my inbox....as does real spam like physhing emails, sex scams, etc.

I do have Mac Mail's spam filtering on...but it doesn't seem to do anything but listen to Comcast's marking.

I've tried to set actions/rules in mac mail that would intercept the mail messages and send them to the inbox rather than going into the Spam folder. That didn't work.
I've tried to set "custom spam actions" to send the forum messages to send the messages to the inbox..doesn't work.

Marking the messages as not spam in mac mail does jack for future mails.
Marking the messages as not spam in comcast mail does jack for future mails.

Comcast's "Security department" that's supposed to fix these things won't fix it.

IS there some way to beef up how Mac Mail's spam filter works?

 

[Weaselboy]

How long have you been "training" the Mail spam filter? It may be that you need to keep marking as spam and not spam for a while so the filter learns what is what.

 

[VideoBeagle]

It's been a short time, but a LOT of it... BUT the problem seems to be that Comcast applies the Spam label so Mac Mail just accepts it and won't change it.

 

[Weaselboy]

It's been a short time, but a LOT of it... BUT the problem seems to be that Comcast applies the Spam label so Mac Mail just accepts it and won't change it.

If you uncheck this box, Mail junk filtering will ignore that spam header from Comcast and just use its own filters. That might be the best setup for you.

 

[VideoBeagle]

Yeah, I had just clicked that... but really won't that be the same as just not having Comcast do anything?

(And the junk mail folder is part of the comcast imap setup, so I think it'd still segregate the messages).

 

[Weaselboy]

Yeah, I had just clicked that... but really won't that be the same as just not having Comcast do anything?

(And the junk mail folder is part of the comcast imap setup, so I think it'd still segregate the messages).

Yes, that would ignore Comcasts filtering. I'm not really sure if that would keep them out of the junk folder if you are saying that is one of the IMAP folders though.

I wonder if you unchecked the box below that then setup a rule like this:

> if Comcast spam header present move to junk

> unless mail is from MacRumors etc... (add exceptions to this list)

 

[VideoBeagle]

Does the ability to do more complex rules like that come with yosemite?
I'm still with Mavericks...(I hate the new flat visual style...though I guess I'll have to put up with it with el capitan if the hopedfor OpenCL/OpenGL improvements come)

 

[Weaselboy]

Does the ability to do more complex rules like that come with yosemite?
I'm still with Mavericks...(I hate the new flat visual style...though I guess I'll have to put up with it with el capitan if the hopedfor OpenCL/OpenGL improvements come)

Yes, Yosemite can do that and as I recall Mavericks could also. I don't remember there being any change in Mail rules with the move to Yosemite.

What you will need to look for is the custom header that Comcast uses the filter on that header.

 

[VideoBeagle]

Nope..Mac Mail walks in lock step with comcast regardless of what I try..

And the reverse with "DOES CONTAIN" moving to inbox... it ignores it and just directly into the junk folder.

So, I guess it's how it is....and now I'm starting to see years old mail pop into the junk folder...so something is just causing more and more problems..

be nice if Apple could provide better service than Comcast, but I guess that's too much to ask.

 

[Weaselboy]

Hmm... so it must be moving it to the junk folder on the server (IMAP) side it sounds like. Dang.

 

[VideoBeagle]

If apple just had simple filters so that thnigs like saying they come from Paypal with nothing like paypal addresses, sex ads, etc got filtered out, i could build from there, but it doesn't seem to filter anything.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Weaselboy]

If apple just had simple filters so that thnigs like saying they come from Paypal with nothing like paypal addresses, sex ads, etc got filtered out, i could build from there, but it doesn't seem to filter anything.

Thanks for the help.

Something just occurred to me... after you made this test filter... did you wait for some new mails to come in? The rules won't apply to existing messages unless you go in there and manually run them.

 

[VideoBeagle]

Yup. I erased all recent ones, then went to the foum and reset the threads I have marked so they'd send fresh notifiers..
I'll have to move from having it NOT grab the forum mail, and have comcast not touch things and try to find some way to get the Mac's filter to do it's job