Quick Smart Mailbox Question

[mashinhead]

When you make a smart mailbox, does it copy the files from your accounts in to the smart mailbox, meaining you can delete them from the orginal mailboxes? or does it simply make an alias to the emails in the mailbox, providing one location for them?

because if you make a regular mailbox folder and manual drag it in it removes the email from the account which it doesn't do with a smart mailbox.

Anyway trying to clean some stuff up and i'd like to know. thanks.

 

[mkrishnan]

No copy. The smart folder is just a virtual agglomeration of messages based on the rules. They continue to live where they were before. So don't delete the originals. If you want to delete the originals, do this:

- Once you have the smart mailbox that meets all the rules,
- Create a new *normal* non-smart mailbox
- Drag everything from the smart mailbox to the dumb one.

You might be able to also just make a rule that moves the desired messages to the traditional mailbox rather than using a smart mailbox if that's what you actually want, anyways.

 

[mashinhead]

wow, you know if you automatically compile everything in a smart mailbox, make a 'dumb' one and drage everything from the smart one to the dumb one then delete the messages from the smart one they ALSO delete from the dumb one!? but if you drage the messages from the mailbox to the dumb one everything's okay!? what exactly is the point of a smart mailbox, i have to manage everything manually to get what i want

 

[mkrishnan]

Sorry... I meant that, once you've dragged it from the smart one to the dumb one, you can delete it in the original location, such as the inbox....

The point of smart folders is not to store messages at all. Think about it this way. You have maybe 50 apps on your computer. But you only have 5-10 perhaps or 15 at the most on your dock, right? Not all 50. You drag an app to the dock and you put it next to other apps you use it with, even though in the filesystem it may or may not be in the same part of the /applications folder. And there aren't actually apps in the dock -- just representations, right? But you can see all the ones you want at the same time.

That's the same idea with smart folders. They're not for changing the way the files are stored. They're for allowing you to quickly see certain sets of files without having to change the way they were stored.

If your primary focus is on how the files are stored / organized, once again, you need to use rules and not smart mailboxes.

 

[rogersmj]

They're just like smart playlists in iTunes, if you ever use those.

 

[mashinhead]

They're just like smart playlists in iTunes, if you ever use those.

well it's a little confusing and inconsistant to me. For example if you delete a song from any playlist iTunes, or a photo from any album in iphoto, it does not remove it from the original library. BUT if you do delete a message, (i just lost a bunch, that's how i know) from a smart mailbox, it deletes if from the orginal library. I want it remove the clutter from my mailboxes and organize what i want to save.

 

[mkrishnan]

well it's a little confusing and inconsistant to me. For example if you delete a song from any playlist iTunes, or a photo from any album in iphoto, it does not remove it from the original library. BUT if you do delete a message, (i just lost a bunch, that's how i know) from a smart mailbox, it deletes if from the orginal library. I want it remove the clutter from my mailboxes and organize what i want to save.

Actually, you are not allowed to delete from smart playlists in iTunes at all.... because, following the logic, if you did, it would permanently delete the song.