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Filtering mails directed ONLY to a specific address. A request for appliable solutions

  • 2 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by Stans

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Hi all,

I've tried a lot of combination but I was totally unable to solve a simple problem which I'm going to explain, I've also thought about a workaround which is quite dirty but I'll need assistance with that too:

                            • Problem ***************

Suppose you have a mail address which might be used in "To:" or "CC:", for clarity, let's call it "Alpha".

                            • Issues with filters ***************

It might happens "Alpha" is being used as the ONLY address for "To: or CC". I'd like to create a filter rule for ONLY this kind of situation (I want to move all these mail to a folder called ALPHA - ONLY).

I've tried many combinations of filters but in the end they only checks whether alpha is one of the addresses: I'm talking about rules: "IS"; "Begins with" used together with "Ends with"; "is not in AddressBook"

I already have a folder called "Alpha-Related" where all the mails where "Alpha" is contained are redirected. The folder "Alpha-Only" will have to be subset of "Alpha-Related"

It seems to me this is not possible at all. Am I missing an option? could you please help?

                            • My workaround idea ***************

Use a script to move the mails from a folder to another. Unfortunately I'm not competent on how thunderbird stores it's content and what I should mess with and how. I've reached my account email folder in my local machine (the one inside Thunderbird's profile folder) but at in the end I'm stuck with 2 kind of files which are called like my folder:

  1. one without any extension;
  2. one with extension ".msf";

By heart I understand I need to move some content of 1 to 2, I might experiment usind diffs for the files, but still I don't know if it is all I need to do or if instead there is more to do

Could you please assist ?

Hi all, I've tried a lot of combination but I was totally unable to solve a simple problem which I'm going to explain, I've also thought about a workaround which is quite dirty but I'll need assistance with that too: ************** Problem *************** Suppose you have a mail address which might be used in "To:" or "CC:", for clarity, let's call it "Alpha". ************** Issues with filters *************** It might happens "Alpha" is being used as the ONLY address for "To: or CC". I'd like to create a filter rule for ONLY this kind of situation (I want to move all these mail to a folder called ALPHA - ONLY). I've tried many combinations of filters but in the end they only checks whether alpha is one of the addresses: I'm talking about rules: "IS"; "Begins with" used together with "Ends with"; "is not in AddressBook" '''I already have a folder called "Alpha-Related" where all the mails where "Alpha" is contained are redirected. The folder "Alpha-Only" will have to be subset of "Alpha-Related"''' It seems to me this is not possible at all. Am I missing an option? could you please help? ************** My workaround idea *************** Use a script to move the mails from a folder to another. Unfortunately I'm not competent on how thunderbird stores it's content and what I should mess with and how. I've reached my account email folder in my local machine (the one inside Thunderbird's profile folder) but at in the end I'm stuck with 2 kind of files which are called like my folder: # one without any extension; # one with extension ".msf"; By heart I understand I need to move some content of 1 to 2, I might experiment usind diffs for the files, but still I don't know if it is all I need to do or if instead there is more to do Could you please assist ?

All Replies (2)

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Have you tried creating the filter or rule on the server side instead? This could be a bug that needs to be filed if it hasn't already been filed here https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=filters. Thunderbird seems to be treating "contains" and "is" the same.

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Found this 8 year old unresolved bug https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=886045 about the same. It's marked as UNCONFIRMED and hasn't been seen action for 7 years now. Time to revive it, so go and post a comment there to confirm you're also having the same issue.