Hi Jeff,

I'm continuing to struggle with the issue described in this thread. I'd like a bit of (non-geek) detail about how Purify and Mail.app interact, when using the Applescript method.

I have the applescript and the Mail rule pointing to it - a la the addendum to the v2.1.9 manual, and that's working fine. But one thing I'd like to know is how I should be configuring the Junk settings in Mail. Here is what I currently have:

Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

... and clicking the "Advanced..." button shows this:

Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch

Have I got that configured the best way, or is there something better? Or do I not even need these settings with this new Applescript method?

The biggest mystery to me is exactly what filtering Mail itself does, when working in concert with Purify (or potentially any other filtering app .. ). If you want to have the Junk mailbox available, then you can't actually turn Mail's filtering off altogether ('cos if you do the Junk box disappears!). So Mail's filtering is enabled. But with the settings as I have them, am I to understand that the only filtering function Mail performs is my custom action based on Purify's "SPAM" rating? Or does Mail do other filtering of its own, independent of Purify's filtering?

Other questions then follow: Would / could I want any of the options in the bottom half of Mail's Junk settings panel? Would "Trust junk mail headers set by my ISP" actually work with headers set by Purify, or only those from the ISP?

All the above is preparatory to figuring out whether a possible (??) fix to my issue in the other thread.

Thanks.

UPDATE:

I've had a go at disabling Mail's junk filtering, and discovered that the Junk mailbox doesn't actually disappear entirely as I thought, but does morph into one of the user-defined "On my mac" mailboxes (which means it's no longer divided into a box for each account).

That means that whilst I'd still like to know how Mail's "Junk" settings work, it's now a secondary issue since I've disabled Mail's own junk filtering. But the wider question of how Mail interacts with Purify-via-applescript remains - at least under Snow Leopard. I still have my spam duplication problem, and I now know that it's not related to any direct junk filtering by Mail.app. I still need to know what might be going on when Purify rates a message as "SPAM" after the Incoming mail >> Mail.app >> Rule >> Applescript >> Purify >> rated "SPAM" >> moved to "Junk" process.
Somehow the end result is that the message is either not deleted from the server or is duplicated so it re-appears on the server, and is flagged as not yet downloaded - with the result that another copy is downloaded everytime Mail checks for new messages (until I intervene by manually removing the message from the server). NB: I still have Mail configured to delete messages from server immediately -- and that's what happens for everything except messages rated as "SPAM" by Purify.

A possible clue might be that large numbers of Mail.app users were getting multiple duplicates of all or many messages from some POP3 accounts as soon as they installed Snow Leopard. So it happened with 10.6 and continued in 10.6.1, but most complaints stopped when 10.6.2 was released. I assumed that 10.6.2 still hadn't fixed it, because I was still getting duplicates. But it was only recently that I realised it's now exclusively happening with spams. No one else is reporting this -- which might mean that I'm the only Purify user running Snow Leopard and having accounts with two of the particular POP3 providers that this seems to happen with. I can confirm that I have this issue with my main e-mail account (Mail.com), and my ISP account (Optusnet, Australia), but not with my Gmail account. The same respective behaviours occurred before 10.6.2, but it wasn't limited to spam.

So my hypothesis: there's some issue involving the combination of Snow Leopard, Mail.app and certain POP3 servers, which Apple managed to fix in the 10.6.2 update ... but the fix doesn't work in the case of messages rated "SPAM" by Purify. What do you make of all that? Is it possible you could fix it?

Thanks for listening.

Oy Lance. My two cents ...

I am using all of my email accounts as IMAP. In Mail I have a Purify rule that runs the Mail AppleScript for Purify, and then Stop evaluating rules. The Purify script moves spam to your trash automatically! No need to monkey around with Mail's Junk, built in rules, etc...

Here is the really cool part. My super duper Mac runs 27/7 in the bat-cave. It polls for new messages every minute. So it is like a "spam broom" for all of my other devices!! My laptop (which I now use as my primary development computer), and my iPhone, when running Mail are spam free!!! I detail this process here.

Jeff,

Is your answer basically "Give up on POP3, switch to IMAP and all will be fixed"? .. Or is there a solution to my problem if I stick with POP3? I simply ask because I've never considered using IMAP, have ignored nearly everything I've ever heard about it, and have blithely assumed IMAP was something "other people" have. (I did at least know that it involves reading your mail on the server instead of downloading it. ... And a quick bit of googling just now has informed me that I can in fact use IMAP instead of POP with my existing e-mail accounts ... I never even knew that!!)

[Further hasty googling ................. ] I really only access my e-mail from one mac, which is a macbook - so it goes with me. Admittedly I do have an iphone, so I can conceive of some benefits there. But I don't really think that would be a big benefit. So do I actually want IMAP? That said, I'm quite open to persuasion ... So in your opinion, would my current duplication issue be enough of a reason on it's own to make the switch?

The other half of the question of course is - Can you realistically provide a fix to my issue (based on POP3)? If not, I guess that might tip the scales in favour of switching .. ?

Thanks.

I think that I would be wasting my time doing any modifications to Purify to address the shortcomings of one email client (Apple Mail).

If I were you, then yes I would switch. IMAP does leave your email on your server, but Apple Mail, and iPhone mail do a respectable job keeping local copy so you don't have to download each time. The cool thing about this is you can use email from multiple devices and see the same view of your email. It caused me some confusion, and a few headaches making the switch, but man it was worth it!

hmm ... Ok, well I've done the switch. First attempt a disaster (mail didn't replicate the server directories at all and I got all manner of bizarre behaviour ). But successful on second try, and looking good so far:) Guess we'll see ..