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Need more control over adaptive Junk handling

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 19 views
  • Last reply by Tony

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I appreciate that Thunderbird has client-side adaptive Junk filtering. I believe the target audience for this is primarily those who don't filter their own mail. Unfortunately for those of us who do filter our mail, this feature takes priority over other filtering.

Specifically, I'm using Sieve (IMAP/Dovecot) on the server to control filtering, but as soon as mail hits the Thunderbird client it's re-processed. I don't mind if my filters ultimately don't filter some mail item, where it ends-up in the Inbox. Then Thunderbird adaptive filtering may help "adaptively" to flag something that gets through.

Can we do something in Thunderbird to only allow adaptive processing on the top-level Inbox?

As an admin I have just created scripts that will forward mail to me when another user manually moves mail to Junk. This email is dropped into a specific folder under my Inbox so that I can process it with new rules, bans, or even to let the user know that they should simply unsubscribe from that specific list. But most of it is indeed Junk. I don't need adaptive processing to identify it as such, and I don't want my email account profile to adapt to someone else's Junk.

I can set a header for Thunderbird if it would only use that as a "do not use adaptive filtering on this item".

Is there a developer API into this process? Anything else to hook into it to get more control over it?

OR, do I and every other user that uses this server need to turn off Thunderbird adaptive filtering? :(

Thanks.

I appreciate that Thunderbird has client-side adaptive Junk filtering. I believe the target audience for this is primarily those who don't filter their own mail. Unfortunately for those of us who do filter our mail, this feature takes priority over other filtering. Specifically, I'm using Sieve (IMAP/Dovecot) on the server to control filtering, but as soon as mail hits the Thunderbird client it's re-processed. I don't mind if my filters ultimately don't filter some mail item, where it ends-up in the Inbox. Then Thunderbird adaptive filtering may help "adaptively" to flag something that gets through. Can we do something in Thunderbird to only allow adaptive processing on the top-level Inbox? As an admin I have just created scripts that will forward mail to me when another user manually moves mail to Junk. This email is dropped into a specific folder under my Inbox so that I can process it with new rules, bans, or even to let the user know that they should simply unsubscribe from that specific list. But most of it is indeed Junk. I don't need adaptive processing to identify it as such, and I don't want my email account profile to adapt to someone else's Junk. I can set a header for Thunderbird if it would only use that as a "do not use adaptive filtering on this item". Is there a developer API into this process? Anything else to hook into it to get more control over it? OR, do I and every other user that uses this server need to turn off Thunderbird adaptive filtering? :( Thanks.

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If changing the source code and building it yourself is not an option, I doubt you have any other option except turn it off.

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UGH : AFTER posting my question I looked more closely at Thunderbird Filter Rules where I see we can "Apply Filter When" > "Getting New Mail" > "Filter Before Junk Classification". So we can look for specific headers that indicate pre-processing and "Stop Filter Execution". (See screenshot)

Not to be too greedy... Headers like this remain in the mail item, and that seems a bit sloppy. It might be better if the server sets a Tag that Thunderbird will recognize. If the tag is present, it would be nice if it could be auto-removed. But the Filter Rules : Actions does not have a feature to clear a specific tag, only to set tags.

Can anyone think of a way for the server to flag a message, where Thunderbird can detect that in Filter Rules, and then clear that flag/tag prior to other rules and Junk classification?

Thanks again.